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Originally Posted by Helen
Even if he wasn't being a perfectionist-- and I think he was-- even so, he said some of the details of tone and treatment.
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Typical English understatement....
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Again, these are details, and throwing out the work based on these details alone doesn't make sense.
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I'm not throwing it out based on those details alone - I've given a good few reasons...
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He could have said the same thing about LOTR, which he didn't realise was going to connect so thoroughly to the Sil until he wrote Weathertop.
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But he never connected TH so thouroughly..
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Saying that the tale could stand apart is not the same as saying it is disconnected.
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Nor is it saying the opposite...
As Tolkien stated the only reall connection between TH & The Sil are the references to Gondolin & they play a pretty irrelevant part. Tying TH so strongly into the Legendarium puts a weight on it which it cannot really bear -
plus it makes a wonderful stand alone novel into a 'mere' prequel - something it was not meant to be, & a fate it doesn't deserve. TH should stand alone for what it was intended to be, a children's story - & it is a classic of that genre. Placing it in the Legendarium on equal terms with The Sil writings & LotR is unfair to it.