It feels different near the Shire.... - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

littlemanpoet · 10-01-2002, 02:02 PM

NO APOLOGY REQUIRED! Wow, Bethberry, that's an eye opener. I read the Letters more than a decade ago and never purchased my own copy, so thanks for the post.

Yes, I am very deeply interested in narrative structure, for reasons of avocation (as writer) as well as for the aesthetics as a reader.

Whereas Hobbits are close to the land, they are not OF the land. They inhabit it, but as borrowers, though it would never occur to them that the Shire is not there's (except for Frodo and a few others). Tom B. is, of course, one of the things more elemental (but so is the Ring). And THERE is yet ANOTHER fascinating juxtaposition. What do you suppose Tolkien meant by showing that Tom Bombadil, the spirit of the vanishing Oxford and Berkshire countryside, was immune to the effects of the Ring? I realize that I have hereby sent this thread further off topic than you feared to do, Bethberry. At least potentially.

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10-01-2002, 02:02 PM	#11
littlemanpoet Itinerant Songster Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: The Edge of Faerie Posts: 7,066	NO APOLOGY REQUIRED! Wow, Bethberry, that's an eye opener. I read the Letters more than a decade ago and never purchased my own copy, so thanks for the post. Yes, I am very deeply interested in narrative structure, for reasons of avocation (as writer) as well as for the aesthetics as a reader. Whereas Hobbits are close to the land, they are not OF the land. They inhabit it, but as borrowers, though it would never occur to them that the Shire is not there's (except for Frodo and a few others). Tom B. is, of course, one of the things more elemental (but so is the Ring). And THERE is yet ANOTHER fascinating juxtaposition. What do you suppose Tolkien meant by showing that Tom Bombadil, the spirit of the vanishing Oxford and Berkshire countryside, was immune to the effects of the Ring? I realize that I have hereby sent this thread further off topic than you feared to do, Bethberry. At least potentially.