Not the sightest Inkling...
Mar. 25th, 2019 09:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
daibhidcI've been flicking through Ahistory 3rd edition, which I got for my birthday (yes, I know the three volume[!!] 4th edition exists) and I was wondering if anyone knew where Lance Parkin and Lars Pearson got the curious idea (which wasn't in the 2nd edition) that the guy who gave Benny a signed first edition of The Hobbit at her wedding was obviously J.R.R. himself? Unlike many theories in the book, they don't explain it; they seem to assume it's self evident. But I don't think so.
My case:
1) He wears a "silver Troifran cloak" over his suit. Silver cloaks don't really seem like Tolkien's style, even setting aside where he would get a Troifran one. (Troifran being the alien race that created Tír na n-Óg in Cat's Cradle: Witch Mark.)
2) He's accompanied by a glowing figure who uneats a slice of cake, almost certainly intended to be the backwards-living Herne, also from Witch Mark.
3) His accent is "a curious mix of galactic colonial and Welsh". I've heard recordings of Tolkien, and he didn't sound Welsh. Although I admit I can't actually rule out that he sounded galactic colonial... Incidentally, the gateway to Tír na n-Óg in Witch Mark is in Wales.
4) He says the book "changed my life". Now. While there's no question that writing The Hobbit certainly changed Tolkien's life, that's an odd thing for an author to say, right? That's something someone who was profoundly affected by reading a book says, surely.
So it seems to me that the evidence supports him being someone from Witch Mark. And there's a character in Witch Mark called Old Davy, who is Welsh, Herne's "brother", and the known owner of signed first-editions of the Tolkien Legendarium, which did indeed change his life. (Admittedly, I'm not sure why Old Davy would sound galactic colonial.) A quick Google suggests this theory is shared by TARDIS Wiki, the Discontinuity Guide, the Doctor Who Reference Guide, and the Cloister Library, which in my view is a pretty conclusive rundown of NA reference sources. So why did the LPs decided otherwise? And, if someone's shelled out for the new edition, is it still there?
My case:
1) He wears a "silver Troifran cloak" over his suit. Silver cloaks don't really seem like Tolkien's style, even setting aside where he would get a Troifran one. (Troifran being the alien race that created Tír na n-Óg in Cat's Cradle: Witch Mark.)
2) He's accompanied by a glowing figure who uneats a slice of cake, almost certainly intended to be the backwards-living Herne, also from Witch Mark.
3) His accent is "a curious mix of galactic colonial and Welsh". I've heard recordings of Tolkien, and he didn't sound Welsh. Although I admit I can't actually rule out that he sounded galactic colonial... Incidentally, the gateway to Tír na n-Óg in Witch Mark is in Wales.
4) He says the book "changed my life". Now. While there's no question that writing The Hobbit certainly changed Tolkien's life, that's an odd thing for an author to say, right? That's something someone who was profoundly affected by reading a book says, surely.
So it seems to me that the evidence supports him being someone from Witch Mark. And there's a character in Witch Mark called Old Davy, who is Welsh, Herne's "brother", and the known owner of signed first-editions of the Tolkien Legendarium, which did indeed change his life. (Admittedly, I'm not sure why Old Davy would sound galactic colonial.) A quick Google suggests this theory is shared by TARDIS Wiki, the Discontinuity Guide, the Doctor Who Reference Guide, and the Cloister Library, which in my view is a pretty conclusive rundown of NA reference sources. So why did the LPs decided otherwise? And, if someone's shelled out for the new edition, is it still there?
