A Catholic reading about this “magical” or miraculous power of the Elvish waybread might well be reminded of those saints who had apparently lived on nothing but the Eucharist for long periods. Indeed, Blessed Alexandrina da Costa seemingly lived on the Eucharist alone for many years prior to her death on October 13, 1955, a week before the final part of The Lord of the Rings was published. This medically impossible phenomenon, which was unfolding throughout the whole period of Tolkien’s writing of The Lord of the Rings, was monitored by skeptical scientists who attested to its inexplicable
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