A post to record ...

that early this morning I finished reading Mr. Baggins, Part One of John D. Rateliff's The History of The Hobbit, and it was at that moment that I had my flash of insight, a sudden understanding of a problem that seems to have baffled even John Rateliff, as well as a lot of other people. I already have a Mythcon paper to give on another subject, and in any case this is just an idea, not a paper, and I'll have to poke around and see if it's not original, though as far as I know it is. I shall not spill it now, but carefully preserve it in a bowl and lay it gently before my fellow Tolkien scholars when the opportunity arises.