[MLD-Grounds-Keeper-Willie]

Just two things here, Jessica Jade:

how can you write about
something if you don't know about it or acknowledge it's existence?

When I say that Tolkien created ME, I do not mean that the creation began on the paper. No, nothing does unless it is spontaneus and unintentional. The creation begins in the mind. It starts when the person thinks it, and where does it end? Well, maybe on the paper, and maybe it hasn't even ended yet, but that's not the point.

You can always create something even if it has never existed. If you think it, and it's never been around before you've thought it, then it's been created, by you. You can always think of something new, however, it can be hard when you are trying to create something. You'll see what I mean in a little bit.

middle earth was discovered because it already existed in
tolkien's mind.

You could say it was discovered, but first it had to be created. And that's where you've discovered something that you've created, when you created something over time but was not aware of it, and when it takes form and binds together and get's big enough, you notice it, and that's when you discover it. You can discover your own creations when you were not trying to create that particular creation.

When you are trying however, there is no discovery. You construct it from scratch. You build a foundation and model it to look what you want it to look like *(see bottom)*. You may take bits and pieces from other places sometimes to help build your creation, but they are shaped and molded by you to fit your building, and then they are your creation and a part of your creation. I see what you're saying about memories of other things building up, yes, that's where he's borrowing bits and pieces, but he's making them his, and shaping them so they are no longer what they used to be. He is creating, when he knows he is completely aware of what he is doing, then he cannot discover it, he already knows.

You build a foundation and model it to look what you want it to look like *(see bottom)*

This was really getting off topic so I decided to put it down here.

davem said:

but it grew & branched into its own form.

*Some time you build and build just for the sake of building, and it will turn out by itself. Or you might try to make it look a certain way, but it doesn't in the end. I'm not sure if Tolkien had an idea of what he wanted his final model of ME to look like, but it did turn out the way it is, and he left us something to look at in our own way. Your creation might not always look the way you want it to look. I do think that davem is right about it forming into its own thing, and not the way Tolkien intended. It may not have come out like he intended, but I think that he liked it. He could change somethings to his likings, and maybe he did. There are something that he couldn't change, I'm sure. Those things might be a part of the foundation, and they would require too much remodeling.

And the finishing touches are left to Tolkien. The building has been built. Whether it came out like that on it's own or if Tolkien intended it that way, it's been built. The finishing touches however, are left to Tolkien. He gets to make these little chages that may be so critical to whether other's like it. If they like it, they'll buy the building or the house, just as we have bought the book. And there are other things that Tolkien has left. he did not finish everything. Somethings our left for our speculation. Take Tome Bombadil. Tolkien never finished him, whether it was on purpose or not. But we are free to specualte and imagine. And who's to say everything is finished. It might not be so. A house may be built, but when it is sold, the owner is free to make any changes he or she wishes, like adding things. In which he/she does add somthing, then it shows that the house was not finished when it was done being built. Just as when we buy the book, we can interpet things our own way, or imagine what would have happened, and in that case, it is not yet finished.*