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littlemanpoet · 09-30-2002, 09:00 PM

I do know that in Tolkien's first drafting of LotR he was discovering just as much if not more than a new reader. Then he went back and "back-wrote" to make everything fit into a seamless whole.

I see what you're getting at, but I think a qualification is in order. Wherever Merry and Pippin go the light-heartedness remains. Even among the orcs crossing Rohan. The only exception to this is when either of them come as far as Minas Tirith.

Frodo and Sam's story is surely the dark and difficult road. And, of course, the story enters into War. Therefore you have epic proportions. The Faerie tone even as far as Lorien is bound to be forgotten in all the great doings of Men, even though Lorien and Imladris do affect and inform those events.

I don't think the breaking of the Fellowship was avoidable. It was in the nature of the Ring and of the destinies of the Nine Walkers for the breakup to occur.

09-30-2002, 09:00 PM	#2
littlemanpoet Itinerant Songster Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: The Edge of Faerie Posts: 7,066	I do know that in Tolkien's first drafting of LotR he was discovering just as much if not more than a new reader. Then he went back and "back-wrote" to make everything fit into a seamless whole. I see what you're getting at, but I think a qualification is in order. Wherever Merry and Pippin go the light-heartedness remains. Even among the orcs crossing Rohan. The only exception to this is when either of them come as far as Minas Tirith. Frodo and Sam's story is surely the dark and difficult road. And, of course, the story enters into War. Therefore you have epic proportions. The Faerie tone even as far as Lorien is bound to be forgotten in all the great doings of Men, even though Lorien and Imladris do affect and inform those events. I don't think the breaking of the Fellowship was avoidable. It was in the nature of the Ring and of the destinies of the Nine Walkers for the breakup to occur.