XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: psperson@old.netcom.invalid   
      
   On Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:14:35 -0000 (UTC), Louis Epstein    
   wrote:   
      
   >In rec.arts.books.tolkien Paul S Person  wrote:   
   >> On Mon, 12 Jan 2026 02:43:00 -0000 (UTC), Louis Epstein    
   >> wrote:   
      
      
      
   >>>How large a sample size of similarly affected individuals are you   
   >>>relying on to posit this conclusion?   
   >>    
   >> It's called PTSD, once the actual shock disappears.   
   >>    
   >> JRRT was an officer in the trenches in WWI. He would have been   
   >> well-aware of this phenomenon.   
   >   
   >Gollum did not bit the finger off anyone in WW I.   
      
   This comment really reduces your credibility, you know.   
      
   But shock and PTSD (then called "shell-shock", IIRC) nonetheless   
   occurred in the trenches.    
       
   >> I take it you have no actual arguments left.   
   >>    
   >> I'm almost ready to explore the book and see if this really is   
   >> before/after Frodo took a nap at Mt Doom after the Ring went in and   
   >> the Tower fell. Or if one is at Mt Doom, and the other at the Field of   
   >> Cormallon. I just have to be willing to take the time.   
   >   
   >In the 50th Anniversary one-volume editions,   
   >the two statements are at page 947 (at the end of the Mount Doom   
   >chapter) and at page 950 (in the "Field of Cormallen" chapter,   
   >as the Eagles come to pluck Frodo and Sam off Mount Doom).   
      
   Oh, I see.   
      
   The first one is the end of "Mount Doom".   
      
   The second one is identical to the first one but separated from it by   
   the start of "The Field of Cormallon". This tells the reader that the   
   story of Frodo and Sam is being resumed at the exact same point it   
   broke off when "Mount Doom" ended.   
      
   Well, the intelligent reader, anyway.   
      
   If this was one of the options you presented originally, then this is   
   a vote for that option. If it was not, then it is presented as an   
   alternative.   
      
   The next best explanation, if it is insisted that Frodo said it twice,   
   is still shock/PTSD from his recent traumatic experience. In that   
   case, of course, we have no idea how much time may have passed between   
   the two statements.   
   --    
   "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,   
   Who evil spoke of everyone but God,   
   Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)