Seven: Four From Five or One?

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Originally Posted by Bêthberry

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.)

That makes sense. Just how many dragon stories can we have? One everyone knows; the other everyone may be reading (or rereading) soon. Still, it might be helpful to read a one-liner about either the fall of a dwarven stonghold because of a dragon's interest, or the fall of a dragon due to a dwarven vendetta. And it's not like the Sil isn't cyclical.

"The Dwarven capitol of Southwestern Khand, ZiggyMarleyHall, overrun by DepecheMode the Goth."

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?

Smaug and Glaurung talked, and it didn't come off as does the fox, which stood out bombadilicly. Again, the lengthy story would be appreciated, but the blurb would be welcome as well.

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?

The dwarves knew that sometimes...it's better to burn up than to fade away.