I realise this isn’t much of a blog entry, but just to note that a couple of days ago I started to muse over whether, in creating the Mines of Moria, with its labyrinth of tunnels and caverns, JRR Tolkien could have been having a sly dig (pun intended) at the London Underground. The tube was in its infancy when Tolkien was writing The Hobbit; and he was famously opposed to such modern, highly industrial projects. Moria could have been his way of expressing his opposition to something he would have found outlandish. If that suspicion is right though, then I just hope that the guys behind Crossrail didn’t go too deep and disturb any balrogs.