Mark,
In reply to:
[color:"blue"]I was led to believe that Tolkien was as high as a kite on drugs when writing Lord of the rings. I have never heard anyone say otherwise

After reading that display of unimpeachable logic, I must know: have you ever considered a career in law? Any attorney's office would love to get you working for them if you could deliver that line before a jury with a straight face ! [img]http://www.the-highway.com/w3timages/icons/evilgrin.gif" alt="evilgrin" title="evilgrin[/img]

It must have been both an expensive and well-concealed habit--well, to everyone except whoever led you to believe it!--since Mr. T was, in one form or another, writing the books over the course of many years, during which he held a prominent public position.

It is undeniable that a fair part of the Rings' audience in the 60's and 70's allegorized, for self-justification, the hobbits' Longbottom Leaf pipeweed as cannabis. But the integrated density of his histories, his exaltation of righteousness, and the sheer beauty of his language are most assuredly not the product of an acid-head.


In Christ,
Paul S