Does Barliman have a beard? and other important fannish issues
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- silvan
- Finduilas
- mkletch
- proudfoot
- deathammer
- Michael_Martinez
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» silvan - Enjoyed this
What an amusing column! It's high time for me to reread some Tolkien. And come up with some opinions of my own perhaps.Van Waffle
Contributing Editor
Living With Nature, Suite101
More articles at themestream
-- posted by silvan
» mkletch - I feel better now
After a rough month or so of mixed LotR movie news, this article did a lot to clear my mind and remind me that, when all is said and done, Tolkien's writings (and all derived works) are entertainment - something to be enjoyed not something to worry over. They may have been more to the Professor, but to us almost thirty years after his death, that intimacy with the material has ... dispersed, to some degree.-- posted by mkletch
» proudfoot - Hey, I know what Tolkien wrote about (fill in the blank)!
It's true, I do. Let me take the relevant book off the shelf, and open it to the correct page. See what's written there? That's what he wrote, and that's what he meant to directly convey to the reader. Anything after that is in your own head. That doesn't mean that your interpretation is invalid, it's just that it's not what the Old Master wrote, and we don't have to accept it as such.(BTW Michael, my own canon of Tolkien books is mostly limited to Tolkien's more-or-less finished work, namely The Hobbit, LOTR, The Silmarillion, The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, The Unfinished Tales, and other non-Middle-Earth bits. If it ain't in there, it ain't in Tolkien. I've never read Tolkien's letters, save as a reference in someone else's writings, so I can't comment on those. I have a personal preference for Master of Middle-Earth, but not everyone would agree on that either.)
About fussing over details like beards, waybread, Legolas eating a steak and Balrog wings... Yeah, well, it helps to pass the time when talking to other fans, but it doesn't prove/disprove anything about the original story. If including unmentioned details helps one to more fully visualize Tolkien's work, fine. If not, don't let it get in the way. I've seen pictures of Aragorn that have him clean shaven, or have him with a beard. Either way, if the pictures expressed the essential idea of Aragorn to me, I liked them, whiskers or no. Viggo Mortensen isn't going to carry his portrayal of Aragorn any closer to our hearts by shaving or not shaving. We want to see the King Who Waits To Return, interlaid under the Nature-Wise Ranger. If he does that well, the little details won't matter so much. (And the issue of the Balrog having wings is really so irrelevant. The Balrog is a Demon of Might, with a lot of supernatural power. Ergo, it can fly, with or without wings. The bottom line is, Tolkien writes that Balrogs can fly, and that should be enough for us.)
-- posted by proudfoot
» deathammer - Balrogs do in fact wear bedroom slippers
I must say that you have just successfully taken all the fun out of these silly arguements over little picky details. One conclusion that I have arrived at is that for any question concerning a middle-earth ambiguity, there are two answers which one may make regardless of all evidence to the contrary without being looked at as a total nut: Tom Bombadil, and Illuvatar.Example 1
q: Do the Gondorians wear plate armor?
a: Tom Bombadil.
Example 2
q: Who is the Mouth of Sauron?
a: Illuvatar.
These answers have been carefully concocted so as to allow one to get out of a particularly protracted arguement without pain.
-- posted by deathammer
» Michael_Martinez - Re: Balrogs do in fact wear bedroom slippers
In response to message posted by deathammer:You all are a gift from Heaven! Once again I got slammed elsewhere for trying to poke fun at situations I've seen all too often (and I tried to be as fair as possible while still making it clear where I stand on certain issues) but after reading your replies I see the point wasn't lost on everyone.
It's only fun if we're enjoying ourselves. But I guess senses of humor are like interpretations: everyone has one they want to impose upon me. 
-- posted by Michael_Martinez
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