XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien, alt.fan.tolkien   
   From: fwbrown@bellsouth.net   
      
   In alt.fan.tolkien Troels Forchhammer  wrote:   
   > In message    
   > Wayne Brown  spoke these staves:   
   >>   
   >> In rec.arts.books.tolkien Troels Forchhammer   
   >>  wrote:   
   >>> December 2013   
   >>>   
   >>> William Turvil, _Daily Mail_, Tuesday, 3 December 2013, "His   
   >>> precious: The revolver JRR Tolkien carried with him in the   
   >>> trenches of WWI is going on display for the first time"   
   > [...]   
   >>> Right ... so ... apart from the inappropriateness of the use of   
   >>> "precious" in this context,   
   > [...]   
   >>   
   >> I don't see anything inappropriate about this story or the use of   
   >> the word "precious."   
   >   
   > You don't think that the comparison of Tolkien's relationship to his   
   > wartime revolver to Gollum's relationship to the One Ring, and of   
   > course of the revolver itself to the Ring is inappropriate? Using the   
   > word 'precious' in any Tolkienian context -- particularly when used as   
   > the noun object of a possessive term (i.e. "_his_ precious" or "_my_   
   > precious" or similar) -- necessarily refers to the Master Ring and to   
   > Gollum's possession of and by that Ring, and I find that reference   
   > highly inappropriate.   
      
   I doubt the writer was trying to say that Tolkien had the same kind   
   of obsessive lust for his revolver that Gollum had for the Ring.   
   Soldiers often have a sentimental attachment to their weapons and keep   
   them as souvenirs if they can.  I think the writer was merely alluding   
   to this practice and making a play on words to tie it in with the books.   
   Since I don't see anything evil about firearms or anything wrong with   
   assuming this one might have been "precious" (in the ordinary meaning   
   of the word) to Tolkien, it doesn't look inappropriate to me.   
      
   --   
   F. Wayne Brown    
      
   Þæs ofereode, ðisses swa mæg.  ("That passed away, this also can.")   
      from "Deor," in the Exeter Book (folios 100r-100v)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)