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Old 11-28-2003, 10:45 PM   #44
Aiwendil
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Join Date: Mar 2001
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Sting

Yes - that is worth noting. But I ought to make two points:

1. Obviously, quite a bit was left out of AB. Q30 gives a much fuller account in all regards. It is also worth noting that Rog's death is also left out of AB 1, which (if I recall correctly) is roughly contemporary with Q30. We simply cannot reliably infer anything about the presence or absence of Rog from the compressed AB 2 account.

2. The difficulty we have been concerned with is Rog's name. There has been no indication that the story of Rog was to be altered. But if we are to interpret his absence from AB 2 as significant, it must be that the story was changed - for if Tolkien had decided the name was bad, all he need have done was to change the name. So in any event, Rog's absence of AB 2 cannot really have bearing on our debate, which is a debate not about the character but about the name.
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