Fantasy

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by alatar

I have this fantasy that one day I will once understand what Bêthberry is writing about...

That's rather like the once and future king, isn't it? I shall take to calling you Arthur now. Or would that be Arthatar?

Originally Posted by davem

Those are real, true, grumbling soldiers - & they don't 'belong' in Middle-earth. They complicate things - they aren't the simplistically 'nasty' bad guys of the rest of the legendarium. For a moment they break free of their cliched existence & become three dimensional beings with hopes & fears & dreams. Again, its that "bleak underlying human landscape" which peeps through the fairy story, which for all his efforts Tolkien cannot keep out of his creation.

On the other hand, it is interesting to speculate why Tolkien would give such a modern voice to the orcs. What would it mean for readers, even veterans, to identify themselves with the orcs?

Recall Tolkien's thoughts in the Foreword to the Second Edition where he argues that the legendary war in his tale ressembles neither the progress nor the conclusion of the historical war. His hypothetical reading suggests that something like the atom bomb is akin to the Great Ring he envisions Saruman would make. It's a very pessimistic vision of his fellow allies.