[davem]

I don't see the early part of LotR as being 'childish' - certainly not in the style of the early parts of TH. Certainly the early drafts are, but not the finished version. Its a much more 'conversational', storytelling style. Its not that it becomes more 'adult' but rather that it becomes 'higher' in tone, reflecting the increasing seriousness of the situation. What's interesting to me (as I pointed out in the CBC thread) is that we begin with the narrator's voice reporting events & conversations but without any description of places, characters, costume etc. Its as though we are not 'seeing' anything, only 'hearing' a story. Gradually, we get description - as if our imaginative capacity is slowly growing as we enter the Secondary World.

I'm reminded of Olivier's Henry V - as the movie starts we are in the theatre, watching the players on stage, gradually we move to a series of stylised sets, designed along the lines of medieval manuscript illustrations, & finally, when we get to Agincourt, we move into live action. Then we move back through those stages till at the close of the movie we are back in the theatre watching the actors on stage. The same kind of thing happens with LotR, as we move from 'listening' in the dark, slowly beginning to 'see' the world of Middle-earth form. The world we see initially is also very 'stylised' in the way its presented, gradually becoming more & more vivid & powerful till we get to the destruction of the Ring. From then on we move back through the same stages, till we end up back with only the words of the Narrator in our heads. I think we see this clearly with the return of the Hobbits to the Shire where Frodo speaks of 'falling asleep again.'