Questions from 'The Hobbit'

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by Huinesoron

Not so much a question, but:

There is an alternate timeline out there somewhere where Tolkien's "New Hobbit" consisted entirely of Bilbo's journey home, and I kind of wish we'd gotten to read it.

hS

In the olden days, this would have inspired a role playing game.

It does, however, suggest a conundrum. If the compelling nature of thrilling stories is the threat to life--"great danger"--what does that suggest about any stories the elves would tell, given their immortality or longevity? We hear a great deal about loremasters and the information Gandalf seeks in Minas Tirith but that appears to be history rather than fiction/narrative. There's not a great deal of Middle earth intertextual references to narrative, although there is to the hinted at historical past. There is to songs, rhymes, poems but did the elves or hobbits have drama or fiction (ie, made up stories rather than historical report). Perhaps that is why the elves got into making beautiful objects rather than creating a literature?

For Tolkien the great themes were death and immortality. But not others?