Did JRRT encourage new ME stories?

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Bêthberry

So I suppose then we take that last word to include writing and those last three words to include musical productions?

Given Tolkien's feelings about Drama, he would most certainly not count it as 'writing'! He saw Drama as something strictly for performance, not for reading, so No! Drama would not include other forms of writing to Tolkien!


Anyway this discussion brings to mind The New Shadow, where Tolkien himself attempted to write another Middle-earth story but failed miserably. The biggest stories of course had already been 'done' - any other Middle-earth story could only be a 'smaller' kind of tale unfortunately, and not half as good. Tolkien knew that the most he could hope for was to produce a kind of 'thriller' but any other story would entirely lack the sense of myth found in those he had already written.

So, Tolkien failed to add more Middle-earth mythology. What makes us think we would be any better at coming up with something new and as exciting as LotR?