Parts We Skip and Why

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by Ardent

Thanks Bethberry.
I don't know if JRR put it this way but I do draw a distinction between the 'childish' and the 'childlike'.
Childlikeness suggests the joy of those who can be like children by choice.
Childishness suggests the ruling passion of those who know nothing else.

Tolkien certainly drew on both ideas as there is a mean childishness to the goblins in The Hobbit: Grib, grab! Pinch, nab! ...

I wouldn't consider the goblins good company even though they're fun to read about.

You are of course right and I suspect Tolkien was too wise not to see both sides of childhood. Your identification of the goblins as childish is very intriguing. (It's a trait we might also see in Lobelia, before she redeems herself in the Scouring of the Shire, perhaps.)

And if the goblins are the precursors to the orcs, then we have a perspective on orcish nature as well.

And welcome to the Downs, by the by.

Mith, I've split my sides laughing at Fascinating Aida. Thanks for the links (elsewhere). I do tend to think that anything in the twentieth century is recent, in comparison to some of the first nonsense stuff in Old English!