[Stares in confusion before backing away slowly and returning to read about the French Revolution]

Also not "heresy" in my mind, just awful: I once had a conversation with someone about John 3:16. They interpreted "world" to mean "only Christians." When I tried saying that "world" was universally inclusive, they acted surprised, like it was a 100% new idea (one which they quickly rejected).

That's exactly what my wip book about King Arthur (with the numbers filed off) presents. Aragorn shares some obvious Arthurian stuff - lost king, heir-maker sword, fey family relations - but I'd never considered, but like, thinking that Strider = Wart: someone trying to fix his superiors' problems.

Vows of silence will do that.

Who comes closer to your mind's eye in depicting Middle Earth: Alan Lee, John Howe, or other?

My 9th grade Lit essay said, "Odysseus was no hero," and I used Don Quixote as my counter-point. It was bad but A-material for a 15yo. Since grad school, I've always wanted to remake it into "The Changing Face of Heroism: Homer to Cervantes," or something like that.

That's how my (Illinois) HS German teacher had us translate "ihr", and I carried that into Latin as well.

No, I took some licenses, but if you want to use that name, go for it!

I've named story characters after the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd declension endings in an effort to try to memorize them. I could never figure out names based on 4 and 5.

I'm sure he harbored doubts because of bad portents.