THE LETTERS OF J.R.R. Tolkien (Houghton Mifflin 2000) edited by son Christopher
#94 (pages 106-107)
(His ongoing drafts of LOTR - Lord of the Rings) . . .
just shows the difference between life and literature:
for anyone who found himself actually on the stairs of Kirith Ungol
would wish to exchange it for almost any other place in the world,
save Mordor itself. BUT if lit (i.e.literature) teaches us anything at all,
it is this: that we have in us an eternal element,
free from care and fear,
which can survey the things that in 'life' we call evil with serenity
(that is not without appreciating their quality,
but without any disturbance of our spiritual equilibrium).
Not in the same way, but in some such way, we shall all doubtless
survey our own story when we know it
(and a great deal more of the Whole Story).
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