Had Tolkien been an American (shudder), it is likely that the trilogy would have assumed some gangster or other bad-guy qualities that would belie its roots in mythology and legend. Fortunately for generations of avid readers and now a motion picture-going audience, the world continues to delight in the writings of Tolkien precisely because he sends his modern readers to the dictionary once in awhile just to see what he is talking about. The precision of Tolkien's use of words and phrases in the books that comprise the trilogy are noteworthy if for no other reason than their ability to communicate exactly what the author intended, but the use of the right word in the right

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