XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: Troels@ThisIsFake.invalid   
      
   On 2012-08-07 08:19, Lewis wrote:   
    >   
   > In message    
   > Sandman  wrote:   
   >>   
      
      
      
   The 'great debates'   
      
   > It was a discussion online in the 80's.   
   [...]   
   > Some of this was on b-forum, but I think most of it was on a USENET   
   > group as well.   
      
   In the eighties there was e-mail, ftp and usenet -- and that was   
   essentially what you could do with the internet, which was also pretty   
   much limited to universities and military institutions.   
      
   RABT was created at some point in the early nineties (according to the   
   charter, the announcement that the group 'passed its vote for creation'   
   was reported on 26 March 1993).  AFT is a bit older than that, and the   
   earliest archived conversations (from November 1992) show evidence of a   
   group that had existed for some time (say, a couple of years, perhaps   
   more), but which wasn't terribly active.  Of course Tolkien's work may   
   have been discussed in other groups prior to the creation of AFT --   
   actually it is reasonable to presume that such was the case as there   
   would have had to be a reasonable justification of the creation of the   
   group.   
      
   However, the main fora at that point were the fanzines, of which there   
   were a much larger number before 1990, and the physical meetings e.g. in   
   the Tolkien Society (which is where I know that the Balrog wings were   
   being discussed in the early eighties).   
      
   There have been some quite interesting articles on the history of   
   Tolkien fandom in general and the Tolkien Society in particular in some   
   of the various journals in recent years.   
      
   >> Myself, I subscribe to the conclusion that Balrogs had wings and could   
   >> fly after 1940. Mostly because I think a winged Balrog is cooler, and   
   >> it requires less "interpretation" of the source material :)   
      
   Well, you (Sandman) are Swedish, and I suppose we have to forgive those   
   who have grown up with the Ohlmarks 'translation' for all kinds of   
   misunderstandings of the text ;-)   
      
   --   
   Troels Forchhammer   
   Valid e-mail is    
   Please put [AFT], [RABT] or 'Tolkien' in subject.   
      
        If no thought   
        your mind does visit,   
        make your speech   
        not too explicit.   
     - Piet Hein, /The Case for Obscurity/   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)