XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien, alt.fan.tolkien   
   From: hayesstw@telkomsa.net   
      
   On Fri, 29 Jul 2011 23:23:15 -0400, Glenn Holliday  wrote:   
      
   >On 7/28/2011 1:47 PM, Stan Brown wrote:   
   >> On Thu, 28 Jul 2011 12:11:32 -0400, NY Teacher wrote:   
   >>> Also, sending reinforcements out singly is too much like   
   >>> Gandalf's business of introducing them one or two at a time   
   >>> to Beorn.   
   >>   
   >> Just another data point: I never connected the two till you mentioned   
   >> it.   
   >>   
   >> I'm pretty sure there's some classic work of literature or mythology   
   >> that depends on he same procedure Gandalf used to introduce the   
   >> dwarves to Bjorn, but I can't remember it.  Does anyone know?   
   >   
   >I'd have to spend some time looking for an example, but thinking   
   >about it again, it seems like the sort of structure you'd see in   
   >a fairy tale.  As NYT points out, Tolkien actually uses the technique   
   >three times.  I suspect he is intentionally using it as he does   
   >other techniques that make The Hobbit more fairy-tale-ish than   
   >Tolkien's more mythic-styled works.   
      
   When Gandalf used it, it worked.   
      
   When the dwarves tried it on their own, it didn't.   
      
   Gandalf used used it:   
      
   1. to soften up Bilbo   
   2. to soften up Beorn   
      
   to get them to do something they might otherwise have resisted.   
      
   The dwarves were not trying to soften up the trolls.   
      
   It wasn't a matter of smarter dwarves, it was a smarter hobbit.   
      
      
   --   
   Steve Hayes   
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