Just saw a _National Geographic_ program about _The Lord of the Rings_, confirming something I once saw alluded to somewhere about the author. It seems he did know Finnish; _NG_ stated that J.R.R. Tolkein taught himself the language in order to study the _Kalevala_, Finland's national epic. Not knowing this years ago, I did have occasion to notice certain similarities between Turin's & Kullervo's stories; so, as I suspected, they weren't coincidental.

This revelation would have been exciting news to my girlfriend, whom I introduced to his works in the mid-80s, reading the whole trilogy to her two or three times at her request. The daughter of Finnish immigrants, she would have greatly appreciated this knowledge--& so, perhaps, would I. I didn't come to Tolkein's works myself till about age 20, a few years after the Master's passing. Then I could see a few curious resemblances between his work and my own--suggesting, in my view, a certain amount of truth to the concept of the collective unconscious. Anyhow, my late friend conceivably already knew of J.R.R.'s learning Finnish, having gone transluminal herself three years ago.

Funny this should happen on Finland's Independence Day, when I lit a candle in a window as she taught me to.