[Billthedrill]

Well, I have hopes but let's face it - Tolkien was a superb professional philologist whose specialty was mind-bogglingly obscure. Not everyone is going to be enthralled by a learned discussion on the declension of old German verbs...

[Samwise]

I'll wait for the Cliff Notes. I absolutely loathed my British Literature classes. I really despise translating. All of our finals were translation heavy. I made it a point to immediately forget every story line as soon as the finals were over. I do vaguely remember one line of Chaucer about a guy passing wind in someone's face though. I believe he stuck his arse out a window and said "kiss it"....or maybe I'm just remembering Clinton.

[MonroeDNA]

"Well, I have hopes but let's face it - Tolkien was a superb professional philologist whose specialty was mind-bogglingly obscure. Not everyone is going to be enthralled by a learned discussion on the declension of old German verbs..."

From an earlier thread link, he was likely a genious, and slightly autistic.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.12/aspergers.html?pg=1&topic=&topic_set