Northern Air

[Lalwendë]

It's interesting that we never really see many places in Tolkien's world which are hot and 'southern' too - we see the permanent temperate woodland of Lothlorien, and the gentle old gardens of Ithilien, but never any baking hot places - except Mordor!

And there's something else - in the Norse and Icelandic myths, and in Anglo-saxon poetry, we don't see the 'interior monologues' of most modern fiction, we must judge character only on action - and that's what Tolkien does. How often do you hear the cry that he doesn't develop his characters enough? Well that's because he does it in an archaic way, through showing their words and actions.