[Mithalwen]

Originally Posted by Durelin

*coughs*

I'm fairly certain I let my imagination take over, and if Tolkien would be upset by this, then he was just a grumpy old man who smoked too much. A brilliant one, mind you, but grumpy. Even after you put all the copyrights you can on a book or the like, but people can still do whatever they please with the words in it, to a certain extent. Plus you can write as many introductions, forewards, letters, readers guides - and there is a Middle-Earth for Dummies out there! - etc, as you want, but it's all still left up to the reader to decide whether you're just an old windbag who can write a jolly good yarn or not.

Actually I think he would be entitled to be upset without deserving that sort of insult ... I get pretty upset if I have spent all morning cooking something and someone comes along and tinkers with it to their own taste and spoiling it for me if I had spent 60 years on something...... So I think JRRT would have every right to turn in his grave or claim that "it is my ball and I'm going home now".