As usual, I come to the best threads too late to say much other than "hear, hear".
But I'll add to the chorus of approval for the fell beasts - a gloriously sinister piece of writing.
I also want to come back to this bit, picked up by Lalwende:
Quote:
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and nursed it with fell meats
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Think about all the words Tolkien
could have used here. Reared, fed, bred, gave...instead he picks "nursed". The sheer perversity of this kindly, motherly word in a passage of description like this - brilliantly effective.
Oh and Nidhoggr...I'd always imagined him as a cross between a giant rat and a warthog with huge nasty tusks. And yes, Tolkien's gnawing nameless things also became in my mind warthoggy ratty things, in his honour.