Shall we mourn here deedless forever a shadow-folk mist-haunting dropping vain tears in the thankless sea

My 'Sam Gamgee' is indeed a reflexion of the English soldier, of the privates and batmen I knew in the 1914 war, and recognised as so far superior to myself.

We are plain quiet folk, and I have no use for adventures. Nasty, disturbing, and uncomfortable things.

It simply isn't an adventure worth telling if there aren't any dragons.

Hinder me? Thou fool. No living man may hinder me!" “But no living man am I!

I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence. I much prefer history – true or feigned– with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers. I think that many confuse applicability with allegory, but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author.

It needs but one foe to breed a war, and those who have not swords can still die upon them.