Reply to Noad's Comments on the article, "Checking the Facts"

Abstract

In the Summer 2020, #60 issue of Mallorn (40-42), Charles Noad contributed a letter addressing the article “Checking the Facts,” which had appeared in the preceding issue of Mallorn, the Winter 2018 #59 issue. The author first learned of this letter when reading reviews in the 2021 Tolkien Studies in late 2021. Noad raises six objections or concerns in response to “Checking the Facts:” 1) Noad raises the significant question about what is “a real taste for fairy-stories” and when this might have occurred, though this is not an issue that either Flieger and Anderson or I discuss; 2) Noad has difficulties with the “ambiguity” between Garth/Edwards’ reading of Edith as the other party in the poem and my reading of Tolkien’s brother Hilary as the other party; 3) Noad next addresses the question of the dating of Leaf by Niggle; 4) Noad next turns to the question of Douglas Anderson not using an expected paragraph break in a quotation; 5) Noad then asks: if “the cuts to the original selection of letters were due to censorship rather than size;” 6) Noad acknowledges that the present author corrects Flieger’s mistaken statement, and adds “I’m not sure I altogether grasp the point that Dr. is trying to make here.”

The author responds and clarifies possible misunderstandings and confusions that underlie each of Noad’s six concerns.