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To: Altariel

Big fan of Tolkien and The Hobbit.

But, with some notable exceptions, as a poet he was pretty generally third-rate.

IMO.


2 posted on 10/17/2012 1:07:06 PM PDT by Sherman Logan
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To: Sherman Logan

Tolkien didn’t write poetry for the poetry itself. He used poetry as a vehicle to enrich the characters in his books.


18 posted on 10/17/2012 1:48:44 PM PDT by SoldierDad (Proud dad of an Army Soldier who has survived 24 months of Combat deployment.)
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To: Sherman Logan

Remember: all the songs and poetry were translations from the original language (Elvish, Hobbit, Dwarvish, Orc, Black Speech, whatever) into Common Speech and then into English, so you shouldn’t expect the English version to be as good as native English poetry. It wouldn’t surprise me if this is how he really wrote most of it...


26 posted on 10/17/2012 3:42:39 PM PDT by LaRueLaDue
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To: Sherman Logan

I’m currently reading Olsen’s “Exploring JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit”. It’s quite good, and surprisingly entertaining.


27 posted on 10/17/2012 4:10:09 PM PDT by TexasBarak (I aim to misbehave!)
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