[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Now just what is that? I open the Barrow-Downs and this thread's title pops up at me. "Whoa, interesting," I think and decide I have to take a look! So I open the BD subforum and what do I see? I cannot believe my own eyes: SpM started the thread! What's going on here? I was wondering whether it is an old topic just revived by somebody - that would be a logical explanation, but then, it is impossible that SpM would have posted about this topic sometime in early 2008 or whenever it was when he was last online.

Impressive! Okay, sorry for the rant, but I am just amazed. Saucie, hope you are going to stay for a little more! But good to hear that you still are somewhere out there! Hope you are doing well.

As for the topic itself. I think it is most impressive to read. And isn't it what's the point and the truth and what people don't often take into account, that all stories, all written texts (and their movie versions) live their own life from the very moment they set out of the author's private room? There's a (relatively recent) discipline called the history of interpretation. I don't know how widely it is used, I have encountered it only face to the biblical texts. It maps not just the origin, the author and the meaning set there by the author, nor just the meaning a contemporary reader gives to it, but also uncovers the history of the text - how it worked, how it influenced people in sometimes even contradictory ways throughout the times. And I guess Tolkien's books are just on the good way to get their own history of interpretation. They are, of course, a rather "young" literature still, but already now I would dare to prophetize that they are of the kind which could earn its history of interpretation. They certainly deserve it, and as it can be seen, it would be most interesting. And worth it to explore. Maybe it awaits for some Tolkien scholar, or even for some of us Downers...