Tolkien had a life-long love of languages (especially Anglo-Saxon) and often played with the original meanings of words, such as Gandalf, which means "Wand Elf", which brought to mind a Wizard with a staff.
He wrote some of his earliest tales (which later became The Silmarillion) in the trenches of World War I, long before he ever met CS Lewis.
[ February 07, 2003: Message edited by: Barahir ]
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