[j. d. worthington]

Originally Posted by pyanfaruk

I must say, however that the best revision he made was to change, (apparently at the last minute, too!) the name of one of the chief characters - I'm much happier with "Strider" than I ever would have been with "Trotter"!

I'm inclined to agree... and changing him from a hobbit to a man, for multiple reasons.

But the sheer chutzpah of the man, inventing a complete and believable world, and providing a historical framework from the Creation to seven thousand years later - plus a complete lingustical setting for so many different races: like or loathe the book, there's never been anything else to touch it!

Nor (for good or ill) is there likely to be again. I also found his playing around with the ideas of time, and of connections with different ages via dreams, visions, etc., and their implications, quite fascinating. And the complexity of the linguistic level, the equivalence of language and history so that each genuinely reflects the other within the work (and in such a way that it does actually work as a language, as opposed to so many other created languages).... Even if you don't find it interesting on a narrative level, those books are so rich in thought that extend far beyond the Middle-earth framework (yet which nonetheless bring so many added joys to those well-known works).... I've no doubt I'll be rereading it in the (relatively) near future, huge TBY stack or not....