Seven: Four From Five or One? - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Bêthberry · 04-22-2007, 05:40 AM

There's several reasons why I've been fascinated by the dwarves: first, their creation story and second, the absence of much story about them. (And another one too, that derives from the nature of their language, but that's less germane here.) I suppose I get bored with all the elves and their nostalgia because they've left substantial evidence and much narrative about them. But of those who pass without long memorial, well, there's so much more to imagine, poignantly.

I think alatar is right about the potential for wonderful dragon stories. After all, we read in OFS Tolkien's confession of his great longing for stories about dragons and so we can imagine that there would be a strong attraction there: his imagination was with dragons.

But there is a problem, too, in writing too much about the destruction of rings. If the One Ring and its end in Mount Doom is the ultimate story, would 'precursor' stories merely take away some of the . . . fire . . . of the final destruction? Then, how would one maintain narrative interest in a back story--four of them--of the other rings' destruction? How many times can a ring be melted before it becomes impossible to maintain interest? (Now, I say this and remember that Scheherazade kept up her storytelling skills over a good many nights.)

And I suppose another quandry might be the place of dragons in Middle-earth. Do they belong to the lore of TH or do they belong to the less fanciful LotR? Recently an Old English scholar known for his admiration of Tolkien complained in his blog about talking foxes in Lot R. How would dragons have to be handled to satisfy such wits?

I can imagine an ironic tale about a dragon's lust for the ring, only for him--are dragons all male?--to be cheated of his prize at the end by his unknowingly destroying it with his fire.

On the other hand, the elves were given three rings and those were not destroyed until they lost their power with the destruction of The One. Why were the dwarven rings lost? Were the dwarves, with their greater resistance to the power of the One, able to understand something which the elves could not?

04-22-2007, 05:40 AM	#10
Bêthberry Cryptic Aura Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 6,003	There's several reasons why I've been fascinated by the dwarves: first, their creation story and second, the absence of much story about them. (And another one too, that derives from the nature of their language, but that's less germane here.) I suppose I get bored with all the elves and their nostalgia because they've left substantial evidence and much narrative about them. But of those who pass without long memorial, well, there's so much more to imagine, poignantly. I think alatar is right about the potential for wonderful dragon stories. After all, we read in OFS Tolkien's confession of his great longing for stories about dragons and so we can imagine that there would be a strong attraction there: his imagination was with dragons. But there is a problem, too, in writing too much about the destruction of rings. If the One Ring and its end in Mount Doom is the ultimate story, would 'precursor' stories merely take away some of the . . . fire . . . of the final destruction? Then, how would one maintain narrative interest in a back story--four of them--of the other rings' destruction? How many times can a ring be melted before it becomes impossible to maintain interest? (Now, I say this and remember that Scheherazade kept up her storytelling skills over a good many nights.) And I suppose another quandry might be the place of dragons in Middle-earth. Do they belong to the lore of TH or do they belong to the less fanciful LotR? Recently an Old English scholar known for his admiration of Tolkien complained in his blog about talking foxes in Lot R. How would dragons have to be handled to satisfy such wits? I can imagine an ironic tale about a dragon's lust for the ring, only for him--are dragons all male?--to be cheated of his prize at the end by his unknowingly destroying it with his fire. On the other hand, the elves were given three rings and those were not destroyed until they lost their power with the destruction of The One. Why were the dwarven rings lost? Were the dwarves, with their greater resistance to the power of the One, able to understand something which the elves could not?