Quote:
Originally Posted by mhagain
Just accepting the latest versions of stories that were left unfinished, and when those versions were possibly a result of Tolkien's infamous niggling (and would no doubt have been niggled even more over had he ever returned to them), may not get an end-result that's in harmony with the rest of the stories.
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My point is that Tolkien decided in
Morgoth’s Ring that the
Silmarillion was, in part, untrue Mannish legend, which allowed him to retain much of the old
Silmarillion stories as just stories along with a more scientific viewpoint. That Tolkien, over and above that, also wrote matter that was contradictory is another issue altogether. Confusing these two just makes the matter more confusing.
Your listing of personal details on which you personally disagree with Christopher Tolkien’s
Silmarillion tradition contradicts your statement:
Based on that I don't think we've much choice but to accept the published Silmarillion as being anything other than in accordance with JRRT's wishes, which distils the debate down to whether or not it's what JRRT would have done had he lived.
You seemingly do not accept some of Christopher Tolkien’s decisions. I would say you have a perfect right to choose not to accept Christopher Tolkien’s decisions and have already said so. But Tolkien’s decision to change his
Silmarillion tradition before the return of the Noldor to make it into partly Mannish legend has the result that often there will be two contradictory versions of any legend, that of the
Silmarillion and that of the Wise, both of which Tolkien updated.
My own feeling is that
accepting usually does not enter the matter, for me. Tolkien was writing
fiction. He intended his writing to be coherent and one may point out where he has failed. But when one coherent statement contradicts another coherent statement then both statements should be equally acceptable. The
Silmarillion material was almost all unpublished in Tolkien’s lifetime and so other than
likelihood of Tolkien deciding on a particular statement, there is no way to choose among discrepant statements.