Akhtene - Not to blow my own horn (Toot! Toot!) but I asked that same question about mother figures once. (See
Tolkien the Matricide)
I don't know about the guys out there, but as much as I love adventure stories, I sometimes feel the lack of a good wise woman or mother figure. Yet when I was playing in some of the RPG on the board, lo and behold, I caught myself making my character an orphan!
What is it with this "dead mother" thing???