Quote:
Originally Posted by Tar-Jêx
He was Melko, then Melkor, also known as Morgoth, Bauglir, Morgoth Bauglir, the Dark Lord, and other various 'evil' titles. This is also true for what I was referring to, the places. A great deal of them don't undergo name changes, but are called different things every other page.
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Yes the same person is called
Melko in
The Book of Lost Tales, and other names in later works, principally
Melkor and
Morgoth. But the name
Melko is very close to the name
Melkor and the name
Morgoth is only mentioned once in
The Book of Lost Tales (other than in Christopher Tolkien’s commentary), which should make the
Book of Lost Tales less confusing than the published
Silmarillion. The forms
Dark Lord and
Bauglir do not even appear in
The Book of Lost Tales. You would seem to indicate that the published
Silmarillion is more confusing than
Book of Lost Tales, which I do not think was your intention.
As to place names, name even one place name in
The Book of Lost Tales, that is “called different things
every other page.” Name even a single name that is mentioned “every second page” throughout the work. Gross exaggeration does not convince me.
Quote:
We seem to have a misunderstanding, though, as I personally really enjoy BoLT.
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The misunderstanding, if it is a misunderstanding, comes from you own statement: “I will admit, I did close my book gently, but firmly, in frustration of these ‘silent changes’”. Is this true?
Quote:
I was stating that a reader can be turned off and become disinterested when every place or item is being referred to by a different name every second page. A number of people I know that have tried to read BoLT found the name switching to be confusing, and never knew what was being referred to.
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Name a single case in
The Book of Lost Tales where “every place or item is being referred to by a different name every second page”.
I have less understanding of what you are talking about the more you try to explain. I can understand a reader being slightly confused on occasion by differences in the
Book of Lost Tales and the published
Silmarillion, or in either book by itself, but I see place names changing only sometimes, not “every second page” throughout the
Book of Lost Tales.
Continual use of
gross exaggeration undercuts the points you are trying to explain, suggesting to me that you cannot support your points by simple statements, either because you are clumsy in your writing or because you simply can’t support them at all.
Yes, the
Book of Lost Tales is sometimes confusing in its changing of names. Any stronger statement is
gross exaggeration, in the same way the a complaint that the published
Silmarillion is sometimes confusing with its similar names:
Finwë,
Fingolfin, Finarfin, Fingon, and
Finrod. This is true. Possibly the changes in the
Book of Lost Tales can be even more confusing to some people. Personally, I find it somewhat less confusing. Neither work is so confusing that I closed either book gently, but firmly. Both books were interesting enough that I read them in enjoyment, despite occasional confusion, as with many books.