Fantasy

[davem]

Originally Posted by William Cloud Hicklin

Still, it's a bit much to expect a man like Tolkien to write with mud-and-dung realism. He never describes Aragorn relieving himself behind a bush, nor does he detail the process by which Sam and Rosie produced all those children. They are to be assumed, in the same way blood and gore are to be assumed.

But are the blood & gore to be assumed? Does Tolkien really intend us to see the shattered, hacked up bodies, the adrenalin driven attrocities commited by the 'good' guys as well as the Orcs, the 'cowardice', the 'friendly fire' incidents, the 'camp followers'? Is 'all human life' (good & bad) to be found in Middle-earth? If I assume that some Gondorian troops tortured & mutilated Easterling prisoners, or that their commanders arranged for 'cowards' to be executed at dawn, is that acceptable? I'd say not - because those things clearly did not happen in M-e, anymore than people actually 'die' instead of going rather quickly & neatly from quick to dead (unless of course they have a moving death speech to make before the end).

And that still leaves the problem of Sam's grief being greater for lost trees than for lost Hobbits.

But the question still remains 'Should Tolkien have avoided that aspect, & does the omission leave out something of vital importance?'

Tolkien decided to omit real dying in his story about death - is that something he should have done? If he honestly knew, as he did, that death in battle was a horrible, sickening thing should he not have made that clear? And by omitting it did he not miss out one of the essential points of why death is terrible - death is a terrible thing not just because it deprives the survivors of the victim's presence, but because the ending of one's life on the field is gross, agonising & generally without dignity. In fact, he did not simply omit to mention he horror of dying in battle, he created a world in which such horror is largely absent. In battle one is reduced to the state of an animal in an abattoir, hacked down & left to die in the mud. One may die for a noble cause, but the way one dies is rarely noble & on the field a dying knight & his dying horse are far more similar than many like to think. Except in Middle-earth.