JRR Tolkien advised by WH Auden to drop romance

Guardian UK ^ | 02.11.14

[Perdogg]

WH Auden attempted to persuade JRR Tolkien to drop the romance between Aragorn and Arwen from the storyline of The Lord of the Rings, describing it as "unnecessary and perfunctory", an unpublished letter by the author has revealed.

The 1955 letter sees Tolkien writing to his publisher about the difficulties of completing The Return of the King, the third and final part of his magnum opus, in which Aragorn and his men face a final battle with Sauron's troops, as the hobbits Frodo and Sam continue on their journey to destroy the One Ring. At the end, Aragorn is crowned king of Gondor, and marries Arwen, the daughter of Elrond, "Evenstar of her people".

[Perdogg]

Ai! Aníron Undómiel

[Perdogg]

ping

[fkabuckeyesrule]

I got the Lord Of The Rings trilogy for Christmas (as well as Hunger Games trilogy).

[Perdogg]

I have just finished the Hobbit, on to the first of the LOTR.

[Redcitizen]

It would have been easier if the Fellowship of the Ring had flown over Mt. Doom with Eagles and airdropped the Ring into the volcano. That would save a lot of blood, sweat and tears.

[Tax-chick]

Chuck Norris would have done it up right, skipped all that poetry!

[SunkenCiv]

Gosh, and why did Gore Vidal try to gay up "Spartacus" and "Ben Hur"? Thanks Perdogg.

[Louis Foxwell]

Auden, the very essence of “unnecessary and perfunctory.” TR was wise enough to understand the human heart, and especially the essence of romantic love.

[Olog-hai]

That’s what they all say. But that would have put the Ring right in Sauron’s eyesight (the point was to keep it out of his sight); and the Sammath Naur, where the Ring was actually forged, was located within a side vent rather than the summit crater. Sauron did have air-to-air interceptors (the Nazgûl on their winged beasts) that would have kept the Eagles busy long enough to effect a recovery operation for the Ring, too.

Also, the book didn't specify whether there were any summit eruptions on Mount Doom; there could have instead been a lava dome up there instead of a liquid lava lake, and that wouldn't have been any use to destroy the Ring.

[JSDude1]

Oh yeah, well I have completed the LOTR, Hobbit, Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, and 11/12 History of Middle Earth volumes as well as few other obscure JRRT Middle Earth literature.

BEAT THAT (Of course I only mean this in a friendly, and not antagonistic way, my friends ;))!

[digger48]

There's only one romance in LOTR that is acceptable in Obamaville.

[digger48]

I got LOTR too!

But it wasn’t the extended versions. dammit.

[DManA]

He should have dropped it since they were two separate species. Which is creepy.

[Perdogg]

What about the Children of Hurin?

[discostu]

He called that a romance? I mean they got together in the end but I’m not sure it qualifies as a romance, they don’t even talk hardly.

[ProudFossil]

As someone who has read the complete Lord of the Rings several times (please note it is not a trilogy but a LARGE narrative simply broken into three parts) I must disagree with the conclusion the story would be better by removing the romance. This romantic layer within the Elves actually gives them some humanistic characteristics. That are not without “good” emotions and this proves it. They are not simply logical beings, ala, Spock. Rather they also have the more elevated feelings which makes them even more admirable.

[Rebelbase]

If Auden couldn’t have an Elven chick then no one should.

[Perdogg]

What do mean? Elven women are hot.

[Olog-hai]

Auden seems to have missed the other man/elf-maiden romance in LOTR, that being the union between Beren and Lúthien.

[JSDude1]

Yes that as well.

I do hope that sometime in the future Christopher Tolkien or the estate release separate books like that one on The Fall of Gondolin, and The Tale of Beren and Luthien.

Those would be great (and possibly set up for Peter Jackson to make more ME movies!?).