Quote:
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Originally Posted by Child of the 7th Age
Long ago I said to Littlemanpoet that I'd love to see someone go through HoMe and all the archival material and pinpoint exactly when this change occurred.
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I'll bet you a large acorn squash that it came about the moment Trotter was replaced by Strider in the early drafts of LotR. The instant the tall, grim Man came to lead the hobbits on their journey in place of the faintly humourous hobbit marks the moment in which all the more "dark and serious matters" enter into the tale. Frodo's ring becomes for the first time the Ring, and this
Hobbit sequel is suddenly connected to the vast material Tolkien had developed for what we now call the
Silmarillion.
As to
why this happened...Tolkien himself could never say. My personal favourite letter is the one in which he recalls his own surprise and curiousity when this Strider fellow turned up unexpectedly at the Prancing Pony. Who is he? Why is he so grim? What is his connection to Frodo's ring? Why has Gandalf appointed him as their guardian and guide? Answering these questions is what led Tolkien to write the story that he did (it also added about 10 years to the time he thought it would take him to finish writing it!).