"Leaf by Niggle" is definitely not a children's story!! I just finished rereading Carpenter's biography of Tolkien, and JRRT wrote it to overcome a crucial time in his writing. It is quite autobiographical, to niggle meaning spending much time on (sometimes unimportant) details. Tolkien's own perfectionism and the hindrance it was in finishing his work deeply troubled him. I find the story very touching, quite personal. And Nar, it doesn't end in purgatory, it goes on after that into a paradise happiness.
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'Mercy!' cried Gandalf. 'If the giving of information is to be the cure of your inquisitiveness, I shall spend all the rest of my days in answering you. What more do you want to know?' 'The whole history of Middle-earth.. .'
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07-08-2002, 03:21 AM
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