YOUR Problem(s) With Tolkien's Books

[The Squatter of Amon Rûdh]

I have only one problem with Tolkien's fiction: he didn't finish enough of it. Even though he was a busy man with many calls on his time, I think that he let himself down in never completing a definitive version of his mythology, notwithstanding that what remains is still a remarkable achievement. I think it's a pity that so many of his best poems and stories trail off into scribbled notes, and that repeated setbacks and attacks of uncertainty kept interrupting the progress of their revision.

Ironically enough, though, the very incompleteness of Tolkien's mythology lends it a peculiar realism. The world's natural myths aren't contained in conveniently definitive stories, but told and retold in many forms that vary in their completeness, and which often contradict each other. In this respect, their lack of completeness is an advantage, but I still feel that what we have is a pale reflection of what might have been.