[Bêthberry]

Hello Child,

Forgive me for not replying sooner. Yesterday Gandalf the Grey came to visit me and my family, a day-long visit which was quite an event. So interesting to be able to discuss things in person rather than solely through a monitor. And to know the person behind that monitor.

Thank you for writing such a thoughtful reply. I think you have actually found a way I can accept Tolkien's depiction of women. Yet I have a lingering, wistful regret that his great understanding of fairy was not matched by his use of female characters because I see that my daughter finds it hard to get into his novels where my son just fell into them more profoundly than any previous ones he had read (mainly the Redwall series and then Narnia, neither of which my daughter is interested in). This could be because she is currently intrigued by all these 'heroine empowerment' novels which are aimed exclusively at girls.

Your point about Galadriel is intriguing, for it immediately makes me think of Mary in a similar way. Can we see Mary as the essence of faith per se rather than of womanhood. Has her gender (and her momumental acceptance of the specific nature of God's will for her) got in the way of what she more truly represents?(I think this question probably represents my own rather meagre understanding of Mary.)

I am often torn studying a writer's life. On the one hand, I don't want to fall into mere idle gossip or what I consider the critical fault of interpreting the art exclusively by the biography. (This happens more often to female writers than male and is, IMHO unfortunately reinforced by feminists' insistence on 'writing the body.') Yet the source of creativity is so incredible a topic....

Your suggestion that LOTR might never have been finished had Tolkien cut down on his male friendships outside the home makes for intriguing speculation. Did the loss of his school companions in WWI stymie his development just as Carpenter suggests the death of his mother affected his emotional growth? I know that as a teenage girl I longed for female friendship like the kinds of friendships I saw the boys around me having. On the other hand, I know how much competition forms a part of academic male bonding, so I am loathe to find some applicability between the Fellowship and Sam's and Frodo's friendship on the one hand and Tolkien's men's clubs on the other.

And just out of idle curiousity, do you know anything more about Tolkien's daughter Priscilla in addition to the fact that she became a social worker?

You are so right that Tolkien's profound insight into the nature of fairy should redeem him of criticism in other areas.

Bethberry

Edit: A comment perhaps not unrelated to your ideas about Galadriel. I would really have liked to see Angelica Houston play Galadriel in the movie, with gold hair, of course.

[ July 04, 2002: Message edited by: Bethberry ]