The Heretic Loremaster » inspiration

Authorial Intent, Fan Writing, and “Asterisk Reality”

It is an oft-cited fact that JRRT created his stories from the languages of Middle-earth and not the other way around. We fannish folk like this detail, but I suspect that many of us who repeat it with gusto don’t think very much about what it actually means. In fact, I’d never thought much about [...]

“Oop! A Metaphor!” … or Accidental Allegories That Aren’t

This is the second part of a continuing series on Tolkien and allegory. Part 1 can be found here.

A lot of times, when people talk about allegory and Tolkien, I suspect they are talking about something different from how I see allegory and probably how Tolkien saw it too. To be fair, even the experts [...]