Dúnadan

“J.R.R.Tolkien has confessed that about a third of the way through The Fellowship of the Ring, some ruffian named Strider confronted the hobbits in an inn, and Tolkien was in despair. He didn’t know who Strider was, where the book was going, or what to write next. Strider turns out to be no lesser person than Aragorn, the unrecognized and uncrowned king of all the forces of good, whose restoration to rule is, along with the destruction of the evil ring, the engine that moves the plot of the whole massive trilogy, The Lord of the Rings.”

Ansen Dibell, Plot

strider

3 Responses to “Dúnadan”

  1. I can see that. If the characters aren’t running the show by that point in a huge book like LotR, it will either not be finished or not be worth a damn.

    This decision point has an amazing archetypal character about it. The Exiled King MUST prove himself in incognito for the Quest to be fullfilled. The tale must not suffer a premature Apocalypse!

    • There’s truth in that. The story knew what the author did not and corrected appropriately.

      • Fair to say that stories have to tap into a powerful current to have that work.

        I was always amazed, based on the front matter of LotR, how totally Tolkien used that approach. He had to leave them all beside the tomb of Balin in Moria during most of WWII, and then picked them all up and said, “Well then! Let’s get down to the border of Mordor, shall we?”

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