Quote:
Oh, my, Evenstar1 and Scapegoat!
I did not consider that Elrond could have been symbolic of someone in Tolkien's life! Well done. Thank you for posting that.
|
You're welcome, Tirned Tinnu! Glad to be appreciated! [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]
To add a little to the Fr. Francis story, it goes something like this (or mostly like this, since I don't have my source right in front of me):
Tolkien both loved and respected the stern priest, but they reached a sticking-point in their relationship when it came to Edith. In fact, though he obeyed the letter of the priest's law, he took "loopholes" wherever he could find them and Fr. Francis was dismayed to find that though he'd said JRRT couldn't
see Edith, the youth had continued to write to her! So Fr. Francis put a stop to that, too. Finally, when Tolkien was free to see her, he discovered that she was soon to be married to someone else. He immediately rushed to see her and in a very short time (I believe it was over the course of 3 days), won her heart back. But Fr. Francis' lack of approval for the object of Tolkien's affections had taken its toll on their relationship: he was too uncomfortable to tell the priest of the impending nuptuals until just days before the event! Fr. Francis felt bad that he'd created such awkwardness between them, having only had Tolkien's best interests at heart, and offered to perform the ceremony. Alas! Another priest had already been chosen!
(My source is: "Tolkien: Man and Myth" by Joseph Pierce)
Aragorn and Arwen never had to deal with quite this extreme of an interrelationship with her father. Perhaps the Elrond/Arwen/Aragorn triangle is the way Tolkien wished things could have been in his own life.
[ October 21, 2002: Message edited by: Evenstar1 ]