Dark in the Dell under Weathertop

>> My copy of "The Lord of the Rings" has a forward where Professor Tolkien talks about his influences for the Reaving of the Shire and how they date back to his childhood and the aftermath of World War 1, not World War 2. He makes the point that by the end of World War 1, all but one of his closest friends were dead. <<

I'm not sure if that's where I've seen such things, but it sounds familiar. I was bitterly disappointed by the recent movies because they foreshadowed, and then did not show, that part. It's something people often cut out of storytelling, that I felt was valuable and important for Tolkien to include. He didn't write only the exciting parts of war. He told about the mess too. That matters.

When people cut that out and prettify the remains, it alters and diminishes the message.

>> In the last few years I read a contemporary's writing about the underground war on the Western Front fought by the tunnellers: digging under the enemy lines in darkness except for the officer's electric torch, and desperate hand to hand battles in the dark, except for that torch, with enemy tunnellers if they broke into one of the enemy's tunnels. It made me think of the Mines of Moria and wonder what exactly Professor Tolkien did in World War 1. <<

Yes, I thought about that too. And the dragonfire chasing Bilbo up the narrow tunnel in The Hobbit too. I must admit that I loved the air raid-like drama of the dragon attack in the recent Hobbit movie. That was brilliantly done.

Also consider that time is not linear. It only appears linear from the bottom of a temporal gravity well. Events ripple, and the bigger the impact, the wider the ripples. Any notable point where the lines cross will cause the ripples to heterodyne, so you may notice higher peaks or deeper troughs.

Exactly.

We think forward into the future and back into the past, and sometimes we meet ourselves coming and going.