XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: the_stan_brown@fastmail.fm   
      
   On Thu, 10 Jan 2013 21:54:26 +0100, Troels Forchhammer wrote:   
   > In /The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion/, Wayne Hammond and   
   > Christina Scull write:   
   >   *584 (II: 189). It is not a thing, I guess, that Saruman   
   >     would have chosen to cast away.* -- The words 'I guess'   
   >     were added in the second printing (1967) of the Allen &   
   >     Unwin second edition, the first of several emendations   
   >     dealing with the /palantír/ and what Gandalf knew about   
   >     it. Writings by Tolkien on the history and use of the   
   >     /palantíri/, produced while working on these revisions,   
   >     are published as /The Palantiri/ in /Unfinished Tales/.   
   >   
      
   Hmm -- not sure what point you're making with that quote.   
      
   But in Letter 214 he says that when Gandalf says "I guess" he is not   
   in fact guessing:   
      
   "With regard to (1) Gandalf certainly says at first ?I guess? p. 62;   
   but that is in accordance with his character and wisdom. In more   
   modern language he would have said ?I deduce?, referring to matters   
   that had not come under his direct observation, but on which he had   
   formed a conclusion based on study."   
      
   This is in reference to Gandalf's statement that Gollum was of   
   hobbit-kind, but I think that "in accordance with his character"   
   entitles us to interpret other Gandalf "I guess"es in the same way.   
      
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