In message
<
news:MPG.2aad5c565...@news.eternal-september.org> Rast
<
ra...@yahoo.com> spoke these staves:
>
> Matthew Woodcraft wrote...
>>
>> chrishoelscher <
chrisho...@insightbb.com> writes:
>>>
>>> just curious - did Tolkien ever explain why Sauron chose
>>> southern Miorkwood as a secondary base of operations?
[...]
>>
>> It could also be a conscious plan to search for the ring.
>
> The Silmarilion says,
>
> "[Saruman] set a watch upon the Gladden Fields; but soon he
> discovered that the servants of Dol Guldur were searching all the
> ways of the River in that region. Then he perceived that Sauron
> also had learned of the manner of Isildur's end..."
I think that this is the most likely story-internal explanation. I do
not doubt, however, that this is post-rationalization on Tolkien's
part, having in /The Hobbit/ placed Sauron in Mirkwood, or Taur-nu-
Fuin, he needed an explanation, and things worked out nicely to
explain both Gollum having the Master Ring and Sauron establishing
himself in Dol Guldur.
In message <
news:r0m948pf4u7okamcp...@4ax.com>
Paul S. Person <pspe...@ix.netscom.com.invalid> spoke these staves:
|
| It's been awhile, but /The History of The Hobbit/ suggests that,
| initially, the map drawn for /TH/ was basically the map we know as
| being that of Beleriand. Perhaps Dol Goldur was originally
| intended to be a location associated with Sauron in Beleriand.
Precisely. In the early drafts for /The Hobbit/, it is quite clear
that the Necromance is Th� who had been driven away by L�thien and
Beren -- /after/ Gandalf had been in his dungeons and received the
map: though there is little doubt that Gandalf (at that point called
Bladorthin) initially was truly a human wizard, he also seems to have
at least more than a mere conjurer of cheap tricks.
The thing is that the forest south of Angband was called Mirkwood in
English, /Taur-nu-Fuin/ in Elvish, and in /The Hobbit/ this was
imported with little concern for the overall geography and history,
only to present a continuity-problem when Tolkien started writing
/The Lord of the Ring/ (but one which he solved expertly by creating
a couple of new ages and an extra six thousand years of history . .
.)
--
Troels Forchhammer
Valid e-mail is <troelsfo(a)
gmail.com>
Please put [AFT], [RABT] or 'Tolkien' in subject.
People are self-centered
to a nauseous degree.
They will keep on about themselves
while I'm explaining me.
- Piet Hein, /The Egocentrics/