Replies

Somewhere in the letters Tolkien responds to criticism that all the hobbits came home unscathed from their adventures as if they were boys returning home from camp (or words to that effect).

I haven't found the letter you're talking about yet. I checked the few index references to Merry and Pippin and found that C.S. Lewis didn't like hobbits and Merry and Pippin least of all!

The nerve of some people! :)

I feel like going off on a Lewis (allegory-boy) bash this morning! Otherwise, I'm checking the Frodo and Sam references today.

Lewis's fiction wasn't as good as Tolkien's, but he was one of the greatest apologists of all time. So I'll have to defend him when he wasn't writing allegory. Then again, Narnia is a great series, for kids or even adults, since I reread it every few years and find yet another application. Bash him for not liking hobbits, if you like, but remember that's because he loved the Elves... oh wait, you wouldn't care, would you? I suppose you'd be praising him if he'd said that "this Elf stuff is so boring", huh?