Quote:
Originally Posted by William Cloud Hicklin
Nah, wheat (explicitly). Don't be fooled by UK usage "corn" = "any grain"
I can testify that ca. 1969 Britons simply didn't eat maize/sweet corn - except those who had lived among Americans.
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Disagree. Not on the second, but the first.
Tolkien specifically refers to it (3:IV, Text 2) as
"Western Corn", and the text comes well after the apparent decision regarding the 'end of "physical" Aman' in 3:XV. We'd need to demonstrate that the idea in 3:XV was actually rejected to make the maize idea untenable.
We know that this idea of non-native species needing to be introduced was one Tolkien considered - a very similar situation arises with
rabbits and chickens in 3:XIII (
Of the Land and Beasts of Numenor), and CH highlights that this is because they were
not present in NW Europe at that time. The way 3:IV ([i]Lembas[i]) both introduces
and removes "Western Corn" looks like a very strong case to me.
The explicit use of
"wheat-corn" comes from a hastily hand-written note, and is immediately after an unclear word. It's entirely possible this actually reads
"sweet-corn" in the original!
hS