The Nightmare World of Tolkien

[Bêthberry]

A nicely developed post, Child. All this 'unsaid' thing reminds me of aesthetic theories of the strip tease--it's the gap and the implication that excites the imagination, not the actual display.

Yet I think Anquirel's favourite suggests something else too about Tolkien's brand of horror.

Originally Posted by Anquirel

My personal favourite-

Quote:
"A creature of an older world maybe it was, whose kind, fingering in forgotten mountains cold beneath the Moon, outstayed their day, and in hideous eyrie bred this last untimely brood, apt to evil. And the Dark Lord took it, and nursed it with fell meats, until it grew beyond the measure of all other things that fly; and he gave it to his servant to be his steed."

Read this passage aloud. It's beat, rhythm, alliteration--why, it is the sound of things that also creates a brooding sense of horror. Poetry tingles the spine so much more!