| Christian Morality in LotR and the Times Literary Supplement [message #265452] |
Di, 16 Mai 2006 15:56 |
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Quite some time ago, in a post to a related newsgroup (my news server
seems to have adopted a prejudice against RABT), I noted a remark by
Tolkien to the effect that he had not consciously injected Christian
morality into LotR until the second edition.
Just today, I purchased, and began reading, the new "Reader's Companion"
to LotR in a white paperback volume... in rather small type, but being
nearsighted, I'm not complaining.
In any event, it notes that one of the earliest reviews of the first
edition of LotR, by an anonymous reviewer for the Times Literary
Supplement, complained that it seemed to be a story about two sets of
guys fighting, with nothing to distinguish the "good guys" from the "bad
guys" except that the author tells us which is which!
No *wonder*, then, he made an effort with the second edition...
John Savard
http://www.quadibloc.com/index.html
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| Re: Christian Morality in LotR and the Times Literary Supplement [message #267704 ] |
Mi, 17 Mai 2006 21:36 |
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John Savard <jsavard [at] excxn.aNOSPAMb.cdn.invalid> wrote:
> Quite some time ago, in a post to a related newsgroup (my news server
> seems to have adopted a prejudice against RABT), I noted a remark by
> Tolkien to the effect that he had not consciously injected Christian
> morality into LotR until the second edition.
Are you thinking of his remark in the letter to Robert Murray, "The
Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic
work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision" ?
There he's talking about when he went back through the book after
writing the last chapters, before the first publication. The second
edition wasn't for some years after that letter.
-M-
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| Re: Christian Morality in LotR and the Times Literary Supplement [message #270530 ] |
Fr, 19 Mai 2006 04:14 |
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On 17 May 2006 20:36:45 +0100 (BST), Matthew Woodcraft
<mattheww [at] chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote, in part:
>John Savard <jsavard [at] excxn.aNOSPAMb.cdn.invalid> wrote:
>> Quite some time ago, in a post to a related newsgroup (my news server
>> seems to have adopted a prejudice against RABT), I noted a remark by
>> Tolkien to the effect that he had not consciously injected Christian
>> morality into LotR until the second edition.
>Are you thinking of his remark in the letter to Robert Murray, "The
>Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic
>work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision" ?
>There he's talking about when he went back through the book after
>writing the last chapters, before the first publication. The second
>edition wasn't for some years after that letter.
You may well be right. I'm not sure precisely on what basis I made the
earlier posting, but it is entirely possible I would not have realized
what he was referring to, not checking the date on the letter against
the publication history of the book.
But in *that* case, it appears the disparaging reviewer for the TLS, if
he had not altogether failed to *read* the thing, must at least not have
been paying attention.
John Savard
http://www.quadibloc.com/index.html
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