[Scott]

Greetings.

Well Bilbo, I am sorry that I'm not directly answering your final question, per say, and hope that this post isn't considered at all "pat". Your theories seem to be based upon the idea that any origin or form of explanation as to the creation of the trolls was set concretely in Tolkien's mind. On this point, I cannot agree. Tolkien himself stated that he was not sure about what to make of the origin of the trolls: "I am not sure about trolls..." In keeping with the best wishes of the author, I would think that the last given explanation would be in order. And although you give more than ample evidences to back up your points, your evidence looks like it has gone into a chronological blender. From best as I can tell, each piece of supporting information is from a different time period and phase of Tolkien's thought and creative processes. I therefore do not think that it is accurate to support any theorums proposing a (and excuse my poor diction) concrete idea. I see it as proving someone got to 6 by showing 4,2,5,3,1.

I am not trying to spurn your creative thought processes, but I think that you might need to be a bit more chronologically accurate, in reverance to Tolkien.

Also, I thought that your opening was a bit heady and hard to follow (once you got into your actual ideas). I think a good concrete thesis would clarify things a bit for oyur readers. I see why this might be hard though, since the end is not finished as of yet.

I hope you enjoy your afterlife,

~Scott