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Re: Dancing amid the Hemlocks.
Do we know when the 'Dancing' took place? Garth states it was in the Spring of 1917 (in the Encyclopedia article I linked to) but Richard C West in his essay 'Real World Myth in a Secondary World in the collection Tolkien the Medievalist, seems clear it took place in November 1917, & so questions whether it could have happened in exactly the way decribed - Roos is on the North Sea Coast & in November it would have been absolutely freezing. In a note to the essay West notes that he has recieved personal correspondence from Christina Scull to the effect that at that time of year there would not have been any flowers in bloom, & 'the weather would not have been conducive to dancing', & he therefore puts the whole thing down to Tolkien conflating a number of different incidents. West is drawing his date of November 1917 from Carpenter's biography (which is not too clear on the chronology of events).
What we have to say is that if the event is supposed to have taken place in November 1917 it didn't happen exactly as Tolkien says it did (no flowers & Edith dancing in an overcoat!)
Carpenter states the event took place after the birth of John in Nov 1917, while Garth in the article states it was in spring of 1917.
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