Have you been to Valinor lately? - Page 4
© Michael Martinez
Roverandom is, unfortunately, an undeveloped text. Written and completed in 1925, it was set aside for many years and Tolkien never returned to it. Had he done so he undoubtedly would have written more about the ill-tempered wizards, the man in the moon, the Mer-folk, and perhaps even the Elves of Elvenhome (whose city on the hill in the mountains still stands after millennia, though Tirion upon Tuna is said to have been destroyed in "Akallabeth").
The mythology of Valinor is glimpsed when old Uin turns away. He has dared the forbidden, bringing creatures from the Outer Lands to view the enchanted shores of the forbidden realm. Valinor is a land of which we may dream, but we may never live there. Nor should we think of visiting.
It is the myth of Valinor itself which persuades men to seek for it. An immortal land where immortals dwell, can a man perhaps himself find immortality there? Or, if not immortality, will he at least find a memory which lives within him brighter than all other memories? The myth is a dangerous one best forgotten, or only remembered in the form of a small doll, which poses no threat, wakes no imagination, rouses no desire.
In The Road to Middle-earth Professor Tom Shippey, like so many critics, dwells upon the odious literary qualities of the stories. Rather than appreciate the tales for tales in themselves, he absolves himself of guilt by pointing out for the reader that he was once warned by Professor Tolkien not to look too deeply beneath the covers of the book, and being so warned he is well able to avoid the pitfalls inherently bound up with seeking sources...or so he hopes.
But the pitfalls of seeking sources cannot be avoided, because in order to seek the sources of a story one must dissect the story, and "he that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom". The "path of wisdom" is itself a treacherous thing. The Wise often fall from the path, or stumble. The wise Eldar rebelled against the Valar and left Valinor, and in Middle-earth they found a terrible doom, even one much worse than the inevitable defeat at the hands of Melkor. For if Valinor is denied to Men, Middle-earth is ultimately denied to Elves, who must fade and be forgotten, except perhaps as dolls atop special cakes.
Shippey finds clear semblance between the characters of Smith and Tolkien's own profession of philology, identifying even Smith himself with Tolkien:
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