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Old 08-27-2015, 10:40 PM   #6
Arvegil145
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Join Date: Sep 2010
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Quote:
Originally Posted by William Cloud Hicklin View Post
Remember however that a great deal of the "history" was a later ret-con; when Tolkien wrote Chapter II he had no idea what Gil-Galad's story was (and never really wrote any more of it than what Gandalf says there, and Sam's fragment of a poem); the cats of Queen Beruthiel were finally explained- in Tolkien's own mind - long years after the writing of the Moria chapter where Aragorn mentions them.

It's kind of remarkable to think that when Tolkien finished the main narrative of the LR, hardly any of the history even of the Third Age yet existed.
I know. But it is also pretty rare for Tolkien to not develop a character that was previously barely mentioned. The cats of Queen Berúthiel are a good example of a concept that prior to its mention in the LOTR didn't really have much (read: not at all) substance to it until some time later. Of course, one could argue that The Lord of the Rings, being published and read widely across the world, would give a bit of a motivation in developing a background to the character of Berúthiel, for example.

Another character that comes to my mind at this very moment is Torhir Ifant, the author of Dorgannas Iaur, mentioned in The War of the Jewels, but he at least has some semblance of background to him.
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