Females in the Fellowship

[Lush]

You're completely right - while there were no central female characters, the ones that were presented were goddess like, beautiful inspirations for the men of the fellowship. That could not have been acheived if they had been rooting around in the mud and trampling across the country. I'm glad that I've gotten that new perspective!

"But this pedestal is high/And I'm afraid of heights."

Anyway, at all of this I can only reinstate what I have believed since I finished reading the LOTR: Tolkien had trouble creating convincing, well-rounded female characters (he was most successful with Éowyn in that regard, and even then he had a multitude of problems that I'd rather not get into if I want to make a concise post).

Therefore, I'd take a well written story of an all-male fellowship over an "artificially" inserted female heroine any day.