Nerwen
What, this is still going?
Yep – Bombadil is interesting for sure! But part of the issue is my abysmal delays in responding or posting 'evidence'. Unfortunately I have only been able to spare odd moments once in a while.
Of course, but the fact remains that you- not the author- started this thread in order to ask for our "thoughts" on the then-incomplete article. But that is beside the point now, except that I'd say that the rest of the article is anyway much as I might have expected from the first part.
Agreed. I had hoped that some courtesy would have been extended as the author requested.
The trouble with these "anagrams": if you're a fantasy author, you don't need to construct your anagrams out of pre-existing words and names- why, then, the tortuous grammar of "Warn Bilbo and Frodo I be a Maia – Mr Ronald T"?
Good point and question. I don't know the answer for sure – but perhaps its something individual to his psyche. I can only re-iterate two quotes that stand out in Priya's essay from Tolkien's grandchildren that are:
He played endless word games with me and did the Telegraph cross.
He loved riddles, posing puzzles and finding surprising solutions.
I must say that 'the anagram' doesn't seem too 'tortuous' to me.
Meaning those two only? Isn't this basically what the Wikipedia lot call an "other stuff exists" argument?
Not sure what you are getting at here???? Yes, for sure different theories on Bombadil abound. In terms of what Priya Seth has produced, its definitely 'other stuff'. Because I can't find anything like it elsewhere.
Anyway getting back to Tolkien and lateral thinking: an interesting piece of information I dug out that highlights that Tolkien's could imagine his world allegorically - is the very early sketch of a Viking Ship:
This idea appears to have been rejected, but in light of this - the world imagined as a theater in a which a play is conducted doesn't really seem that far-fetched!