Professor Verlyn Flieger presents "Waiting for Earendel" for The Tolkien Society

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by Morthoron

As far as Tolkien and Eärendil, once again we can bemoan the professor's scattershot approach to writing and look wistfully to what might have been -- or just be amazed at the massive literary output he left us.

Oh, but Flieger's argument is that it was not scattershot at all. She finds a pattern and argument to explain his strange references and then complete silence. I think her argument is fascinating. I must go check the German source to see how similar the "absences" are. I doubt that was his original intention, but in his work on writing and reading mythologies, it is quite plausible that he found something to apply to his own mythology. She is very good at sussing him out.