Posted: July 31, 2000 at 20:41:54: by Goodgulf
: I was just reading through the Balrog wing discussion, but I am not here for wing-clipping today. The point was made about Tolkein being a perfectionist writer - nonsense!!
: Example 1 - Strider tells Sam that Weathertop is halfway between Bree and Rivendell, it is more like a third of the way, and Strider is supposed to know the country like the back of his hand (wait a minute, where did that freckle come from?????!)
: Example 2 - The 'Great Elven King Bladorthin' - can someone tell me where this Elf was king of, or is he just a mistake? (I know the MERP take on it, but have never seen a Tolkeinian answer, granted I haven't read ALL of the HoME series, but most thereof): 2 Examples of 'errors'. Now I don't personally believe that any error delibertate or otherwise could take anything away from the books or mythology created, the fact remains however that even the greatest literary minds cannot be 100% perfect or notice everything.
: Anyone else got any clangers that the prof dropped in his time??
: Don Q You've missed the point entirely. We were discussing Tolkien's use of language - the proper word to convey the correct meaning or mood. All of us can pick out any number or errors in the plot or loose ends, and mispellings - including the famous "dwarves" - which is now in the dictionaries as a correct variant spelling of dwarfs. Not only that, but there were literally hundreds of errors that were NOT Tolkien's fault. They were made by the editors and typesetters, especially on elvish words and terminology. Most of these errors have been corrected, but every time there is a new edition with new typesets new errors can creep in.
|
