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10-18-2007, 02:38 PM | #1 | ||||
A Voice That Gainsayeth
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: In that far land beyond the Sea
Posts: 7,431
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Where did Radagast dwell?
This topic is supposed to be devoted only to finding out where and eventually when did Radagast dwell during his stay in Middle-Earth. But before I unfold before you more complicated scheme, we need to clear something up. With this question we start, and I am hoping to get it answered, for it is the main question I have concerning this topic.
I am posing you a serious, plain, wholy understandable question and I am expecting a serious and wholy understandable answer. WHERE IS RHOSGOBEL? One would say, quite a basic thing. It's almost as if I asked "where is Minas Tirith" or "where is Orthanc". Everyone knows where Annúminas is, everyone knows where Durthang is, even though they are not almost mentioned in the story, certainly not more than Rhosgobel. But where is Rhosgobel? On the map in LotR, at least on the one I have, it's not marked at all. Of course, why not, I won't expect it there as Rhosgobel does not play any significant role in the story (though the same could be said about many other places that are marked). In the Hobbit, it's not on the map as well; and as in the former case, I won't even expect it there. Maybe under certain circumstances we could take one of the woodmen villages mentioned there as Rhosgobel (cf. below). But in the chapter "Queer Lodgings", we read: Quote:
That's the last time we hear about Radagast for a long time. Next time, Gandalf meets him in FotR and tells to the Council of Elrond something about him: Quote:
Later, when the Fellowship is preparing to depart, Elves and Rangers and sons of Elrond are sent out to check the paths and surroundings. Quote:
The impression from what was quoted before is that Rhosgobel could be in the latitude where the Narrows of the Forest were. Karen Wynn Fonstad in her Atlas of Middle-Earth (generally a very credible source) places Rhosgobel at the global map of the 3rd-Age Middle-Earth somewhat north of Dol Guldur, in the same latitude as Mirkwood's East Bight. But then we have the Unfinished Tales. There, Rhosgobel is mentioned only once, in the notes to "Istari" (#4): Quote:
Now, where is Rhosgobel, then? Is there any other evidence I did not mention, that solves this problem? Some Letters, for example? And what shoud we take as "canon"? Personally I would skip the "late note" and listen to what is said in the books. However, the UT text is the only one where the placement of Rhosgobel is stated more concretely, and since it's a "late note", Tolkien could have had his "last version" prepared - but what of the mentions in the Hobbit and FotR?
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"Should the story say 'he ate bread,' the dramatic producer can only show 'a piece of bread' according to his taste or fancy, but the hearer of the story will think of bread in general and picture it in some form of his own." -On Fairy-Stories |
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