Davem wrote:
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'Do not' is a stronger expression than 'need not'. 'Need not' is too passive
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And yet, one cannot alter the fact that Tolkien wrote "need not". I still think it highly improbable that Christopher's accidental omission of the word "need" should precisely coincide with a change that his father was going to make anyway. In all likelihood, he either intended "need not" or felt that there was no significant difference between the two.