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Originally Posted by Bęthberry
I don't mean to discount your conclusion, but I do wonder what conditions we assign or ascribe to autobiographical impulses. I mean, I know that there is a profound link between the author and his writing, but I sometimes think we too quickly or easily assume that correlations are causations.
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I agree that it is difficult to come to hard-and-fast conclusions; unles the author tells us point-blank it is hard to know the "why's". Better, perhaps, to simply note similarities, or correlations if you like, and then letting the silence linger while each of us ponders what the similarities might mean. I will be happy if this thread does that.
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Originally Posted by Bęthberry
Other than the similar presence of the trope of orphans and foster care, what evidence is there that this would be derived from Tolkien's own experience?
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Not much evidence, but there is the parallel that Aragorn draws between Arwen & himself, and Luthien and Beren (by singing 'The leaves were long, the grass was green'.) We do know that Tolkien identified strongly with Beren and that Luthien was partly based on Edith, especially the enchantment of seeing her dance in the woods. And in The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen, Aragorn calls Arwen "Tinuviel" on their first meeting. Aragorn was forbidden by his foster-father Elrond to marry Arwen til he had essentially marshalled the West, defeated the East, and come into his inheritance (Kingship of North and South).
Meanwhile, Father Francis also forbade Tolkien to pursue Edith until he was-- twenty-one? which was when he was back from the war.
Beren was set to an impossible task-- Luthien accompanied him, and so the task succeeded (more or less); I wonder if this is how Tolkien wished his early years had worked out.
Comparing Tolkien and Aragorn, I think the insistence of the foster-father that the young man earn the hand of the bride by proving his valor/ earning his manhood is a similarity of note.
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Originally Posted by Bęthberry
I don't ask to be curmudgeonly but because in my reading of writers' letters and relations with other writers I have found that the autobiographical impulse is rarely so directly or openly satisfied. It is usually far more complex and hidden. I mean, it is interesting that Tolkien associated himself with Faramir, the younger brother, yet he was the older brother in real life. And we all know what happens to the older brother.
Loss of parents at an early age is profoundly unsettling for a child's development. We know that Tolkien had a very close relationship with his mother through their mutual faith. And we also know that to some extent he harboured regrets at the role his guardians played in his love affair with Edith. Yet Edith too was similarly orphaned, was she not? Does that explain why both Aragorn and Arwen were motherless at the time of LotR? Or does it perhaps provide a wider way to explore a variety of issues about character, loyality, motivation?
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I don't see why it shouldn't do both. Layering. Like an onion-- or is it a parfait?
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Originally Posted by Bęthberry
And is fostering that is blood-based more successful than fostering that is assumed without blood ties?
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Good question.
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Originally Posted by Bęthberry
Changlings and selkies, Helen I think Tolkien has omitted from his perilous realm. Why?
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On the surface-- but Aragorn was essentially raised by the elves, no? Not really a changeling, but not a 'normal' man, either.
The Silkie was probably omitted by basic catholic morality; I have no problem with that omission, really. Makes LOTR a nice, family friendly book.