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Old 01-20-2003, 05:05 AM   #21
doug*platypus
Delver in the Deep
 
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Join Date: Dec 2002
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1420!

Quote:
The poem was originally written in 1931-2 and published in 1934 under the title "Looney". As such, initially, it could not have referred to Frodo.
Yeee-es! Haha! Whee-hee!! *does funny little platypus dance* I knew it!

Thanks for your posts, those of you who know more about the history of this poem. Quite depressing, really! I was glad to see a thread about the poem, and this made me go back and read it again with more care. It truly is a wonderful piece of work, the equal of Leaf by Niggle or Smith of Wootton Major, and more poignant and touching because of its form.

The main question for me is, what was JRRT getting at when he altered it and attributed it to Frodo? Maybe Frodo's Dreme is a dream of people who will come later, who will have the experience of the Smith or the protagonist. Frodo may be dreaming this on someone else's behalf, and imagining himself in the shoes of a person who comes along in modern (at the time of writing) England.

Some of you may have read The Clan of the Cave Bear, and noted that there is a similar prophetic, shamanic vision in that book in which the participants see far into the future, into our own time. After all, the world we share with these tales is the same except for time. This vision, and perhaps Frodo's Dreme, reach across the barrier between the worlds, helping to connect them.

This thread also discusses the link between the worlds.
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