[Mithalwen]

This was a cross post but I think it still holds. And I am not arguing anything as such just saying my feeling about it - I an not forcing anyone to agree with it. But sice I am attacked for illogicality, I would say that , as someone who in general does not read fantasy books other than LOTR (and Pratchett though I see him more as a socio-political commentator who happens to use a created world for his setting cf Butler and Erewhon), one of the reasons that I love Middle Earth is that it is that Tolkien strived to make it coherent and to reconcile anomalies in the creation, eg Glorfindel. I suppose I prefer the explanations that gel with the "laws" of the created universe rather than say "it is fantasy, roll with it" . Also I feel that there is a sense in which the Silmarillion tales are "mythicised" and the Hobbit is "fairytale" whereas LOTR is history/documentary........... OK I am illogical ignore me....