Dragging this one up, because of something I've just come across on the
website of Wayne Hammond & Christina Scull (the editor's of this 'perfect' edition).
In the section on new books I found this:
Quote:
|
In the meantime, we have completed editorial work on the 50th anniversary edition of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, in conjunction with Christopher Tolkien, to ensure the most accurate version to date. This was published in 2004.
|
Fine so far - that's what they sold the edition on.
But they continue:
Quote:
|
A reprint is to appear in 2005: this will have further corrections, some of which are to typos in the 2004 edition, others to errors that came to our attention earlier this year.
|
Get that? So, this 'perfect' edition, with its 450 corrections & emendations is now found to contain typos & requires further corrections!
Ok - cue smug grins from all those who didn't spend £100 (or the $ equivalent) on the deluxe edition - or even £35 on the 'standard' hardback edition, but that's not the point of my dragging up this old thread again.
No, the
point is, this is a very silly sidetrack that Tolkien studies is going down. We're getting to a point now where we will no longer know what is the 'correct' text & what isn't. As we discussed earlier in this thread, changing a single word can alter the meaning of a passage profoundly. How many of these 'changes & emendations' are based on a reading of the published text (in however many versions of it there are), how many are based on CT's reading of his father's manuscripts - which may be mis-readings on his part (plus how many intermediate stages in the composition of LotR were lost, or are waiting to be discovered in the future)?
This project, for all its good intentions, is clearly flawed - in fact, its obviously pointless, or worse, is actually
damaging, because pretty soon there will be so many different 'LotR's out there that we'll either end up having to forget discussing the book in any kind of depth & detail, or we'll have to limit discussions to specific editions & only those in possession of those editions will be able to join in anything but 'general' discussions.