[alatar]

Much agreed with both the phantom and Child. In the first case, I can understand the reluctance of having a female character be one of the Nine Walkers. Again, I think that Tolkien walked along with each character, drawing from his own life experiences, and so could not figure out how to present a member of the FotR who was both female and a cohesive member of the group. What does an eight male and one female FotR look like?

Also, I would consider the dynamics of a female in the FotR group considering the other Eight (whichever) remain the same. Gandalf could be changed to a female wizard, as that would simplify things. Legolas could also be female, but that might skew the friendship that develops with Gimli (note how well Gimli reacts to Galadriel). Would someone want to rewrite the entire story, switching the gender of many of the characters?

Assuming one character, does this character fall in love (as seemingly everyone else does) or marry as the other members of the Fellowship (excepting Frodo, of course), and is this person within or outside the Fellowship? If within, how does that complicate the story? And from without, what character would be the mate? Eomer or Faramir or some other?

And so what of female characters outside the FotR? I think that this would be somewhat easier, as Tolkien need not walk with them as far. Théoden replaced with Queen Elfhild? Denethor II replaced with Finduilas as Stewardess? Would Elfhild be more or less prone to Saruman's leechcraft, and could Finduilas send her child on a suicide mission?

Obviously I have no well thought out changes, but maybe others could propose some and we could discuss those.