Celebrian's Misfortunes

[Ruoutorin]

Originally Posted by Neurion

I think that's a false assumption on the whole. To be sure, know one knows exactly what Tolkien's thoughts were, but someone who's thoroughly studied Tolkien's life, opinions and beliefs is going to have an inestimably better idea of what Tolkien meant than a 16 year-old who's just finished reading Lord of the Rings for the first time.

No matter how much someone has studied Tolkien's works they cannot see into his mind. Perhaps they will catch a trend in Tolkien's way of thinking, but by no means does that give them the right to draw conclusions about what direction Tolkien was headed. You can read Tolkien's books dozens of times, study Tolkien's works extensively, but if you write a sequal to the LotR you cannot put Tolkien's name on it and tell everyone that this is what Tolkien was going to say next.