it may have been one of Tolkien's letters, or in Shippey's book, or maybe here
in the RR...
but the point was made somewhere that Tolkien's Catholic worldview led him to
expect this world to be a vale of tears, and that in a way that insulated him
from the horror of war: He expected it to be awful and it was, so he
wasn't as shocked as someone else might be. Of course that doesn't mean
that the imagery didn't stick with him and make its appearance in his
writing. It would be surprising if the connection weren't there.
But I'm not sure he was working through PTSD by writing about
it.
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"For DORA BAGGINS in memory of a LONG correspondence, with love from Bilbo; on a large wastebasket. Dora was Drogo's sister, and the eldest surviving female relative of Bilbo and Frodo; she was ninety-nine, and had written reams of good advice for more than half a century."
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leleni at hotmail dot com
Chance Meeting at Rivendell(a Tolkien fanfic for general audiences)
The Goblin Child(a non-Tolkien fairy tale for middle-aged women)
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