[Lhundulinwen]

I don't think Tolkien started out to make a piece of literature that was intergrated into our culture, to become part of our collective memory, but that seems to be happening. The moives were a monster success, and a lot of people began to read the books, just to see if they really were any good. Of course, its not just that or the books he's mentioned in (I did notice that in King's On Writing, too, Imladris) its that the books are being taught in classrooms, discussed over lunch, and spawning web sites (like this one!!) where people from around the globe meet daily (some of us hourly it seems) just to discuss something we love. Tolkien did something wonderful, that maybe he didn't even mean to do; he opened people's minds to a new wonderful world and gave a large group of diverse people something to hold on to, to talk about, and maybe even overcome our differences. Its a beautiful thing!