Lindil -- Me too! I had just gotten a subscription to the journal a few weeks ago and went and ordered a number of back-orders that just came in this week.
One of them was Osanwe-Kenta. I had put up a question about telepathy because of that scene in RotK where Gandalf and the Elves sit on a hillside, while the hobbits are asleep, and communicate without words. That led me back to your earlier thread and then to ordering the original article.
I also would like to know why this wasn't included in HoMe. Do you think it was merely a case of a lost or misplaced manuscript? Could Christopher Tolkien have been uncomfortable with this essay? I don't know enough about him to sense whether or not this is a fair question.
I did have one question about the article. It said Osanwe-kenta was best practiced in Arda Unmarred. Does that mean in the Uttermost West, including Toll Eressea, the Elves would have communicated more by this means than in Middle-earth itself?
Now, this is way out on a limb, but, if Osanwe-kenta was more common in Tol Eressea, would a mortal perhaps have been able to learn to do this there? I believe the essay stated that all incarnates had this capability, altough men faced many more impediments in this regard.
I am specifically thinking of Frodo who had, in many ways, become a prophet and a seer, longing for the Sea, seeing visions, able to tell Sam about his future, etc. Both Faramir and Sam commented how Frodo "looked Elvish" and, of course, he had the light of an Elf-friend in his eye. Also, he was able to hear Gandalf the time he had the Ring on and was told to take it off (certainly an urgent situation which seems to be one of the criteria).
Would communication of this kind be even remotely possible for him in Tol Eressea given the rules that operate in Tolkien's world? If so, it places a slightly different slant on his departure from Grey Havens, since the possibility of learning such a skill would certainly be interesting (at least it sounds deeply interesting to me!). This idea is probably off the deep end, and we will certainly never know, but I'd be curious if this was even remotely possible within the context of Tolkien's mythology.
sharon
[ May 30, 2002: Message edited by: Child of the 7th Age ]
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