Quote:
Originally Posted by Galin
Christopher Tolkien also notes his father's: 'intense concern to avoid discrepany and inconsistency'
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It does seem to me at times that JRRT's efforts on this front wound up leading to even more discrepancy and inconsistency, because while he was attempting to attain it, he was also altering things to conform in other ways (for instance, his statement that LotR was "consciously Catholic" in its revision, and his subsequent problems in creating what to him was a logical origin for the orcs within his beliefs about the immortal soul). There was a lot of overthinking going on, I fear, which is why no one, not even CT will ever truly know all the details of what Tolkien wanted.
But it makes quite a fertile ground for speculation, doesn't it?
