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The thought of "Middle Earth X-Files" just popped into my head
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Wow! I'm in heaven! [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]
In LOTR, I think Tolkien made use of the unexplained (or unexplainable, if we're speaking of Tom Bombadil) to remind us that despite the general 'epic tone' and historical complexity, we are after all reading a fairy tale, and its basic role is to enchant and bewilder and, occasionaly, give you chills. (it's always the unexplained that you find most frightening). What we cannot grasp with our rational mind and yet fascinates us appeals to our unconscious which feeds on myths and fantasy.
In an older post,( I forget which, but it would be great if someone dug it up) there was discussed the difference between what the author called the '2 parts' of the book: the first being the hobbit's journey to Bree (the second being the rest). The difference was that the first reads more like a fairy tale and the second more like an epic. And it seems to me that the first part seems much more rich in these 'anomalies' than the 'second', things that neither the hobbit heroes nor us as readers can at the time explain: we have Tom Bombadil, Goldberry, the unknown threats of the Old Forest, the Old Man Willow - whose story keeps being postponed by Tom, the Barrow Downs where the wights cast a spell on the hobbits which is too strange for me to comprehend even now, after I know their full story.
Another unexplained thing would be the reason why the Dead Marshes is riddled with corpses of the long-gone dead. This chilly tale told but in part serves rather to augment than to alleviate any fears.
[ August 17, 2003: Message edited by: Evisse the Blue ]