Diamond18:
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Well, yes, he changed his mind, but did he do anything about it? In LotR he never refutes Treebeard's statement about the Orcs. If, later in life, he changed his mind and said, "The Ring wasn't really evil", would you believe it? Not unless he went back and re-wrote the book.
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In his letters, he states that Treebeard is a character, not Tolkien himself, and does not understand everything...his knowledge is limited.
From Letter No. 153:
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Treebeard is a character in my story, not me; and though he has a great memory and some earthy wisdom, he is not one of the Wise, and there is quite a lot he does not know or understand. He does not know what 'wizards' are, or whence they came.
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Because of this, you miss the point. The quotes provided earlier were from
The Silmarillion, a work compiled and published by Christopher Tolkien without his father's supervision. What CT presented were the most complete ideas, and other writings later on indicate he changed his mind about the matter of orcs and elves. They, too, are published. What do you believe? Logically, the most recent writing.
Your point is valid about
Lord of the Rings and the ring, but that analogy does not fit here.
Lord of the Rings was a complete work, sent to press by Tolkien himself, thus it was a finished matter. We saw the indications of the ring's evil power. We do not see indications of the orcs' origins, except for Treebeard's comment. Treebeard's comment is not definitive in what was actual in Middle-earth.
Tolkien still had
not finished
The Silmarillion, therefore we are left with his rough drafts, and the more recent writings that address the matter say orcs were not originally elves.
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If, later in life, he changed his mind and said, "The Ring wasn't really evil", would you believe it? Not unless he went back and re-wrote the book.
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He obviously intended for the concept of orcs being corrupted elves to be taken out of
The Silmarillion, and what we have is, as stressed before, not his final version.
[ October 30, 2002: Message edited by: Legalos ]