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If Tom is Middle Earth, why does he have such narrow borders?
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Perhaps it is because, at least in my mind, Tom is not equated in
scope but merely in
nature to Arda. Just as a patch of earth can be known as earth, it both is and is not Earth, if you take my meaning. Perhaps he is so close to the stuff of Arda itself that he can be said to be indistinguishable in some characteristics. He is a "moss-gatherer," and thus is covered in the essence of Arda or is sinking into it, becoming "tree-ish" as the Ents might say, and thus he does not wander but has put down roots.
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Would this Frodo no longer be a "visible soul" type character? If all it means to say that a character is a visible soul is that in a few instances some external sign of that character's soul becomes apparent - that is, if by removing a few lines from the book, we change a visible soul into an ordinary character - then it seems to me that the concept is a rather superficial one. Is there not some deeper way in which the characterization in LotR fits a visible soul model, of which the light around Frodo is only a symptom?
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Indeed,
Aiwendil, this is only an illustration, and I do not mean it to contain
all of the variances of characterization. The light of Frodo is merely one aspect of this.
lmp is on a good road to cataloging other aspects whereby this externalization is shown, but that also raises another question. Is this externalization merely
symbolism made concrete? Is this not in the nature of myth itself? Perhaps this whole "visible soul" business is simply an aspect and "symptom" of a myth-based story, and that would explain the fact that Middle Earth is indeed a living character and shows these outward characteristics as much as any other moving character in the story. I think there was a thread long ago about weather in Middle Earth and how it reacted to the goings-on in Middle Earth in this external way, as if its very nature was symbolic of the political upheavals of the more humanoid residents of Middle Earth.
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How many hroa-less Elves could dance on the head of a pin?
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Trust
davem to actually make what seems like an absurd point of theology sound so
relevant!
Cheers!
Lyta