[Bêthberry]

Thank you, Tuor of Gondolin, for posting that excerpt from the Letters and welcome to this thread. I hope you don't mind, but I would like to take this opportunity to comment on the authority of an author's letters.

It is of course always valuable and insightful to see how any writer justifies or explains his writing and Tolkien is no exception. His letters are a delight to read and his character which they display is a gracious, generous one, urbane and courteous, with wit and humour to leave us chuckling.

However, readers are also free to ask whether the explanation offered is sufficientt to answer the question. Just because an author intended his story or passage to suggest or accomplish a certain thing does not always mean the passage in question will necessarily support that justification. Some readers will read this explanation by Tolkien and say, "Yes, that makes sense." Others will say, "The principle has merit but frankly, I don't see the scene as playing out that way. There is too much emphasis on the desire to make the symbolism come together and too little on the dynamics of the interaction between the characters." Or some such reason or explanation. Readers, I suppose, can be either faithful or fickle and often both.

So, if I may suggest without being thought presumptuous or arrogant, finding an authorial statement about a passage in question is the first step in considering a question or a difference of opinion. The next step is to consider whether the statement is in fact applicable, whether the reasons it offers are sufficient to meet the question. or not.

Perhaps we will be left with the conundrum that for some it will be, for others it never will be.