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Old 01-09-2006, 02:27 AM   #1
Ardamir the Blessed
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I Found the Entwives!

Well, not I, but a member by the name of Teleporno (Telerin for Celeborn) of the Tolkien board Minas Tirith claims in the thread "I Found the Entwives!" to have found them. He has not revealed exactly where in LOTR he found them, but he has given several hints. But only one other member, Ararana, has managed to find what Teleporno is hinting at, or so she says. There is a common belief among the other members that this discovery is a hoax.

As for myself, I am the member Herendil who has posted in the thread. I am now wondering if the members of The Barrow-Downs can have better success in this search than what the members of Minas Tirith have had so far. You could read the whole MT thread to get the full idea of Teleporno's and Ararana's hints and the progress of the search, but for your convenience, I will list their hints below in chronological order. The member Halion found a few hints by Teleporno on the board The Land of Rohan (his replies to the thread “Did Treebeard ever find the Entwives?” here), I will list these as well.


Teleporno


Quote:
I found the Entwives!

At least I think so. In my nineteenth rereading of the The Two Towers, I found 'em, right there. Tolkien answered his own riddle.

Now I understand why he was so cagey in his letters about them. He wanted readers to discover the answer to his riddle.

Can you find the Entwives?

I'll come back within the week with quotes so you can see for yourself whether I'm right.

PS -- Is Christopher Tolkien alive? It seems like I read his obituary, but I can't find any evidience of his death on the Net. I'd like to write him.

Quote:
Hey, okay, I'm short on time -- a hasty mortal. But they're in the second half of The Two Towers.

I'm considering not revealing it since I can hardly believe that nobody's noticed them in the fifty years of publication of these books! Of ocurse my "evidence" is subjective. Tolkien does not say "here are the Entwives." But he does, I think, make a very deliberate joke.

I wanna at least get honorary membership in the Tolkien Society for this one...

Teleporno
"eves of grass"

Quote:
I'm in the process of corresponding with The Tolkien Society about my discovery. I'll list the chapter when they reply to me.

I decided it is such a pleasant little mystery that to detail it all would be to spoil it for you, sort of like answering a riddle you should figure out yourself.

It also, to me, now means I must reread the books all over yet again (no pain there!) to see how many other hidden things the Professor put in there.

The TS webpage says they usually respond within several days, but it may take longer.


I checked out all the links posted above and none of them come close to my apparent discovery.

Quote:
I'm now doubly worried about the Nazgūl finding the remaining Entwives and scorching them.

Congratulations, you've made a compelling argument to NOT post my discovery here.

And true enough to my word, I have already narrowed it down sufficiently that careful readers should be able to find them now that they suspect they're there.

Where?

Goodbye.

Sincerely,
Teleporno

Quote:
Wow, I come back after a year and my little thread about the Entwives is still kicking.

Tolkien Society people tell me to publish a paper on the idea. As if.

It's a joke I'm sure some of Tolkien's cronies got, especially his cloistered academic friends parodied (and ennobled) by the Ents. Think of British women in the early 20th century...Suffragists...women who wouldn't put up with foolish, boorish men...

Read The Two Towers and closely note clusters of words.

I can't say anymore and keep the joke secret. It's there. I'm certain.



Ararana


Quote:
Holy crap! ok I dont really think any of you are going to believe me, becuase well, how many of you really believed Teleporno? I didnt, but the thought of finding the Entwives in the back of my head drove me crazy and before I knew it I was reading TTT, over and over again. And YES its right there! Tolkien has a good sense of humor! its so a deliberate joke. Its like tolkien is saying "Duh, there right here, were the blazes did you think they'd be!".

And hats off to Teleporno for not revealing their location. It is so rewarding to find them on your own like this, for any hardcore tolkien fan. Come on guys your so close to finding them! Teleporno gave you enough clues. just piece it together like a puzzle.

And yeah, I dont think the Nazgul had anything to do with the disappearance of the Entwives.

For those of you who DO believe me, just keep looking your so close just use Teleporno's clues.

Quote:
Yeah, I didnt think any of you would believe me. And now my name on this board probably went to hell. Sorry, I found it, you dont believe me. Thats your problem, not mine.



Teleporno (on The Land of Rohan)


Quote:
The Entwives are alive and living in The Lord of the Rings but you must look closely to find and decipher the riddle. Once you find them, don't tell anyone!

Quote:
It's an elaborate inside joke as much as a riddle, just as the Ents can be taken as a broad spoof of haughty English academics (specifically Treebeard is JRRT's rendering of C.S. Lewis) the Entwives are the middle-class British women who don't tolerate the foolish behavior of men -- like the suffragists. I know it's an extremely obscure thing to find and you have to do a lot of homework to understand my explanation of the riddle. Reading such as Humphrey Carpenter's authorized biography (yeah, I know it's very flawed and omits a lot) and the Letters of JRRT. The letters where he answers readers questions about the Entwives are deliberately cagey for exactly this reason -- he wants YOU to find them.

Remember, he's a subtle writer and every word counts.

Quote:
It's all in The Two Towers. Keep an eye on the clustering of certain types of words.

That's all I'm writing.

Happy 2004 to all Tolkien fans worldwide!
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