Why care if the teeth don't lock?

[Ethelwynn]

While I never meant to pull us into a discussion of the Bilbo/Gollum question, the amount of interest we're getting here does seem to make the point I tried to make earlier. For a mythology to work well, there cannot be much difference between it and the natural world as the natural world is understood by those creating the story. Otherwise the story is just unbelieveable, and I cannot care about characters that seem unreal or invincible.

I've heard this called the "Scarecrow Phenomenon" after the Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz. The story would not have been as believeable if the Scarecrow had been afraid of, say, spiders instead of fire. Anything that relies too much on the idea of "magic" or "that's the way it is" doesn't hold me for long, because I always want to know "why?". Guess I never matured beyond about 6 years old.

[Primula Baggins]

I don't think I'd see it that way, Ethelwynn. I am a lifelong Tolkien reader who rarely reads any other fantasy; in fact I write science fiction professionally, and that's where my heart mostly is. Tolkien holds me, where other fantasy does not, because it is so close to the natural world and so clearly depicts it. I, too, want to know "why?" There's nothing 6-year-old about that; it's a perfectly normal worldview.

[Galin]

I too think that's natural enough Ethelwynn; and to my mind this is tied, at least in part, to the art of world-building. Tolkien is a Master at this despite some unintended 'slips' -- and some cases where (it appears) the world class niggler of details just couldn't help himself!

Tolkien didn't really 'need' to change Inglor to Finrod for instance! Which caused a minor ripple in the consistency of Middle-earth...

... though one difficult to notice these days, in any case.

[axordil]

On teeth locking--which I don't think I said, by the by, but let's not get stuck on details while discussing getting stuck on details --I've now written the third installment of a series of urban fantasy novellas/novels (who knows where the line is anyway these days). I've had to go back and fix things in the first one to line up with things in the second and especially the third--including names. Just as well I haven't been able to publish it.

What I'm saying is that the urge to fix is strong. It's also not limited to fantasy. A lot of authors go back and "fix" earlier versions of their works, with decidedly mixed results.

[Old_Tom_Bombadil]

...as presented (to a great extent) posthumously through the herculean efforts of Christopher Tolkien

Ha! So someone else compares CT's efforts to compile and publish his father's work to the labors of Hercules! I've been using that term for years. Besides, I just like the sound of it: herculean .

...his basic thesis is that Christopher's work in compiling The Silmarillion is functionally equivalent to the work done by by Elias Lönnrot in compiling the the Kalevala and that Jerome did in
compiling the Latin Vulgate Bible.

That's a very interesting notion.