It feels different near the Shire....

[Nar]

Greeting, Bethberry! *belated and rather unpracticed curtsy* You are most kind. Although I think I've never crossed posts with you before (barring our simultaneous posts above), I have often nodded in agreement while reading your posts.

I was not meaning to call modern psychology evil, but rather trying to distinguish between an internal evil of personal tempations (which I called psychological evil) and an external evil centered in a larger-than life mythological figure (which I called epic evil). I think there's something about this in the Letters.

... the Third Age began, a Twilight Age, a Medium Aevum, the first of the broken and changed world; the last of the lingering dominion of visible fully incarnate Elves, and the last also in which Evil assumes a single dominant incarnate shape.

... the Shadow will arise again ... but never again ... will an evil daemon be incarnate as a physical enemy; he will direct Men and all the complications of half-evils, and defective goods, and the twilights of doubt as to sides ... those will be and are our more difficult fate.

But if you imagine people in such a mythical state, in which Evil is largely incarnate, and in which physical resistance to it is a major act of loyalty to God ...

(Letters 131 & 156)

Child, your threads are always a joy to read and respond to. [img]smilies/cool.gif[/img] *Happily resumes drowning*

LMP-- Yes! What is it about the fields of Rohan? It's so epic and grand and tapped from Tolkien's deep knowledge of the old traditions, but when reading it, I'm so much there!