The White Council

Re: The LOTR standing alone. . .

Tolkien and Inklings Discussion

: I tend to agree with your statement, but compare it to my own study of history. At first, while I was a carpenter with an interest in the Danish history I studied our own socalled Viking Age (let us call it High Middle Age in Scandinavia for those of you not preoccupied with the Scandinavian megalomania that makes us take up a label totally different from the rest of the world to denote a specific period in our history that was very specific to us). This was beautiful and exciting in itself, then I decided that I would no longer be a craftsman and took up studying for real (and ended up at the University of Aarhus struggling for my degrees amongst elite students who can think only as the tutors want them to while I have a hard time not thinking for myself (this board is a nice outlet though)). This introduced me to a greater picture (of course this happened gradually). Compare The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings with the Viking age study, Silmarillion with the study of the prehistoric Iron Age just before and a brief glance at the Mediterranean civilisations of that time as well as what they developed into, and HoME to the great encompassing study of history from the earliest times till somewhere at the end of the Middle Ages when my interest sort of peters out (not wholly, and WWII has my great interest too, but...). : Palle aka Neithan Turambar aka Vagn The Violent (as a viking reenactor)

An interesting comparison. So, if I understand you a'right, the LOTR is the "period" that siezes your interest and was the genesis of your love for Tolkien. (Again, I include The Hobbit in the LOTR for these purposes). The supplemental "periods," such as the SIL and the HoME, are just that, supplemental, and while they hold interest for you in a scholarly manner, and enhance your appreciation of the LOTR, they do not inspire the same level of passion.

So would you say, therefore that the joy and beauty of Tolkien's works lie in the LOTR and that the other texts provide a greater appreciation for the depth of the undertaking but do not inspire the feeling of the former? Without the love of the LOTR (the Viking Period), the pursuit of the other texts (other historical periods in your analogy) would not have been undertaken?

I like the analogy and it closely corresponds with my own background with Tolkien's works.