Better late than never . . .
Just a brief comment on the Foreword before the opportunity passes by and the discussion has wholly gone onto the Prologue. And you will excuse me, if you will, if this does nothing to add to the well done thoughts on allegory, The Great War, religious impact of Tolkien’s belief systems, and etc.
First, let me confess, that in all my many years of reading Tolkien, I have managed to skip, overlook, pass quickly by the Foreword every time. The few author forewords I have read have proved tedious, at best, in my opinion. So it was with a sense of resignation that I prompted myself to look through this one, this time.
And quick that look-through began until I came to this section:
Quote:
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. . . I found that the story could not now be wholly abandoned, and I plodded on, mostly by night, till I stood by Balin’s tomb in Moria. There I halted for a long while. . . .I went on and so came to Lothlórien and the Great River. . . .
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I gasped . . . something rang a bell of recognition in me. The old fellow, I thought, would have made a cracking RP-Gamer!
An invisible player intrigued by the unfolding of his storyline, he stands with the fellowship at the fallen Dwarf’s tomb - tarries a while as creative juices fail for the moment; real life becomes insistent (one or the other or both); then, journeys on with them to The Great River and into the heart of the Golden Wood. Late at night, after what passes for the real work is done, he plods on as he can . . . tapping the keys of his typewriter in a two-fingered staccato (nod to Arry for that earlier image).
He’s hooked on the tale that grows in the telling of it . . .
I’d give my eye teeth to have been able to game with him! Gives me the shivers just thinking about it.
And then, of course, there are the maps . . . lovely maps . . . a Gamer’s delight . . . but that should wait ’til the Prologue is discussed, I suppose.
~*~ Pio
*. . . written in the late watches of the night . . . herself rather unskilled in the art of ten-fingered typing . . .