In the first draft of the lord of the rings, the Balrog ate the hobbits and destroyed middle Earth. Tolkien considered this ending unsatisfactory, if realistic, and wisely decided to revise it.
I think Houshalter thinks it means “given the premises, is this a way things are likely to turn out?”. It might be true that “balrog eats hobbits, destroys Middle-earth” is a realistic outcome given everything up to the release of the balrog as premise.
So you are using the word in the sense that a balrog “realistically” can be killed only by a very specific magic sword, or, say, Ilúvatar “realistically” decides that all this is too much and puts his foot down (with an audible splat!)? X-)
I think the appropriate word in the context is “plausible”.
Making a small step towards seriousness, yes, Ilúvatar suddenly taking interest in Middle Earth isn’t terribly plausible, but super-specificity has its place in Tolkien’s world: the only way Sauron can be defeated is by dropping some magical jewelry into a very specific place.
In the first draft of the lord of the rings, the Balrog ate the hobbits and destroyed middle Earth. Tolkien considered this ending unsatisfactory, if realistic, and wisely decided to revise it.
“You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means”
I think Houshalter thinks it means “given the premises, is this a way things are likely to turn out?”. It might be true that “balrog eats hobbits, destroys Middle-earth” is a realistic outcome given everything up to the release of the balrog as premise.
So you are using the word in the sense that a balrog “realistically” can be killed only by a very specific magic sword, or, say, Ilúvatar “realistically” decides that all this is too much and puts his foot down (with an audible splat!)? X-)
I’m not using the word at all in this thread, so far as I can recall. FWIW neither of those seems super-realistic to me given Tolkien’s premises.
Well, yes, by “you” I meant “all you people” :-D
I think the appropriate word in the context is “plausible”.
Making a small step towards seriousness, yes, Ilúvatar suddenly taking interest in Middle Earth isn’t terribly plausible, but super-specificity has its place in Tolkien’s world: the only way Sauron can be defeated is by dropping some magical jewelry into a very specific place.