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JRRT-Intro & What's New This Month
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JRRT: Intro and What's New This Month
A Word on Interpretation: For the past few years, I've been reading LotR as if the information really was supplied by the authors of the Red Book of Westmarch: Bilbo at the beginning (following There and Back Again), Frodo gradually taking over and writing most of the story, and Sam finishing the final chapter. Reading LotR as if the information came from these three authors (with Tolkien as narrator, retelling the story to us) just plain works so completely and consistently that I've come to believe that Tolkien must have had it in his mind as he wrote. So this has become my assumption when reading or studying LotR. All of the essays I've written for this site are consistent with that assumption.
(which hopefully have something to do with each other)
In This Section:
New for September 2009: Are Samurai Swords Elf Magic?
Essay Series: Tolkien at Oxford
(I thought this series was completed, but I've found some notes I'd lost, so expect one or two more essays.)
Essay Collection: LotR as a "fundamentally Catholic and Religious Work"
New for September 2009: '...but forecasts are more favourable'
Go to my blog to follow along as I read The History of The Lord of the Rings and come across miscellaneous Tolkien moments. (guests can read blogs, although you must be a registered forum member to add comments. Several new posts added since this page has been updated.
Quote for September/October 2009:
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But, of course, if one sets out to address 'adults' (mentally adult people anyway), they will not be pleased, excited, or moved unless the whole, or the incidents, seem to be about something worth considering, more e.g. than mere danger and escape: there must be some relevance to the 'human situation' (of all periods). So something of the teller's own reflections and 'values' will inevitably get worked in. This is not the same as allegory.
--- from drafts of a letter to Michael Straight, early 1956
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Passage for September/October 2009:
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'You cannot pass,' [Gandalf] said. The orcs stood still and a dead silence fell. 'I am a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the flame of Anor. You cannot pass. The dark fire will not avail you, flame of Udûn. Go back to the Shadow. You cannot pass.'
-- LotR, Book 2: "The Bridge of Khazad-dûm"
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