The Style of Book VI - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

***Mister Underhill*** · 02-28-2003, 11:05 PM

I'll join the chorus and commend you for an interesting post, Turambar. Without having read the section (or for that matter, the book) in a while, I can only chip in that previous discussions have kicked around speculations about a deliberate shift in tone between the first chapter or two in LotR and subsequent chapters. This subtle difference might convey that those chapters were written by Bilbo, since the style more closely resembles that of The Hobbit.

If Tolkien really was deliberately manipulating his prose to produce these sorts of visceral, almost subconscious effects on the reader, then he's even more of a genius than I thought he was.

Something to keep an eye out for on the next reading.

02-28-2003, 11:05 PM	#6
*Mister Underhill* Dread Horseman Join Date: Sep 2000 Location: Behind you! Posts: 2,744	I'll join the chorus and commend you for an interesting post, Turambar. Without having read the section (or for that matter, the book) in a while, I can only chip in that previous discussions have kicked around speculations about a deliberate shift in tone between the first chapter or two in LotR and subsequent chapters. This subtle difference might convey that those chapters were written by Bilbo, since the style more closely resembles that of The Hobbit. If Tolkien really was deliberately manipulating his prose to produce these sorts of visceral, almost subconscious effects on the reader, then he's even more of a genius than I thought he was. Something to keep an eye out for on the next reading.