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Old 08-16-2003, 08:59 AM   #1
Lord of Angmar
Tyrannus Incorporalis
 
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Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: the North
Posts: 833
Lord of Angmar has just left Hobbiton.
Sting Anomalies

Throughout the history of Mankind, there have been things we could not explain. From UFOs and crop circles, to paranormal psychic powers to freak physical abilities, there are thousands of unexplained events that take place in the world, that humans are constantly striving to understand.

The concept of anomaly seems to be something that JRR Tolkien understood well when he created Middle Earth; entities, beings and events that could not be explained simply by the science, history or religion of the world. This creates the feeling that the world really exists, because there are parameters set within the world and parameters broken throughout the stories. In other words, the rules which Tolkien set for his world in the creationist part of the Silmarillion have been bent and broken throughout his stories (much as rules that we apply to the real world have often been tested by things that were beyond our power to explain).

Examples of anomalous and unexplained entities within Tolkien's world are Tom Bombadil and Goldberry, the Mouth of Sauron and Beorn. None of these figures' existence can be fully explained within the context of the laws of Middle Earth. The Mouth of Sauron is (assumedly) far too old to be a man, yet he is still fully Mannish, in flesh and blood. Beorn the shapeshifter is unaccounted for in the Silmarillion and cannot be fully and comprehensively classified as a member of the original Children of Iluvatar. Tom Bombadil is plainly meant to be an enigma, and his true nature has spawned fierce debate among Tolkienites across the world.

Forgive me if this is a duplicate thread, I did search on the search tool. I do not mean this to be another argument about what Bombadil truly is or a game of estimating the Mouth of Sauron's true age. It is simply meant as a discussion Professor Tolkien's world in the context of the bizarre and the unexplained. Please give me your thoughts on why Tolkien included such anomalies in his world, and feel free to add anything else from any of the Professor's works that you feel has never been adequately explained.

I will be visiting Britain for a week so I will probably be unable to partake in any of the discussion for a while. I shall look forward to seeing all that has been said when I return, and adding onto it.

Cheers!
-Angmar
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