Authorial Detachment or "The Vanishing Harper" - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Mithalwen · 10-05-2005, 12:35 PM

Edith Tolkien was an extremely gifted pianist. Her marriage to Tolkien not only put paid to a professional career but stymied an amateur outlet for her talents since he insisted on her conversion to Catholicism. Edith had played the music for services in her own Anglican church. From the biography it seems that Edith led quite an isolated life since she didn't really fit in with the academic wives and Oxford was a very male environment. I am not saying Tolkien didn't love her but to a modern woman - this one anyway - it seems an unnecessarily limited life....

10-05-2005, 12:35 PM	#5
Mithalwen Pilgrim Soul Join Date: May 2004 Location: watching the wonga-wonga birds circle... Posts: 9,461	Edith Tolkien was an extremely gifted pianist. Her marriage to Tolkien not only put paid to a professional career but stymied an amateur outlet for her talents since he insisted on her conversion to Catholicism. Edith had played the music for services in her own Anglican church. From the biography it seems that Edith led quite an isolated life since she didn't really fit in with the academic wives and Oxford was a very male environment. I am not saying Tolkien didn't love her but to a modern woman - this one anyway - it seems an unnecessarily limited life.... __________________ “But Finrod walks with Finarfin his father beneath the trees in Eldamar.” Christopher Tolkien, Requiescat in pace