OK, in response to the first post, one of the main reasons the story doesn't focus on the characters is that lotr is meant to be a history, not a drama. One of the things I've noticed reading more contemporary books, especially teen fiction/drama, is that the story is entirely focused on the characters' thoughts and emotions and it's kind of tacky.

For Lord of the rings, you really don't need to know things like why Legolas and Gimli joined the fellowship, or what Tom bombadil is, or the back story for every single character. Sometimes it's intentionally left mysterious, sometimes the actions of a character develop him much more than any back story could do. Bottom line, you don't need to know everything about everybody for a story to work really well.

I think that is the mark of a good writer: being able to balance between richness of story and too much drama/thoughts and feelings.

_________________

^^ I agree with you, Héalic. It's just the line between too much trivia and just enough to give an answer to most of the questions the reader might get and Tolkien balances it very well. This may be why Lotr somehow represents real life in a way, you'll get most of the answers but some things just stay hidden.

_________________
What if?