Steve Melisi
New Member
One of the topics in Ep 154 was the “fact” of The Hobbit and how that is to be reconciled with world we get in The Lord of the Rings. One thing that wasn’t discussed is the timing – which is to say, the “when” that The Hobbit is being told from. LOTR is effectively written much closer to the events it records -- by Frodo, Sam, and others, including Findegil, King’s Writer in Minas Tirith “who finished this work in IV 172.”
By contrast, the Hobbit has to have been written MUCH later than that, because – although Elrond being as “kind as Christmas” does not make it into the existing text, this does (in Chapter 6) -- “Fili and Kili were at the top of a tall larch like an enormous Christmas tree.”
So, although some things don’t necessarily fit into the LOTR world – stone giants among them – it can be forgiven as a matter of distance. We aren’t there on the ground, as it were – we are telling it much later to an audience who is not of the world that experienced all that it has to tell.
One can also argue that elements of the LOTR world don’t quite fit with the LOTR world. Tom Bombadil leaps to mind. But, we can assume that stone giants were probably stone trolls in the same way we can assume Tom is a Maia. Can’t we?
By contrast, the Hobbit has to have been written MUCH later than that, because – although Elrond being as “kind as Christmas” does not make it into the existing text, this does (in Chapter 6) -- “Fili and Kili were at the top of a tall larch like an enormous Christmas tree.”
So, although some things don’t necessarily fit into the LOTR world – stone giants among them – it can be forgiven as a matter of distance. We aren’t there on the ground, as it were – we are telling it much later to an audience who is not of the world that experienced all that it has to tell.
One can also argue that elements of the LOTR world don’t quite fit with the LOTR world. Tom Bombadil leaps to mind. But, we can assume that stone giants were probably stone trolls in the same way we can assume Tom is a Maia. Can’t we?