[Ainaserkewen]

Hmm, yes, much to ponder...

I'd like to share a similar example non-Tolkien related to make a point.

I like to read fanfiction of many kinds. One faithful day I came across an absolutely beautiful crossover of my two favourites. It still remains to this day my favourite. I read through the over 30 chapters gasping for more when it promptly, like most fanfics, dropped off. Giving into despair, I realised that this was the end and stopped checking for updates, but my imagination didn't stop there. I started dreaming up later chapters, how other characters were introduced and woven into the complex plot that was set up for me and generally finished the story myself. Just as I'm running out of ways to end it low and behold one day the author adds three more chapters. I have the ending that I dreamt up, but now there is the real thing from the original mind that had absolutely nothing to do with mine. Rather than feel disapointed, I was once again entranced in the new chapters totally unique to my own thoughts and on different tangents. I sort of forgot my own interpretation and invented new tangents that went with the new chapters.

My point, if you read the last paragraph, is that there is a reason why you fell in love with the original story...because you love the imagination and the thought and storytelling process of the author. We all have personal imagination deviations from Tolkien's stories but if such a letter or continuation were to be found concerning some finer points such as ears and wings (which I believe are very important to the story) then we'd all settle down with the new information and then go at it all again in a new and different angle.