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Originally Posted by Bęthberry
But this living/dead dichotomy doesn't really pertain to what I find intriguing, how their art is fixated on history and its reconstuctions. I could be wrong, but I'm not sure there's anything in their stories that are "make believe." It is all "once was."
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This is an intriguing point that I'd not considered (love when that happens). Of course, I am forced to ask, if one lives in a world in which the story of Luthien and Beren actually happened, why would one need to make believe? The history of the Elves is already itself (written by Eru?) the most fabulous (in the sense of fabled and wonderful) of stories -- mere invention pales by comparison.
When I cast my mind back over the story, the only instances I can come up with of "true" invention (i.e. "make believe") was Sam's song about the trolls and that wonderful shin-bone! Oh, and Frodo's song about the cat and the fiddle. There are more I'm sure, but it seems interesting that the only true story-tellers (as opposed to history/memory recallers) are the Hobbits...they are also, as Mister Underhill has pointed out, the race most deeply interested in books (to the references to Elrond's library I would respond that the only people who seem interested in using those tomes were the Hobbits and the Wizard -- not the Elves! And I do think that it is relevant that Elrond is a Half Elven: in Lorien there's not even a single piece of parchment that I can recall, and that's the last place in Middle Earth where one can find the Noldorian culture in full, if failing, flower).
But the other aspect of orality/literacy that bears mentioning is the difference between communal and individual action: oral cultures are communal (teller and listeners) literate cultures are privat (the book and the single reader). And yet in M-E each reference to a book is made in reference to its communal function:
-- The Book of Mazarbul is read aloud by Gandalf to the Fellowship; it has multiple authors
-- The Red Book of Westmarch is also read aloud by Sam and Rose to their children (and by their children); it also has multiple authors
-- The books of lore in Elrond's library are examined by pairs of characters (Gandalf and Aragorn, Gandalf and Elrond, Bilbo and Frodo) who discuss the contents of the books ("take counsel" with them).
Given this I think that Bethberry may be quite right
in her view of Tolkien as being a 'language man' rather than a 'book man'. It's almost as though the only "good" book for him was a book that performed or acted like an oral tale. Which means, of course, he would be delighted by this kind of reading community (and perhaps even by the RPGs?) which is dedicated to taking the book he wrote and putting it into constant communal performance.