[alaklondewen]

That's the question scientists have been researching for years.

However, how would Tolkien explain any developmental, medical, or mental disability or illness? There are of variety of internal, physiological explanations, but the people of middle earth would never know about them. So, maybe we could take a look at how individuals thought of mental illnesses before modern medicine.

Many people explained "madness" as a punishment for some sort of sin by the individual or possibly even their parents. Another explanation they could use would be some major stressor or traumatic event that triggered her symptoms or madness.

These, of course, are just a few suggestions running around in my head.