XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: hayesmstw@hotmail.com   
      
   On 27 Oct 2003 16:13:30 -0800, jesswin@yahoo.com (Jess Winfield) wrote:   
      
   >I have been reading HoME approximately backwards, and have just   
   >completed Lays of Beleriand.  Greatly enjoyable if uneven reading.   
   >I've never been a fan of the lugubrious Turin tale, and the   
   >alliterative verse treatment certainly didn't sway me.  But the Lay of   
   >Leithian, though often awkward, is in many places extraordinary, and   
   >the Lay recommenced an unfulfilled promise of brilliance.   
   >   
   >But on the topic of my my own post: while I was entertained by the   
   >C.S. Lewis commentary on the Lay, with its fictional academic pissing   
   >wars,  I was most struck by Lewis'  suggestions for improved or   
   >alternative lines of verse.  IMHO, they are almost uniformly dreadful,   
   >reaching their nadir when he refers to the Silmarils as the "shiners   
   >three."  I laughed out loud at the expression, and was greatly   
   >vindicated to read in CT's notes that JRRT had himself marked the line   
   >with an exclamation point and rejected it -- as he did nearly all of   
   >Lewis's versification.   
   >   
   >It leaves me wondering... is anyone else here glad that CSL, who often   
   >matched genres with JRRT, never attempted an epic poem in rhyming   
   >couplets?   
      
   Well, not glad exactly, but if he had I would almost certainly not have tried   
   to read it.   
      
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   Steve Hayes   
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