The animals in ME - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Mithalwen · 08-10-2004, 11:41 AM

I doubt that any cat would care about anyone's opinion of them ...... dogs think they are humans... cats think they are gods.... and they do have Baudelaire and Verlaine to fight their corner... of course cats do have that love of sitting on paper which is annoying for scholars.......

In the UK cats were regarded as both lucky and unlucky according to region .... the long association with witchcraft maybe...

Tolkien makes up for the eaten ponies in the Hobbit in LOTR .... Bill and Merry's ponies all survive ..... even Boromir's horse gets home.... but the talking animal stuff... hmmmm in the cases where it can't be explained by "lesser Maiar" or certqain individuals eg ... Beorn/ Radagast having a particular understanding of otherwise ordinary animals ....well it just seems a weakness to me...... keep thinking of Skippy and Lassie...

But the thing I want to know concerns Asfaloth ..... the "elf horse" .... is there more significance to that than him being a horse owned by an elf? In the appendixes it mentions Glorfindel riding up on his white horse - surely it can't have been the same one..... or is there an implication of some race of immortal elf horses......?

08-10-2004, 11:41 AM	#18
Mithalwen Pilgrim Soul Join Date: May 2004 Location: watching the wonga-wonga birds circle... Posts: 9,463	I doubt that any cat would care about anyone's opinion of them ...... dogs think they are humans... cats think they are gods.... and they do have Baudelaire and Verlaine to fight their corner... of course cats do have that love of sitting on paper which is annoying for scholars....... In the UK cats were regarded as both lucky and unlucky according to region .... the long association with witchcraft maybe... Tolkien makes up for the eaten ponies in the Hobbit in LOTR .... Bill and Merry's ponies all survive ..... even Boromir's horse gets home.... but the talking animal stuff... hmmmm in the cases where it can't be explained by "lesser Maiar" or certqain individuals eg ... Beorn/ Radagast having a particular understanding of otherwise ordinary animals ....well it just seems a weakness to me...... keep thinking of Skippy and Lassie... But the thing I want to know concerns Asfaloth ..... the "elf horse" .... is there more significance to that than him being a horse owned by an elf? In the appendixes it mentions Glorfindel riding up on his white horse - surely it can't have been the same one..... or is there an implication of some race of immortal elf horses......? __________________ “But Finrod walks with Finarfin his father beneath the trees in Eldamar.” Christopher Tolkien, Requiescat in pace