[tom bombariffic]

Sorry, I forgot to answer your forest question. well, I would say that the old forest is probably subconciously very similar to the forest Tolkien used to play in as a boy when he lived away from birmingham for a few years, in sarehole. I forget the name of the forest, but we know that some of his fondest childhood memories were spent in the fields and woods here with his younger brother. I know that he hated allegory and this wouldnt have been deliberate, but if he were creating someone he wanted to be, the person's home would be his favourite place in the whole world - sarehole, where he not only spent the happiest years of his childhood, but also still had his beloved mother, before she died later in his childhood. Which brings me on to another point: He may have wanted to be this carefree person BECAUSE he had spent many a happy day wandering in the forests, unrestricted by inner-city problems which he had previously experienced. Maybe he wanted to be back there, in the same state of mind, with his mother.