Posted: May 10, 2000 at 13:04:00: by RobRoy
: : I see a lot of people saying things like Tolkien wrote the story to create a mythos for England or other reasons. I have a copy of the Fellowship if the Ring right here and he says. "I wanted to write a really long story that would hold the readers interest all the way through." He didn't have anything more in mind than entertainment. Tolkiens own words.: I think the statement about the mythology for England really refers to his very earliest writings - BoLT. : However, you cannot logically exclude the possibility of him having two intents behind writing LotR on the basis of that single statement. : Yes, he did want to write a long story etc, but that statement alone doesn't preclude/exclude the possibility of him wanting it to be a mythology as well. Too, we can not conclude that because of that statement, Tolkien didn't have another reason, that at the time of writing the foreward he didn't feel compelled to share with people. I agree that his primary goal was entertainment, as he seemed to always attest to just being a storyteller, but it does seem likely that he was also influenced to create a mythos as well, since the Sim is a very creation and origin oriented book to explain the world of LOTR. -RR
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