Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!harpo!seismo!hao!hplabs!sri-unix!MDP@SU-SCORE.ARPA From: MDP@SU-SCORE.ARPA@sri-unix.UUCP Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers Subject: Re: SF-LOVERS Digest V8 #17 Message-ID: <3333@sri-arpa.UUCP> Date: Fri, 22-Jul-83 04:02:38 EDT Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.3333 Posted: Fri Jul 22 04:02:38 1983 Date-Received: Sat, 23-Jul-83 18:53:31 EDT Lines: 41 From: Mike PeelerDear /amqueue (Anne Marie Quint), Hold your horses! Myths always borrow from the existing body of mythology. This was the central theme of a course on Tolkien I took, so it must be true, right? Seriously, all folk tales draw from a similar repertoire of characters and plots--you might like to look up one of the books we used, titled The Morphology of the Folk Tale. Think about it. Shakespeare did not exactly come up with the story of Romeo and Juliet all by himself--we appreciate him for his craftsmanship, not for his originality. I would not say that parallels between the works of different authors is a sure sign of evil. When I read Donaldson, I had fears that it would be a cheap rip-off of Tolkien, but I soon felt these fears had been allayed. To get more particular: I do see the parallel between the Ranyhyn and the Ramen, although the former are the beasts and the latter the riders. Were they stolen, er, borrowed? I'd say, yes, probably. If borrowing like this occurred throughout the work, I'd call it damning. So what about the ravers and the balrogs? Well, gee, aren't the balrogs just like a lot of other fairy tale demons? Sauron has the Palantir, and can keep track of the Ring like Foul kept track of Covenant through his boots--and TV cops have electronic tracking devices. It is not as if these ideas were so original that Tolkien can be thought of as having exclusive rights on them in any sense. As for "orcrest", Donaldson's word for Earthstone, being taken directly from "orc", the word for "heart" in Quenya, the language of the High Elves, I have my doubts. I had always understood it as "or-crest", "or" being a romantic-tongue root for gold. I think I still have a book on Elvish lying around in my closet. If you like, I can go look up the title for you. Cheers, Mike -------