Lame Protagonists

Lee Berman · 20 Jun 2011, 14:42 · from 2011-June.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Mon, 20 Jun 2011 10:42:12 -0400
Subject: (urth) Lame Protagonists
Message-ID: <SNT123-w3005D9F43AA28E40907CE6CF6E0 at phx.gbl>

>Jeff Wilson: Left hand was fully present:
>http://www.historycentral.com/bio/people/Tolkien.html

>Same for the right:
>http://curiouspresbyterian.wordpress.com/2011/03/03/j-r-r-tolkien-news-novelty-version-of-lord-of-the-rings-translated-from-russian/

Thanks Jeff. I think the left hand is clearly shown to be complete. Unfortunately, 
like every other photo I've found, the right hand shot may leave room for the ring 
finger to be missing the top piece. Deliberate posing and photo cropping? Or coincidence?
Perhaps I'll never know.

FWIW, my curiosity on this subject was first piqued not by the story itself as much as the
Foreword to the second edition of LOTR where Tolkien notes about the writing of the book- 

>"And it had to be typed and re-typed: by me; the cost of professional typing by the 
>ten-fingered was beyond my means"

Perhaps he only meant "ten-fingered" in contrast to his own two-finger hunt and peck 
method. But the nine-fingered condition of both the the primary hero and primary villain
of the story has always made me wonder about this.

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