Put those claws away!

[The Squatter of Amon Rûdh]

Originally I intended this thread to be a parody of the frequent questions about whether Tolkien was sexist or racist, whether he didn't like liquorice and other irrelevancies. However I've had some new thoughts concerning Tevildo, the war between the cats and dogs and the disappearance of these elements from the legendarium after the Lost Tales that I think would bear further discussion.

It seems to me that the transformation of Tevildo into Thû and later Sauron, coupled with Huan's revised status as a hound of Valinor in the train of Celegorm, shows a movement away from beast fable and the anthropomorphising of animals at an early stage in the mythology. To my mind, the story of Tevildo and Huan, while very entertaining, builds on a young man's prejudices and opinions, which were dropped naturally from the legendarium as he and his mythology matured. The later story of Berúthiel is therefore written in such a way that the Queen is the real villain and her cats mere ciphers, trained to do her spying.

To my mind the war between cats and dogs simply would not work in the Silmarillion and other later writings, and it is a sign of the increasing seriousness of Tolkien's work that animals no longer have personalities, save in certain special cases. Does anyone have any thoughts on this issue?

[ August 16, 2003: Message edited by: The Squatter of Amon Rûdh ]