[Marileangorifurnimaluim]

I'm reading the Silm. for the first time since 1983. You know, it's a lot easier read as an adult. When I was a kid, I'd say that I surmounted the Silm., I managed it. I finished. And I was done with it.

I see why it was frustrating to me then, you were often given the resolution of stories before they were actually described in detail.

That's a failing of Christopher Tolkien as an editor, he was too faithful and failed to create the work that was possible, even after the death of JRR Tolkien. And a failure of the publishers, being unwilling to publish (and therefore encourage Tolkien to polish it) in the first place.

There's something almost heart-rending about the Silm., as though there was so much Tolkien left undone, so many stories still in him. We have only the barest traces of Xanadu.