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Old 07-08-2018, 09:31 PM   #186
ArcusCalion
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Having reviewed some of the texts mentioned by Fin, I would like to comment on them.

1) Of the Finding of the Ring: I think this is actually a good idea, but we would have to discuss how it would fit in with the account in Of the Rings of Power and in Durin's Folk, but I am sure we could make it work. If we do include this narrative summary, perhaps we could also include the Quest for Erebor into the main narrative, which would be ideal, although I feel (pretty strongly) that it is impossible to remove the narrative framework from it, which would make it impossible to insert into the story. Regardless, if we are to include Of the Finding of the Ring, then I think we must also include the other sections of the Prologue, aside from (perhaps) the last one, although that last section would fit nicely at the start of the whole project. I see no reason why we could not do this. perhaps adding them into the narrative when the Shire is first established. Whatever our decision on the above, I do not think we could use the revised Hobbit, as it is still written as the memoir of Bilbo, and to add it in would mean adding in the entire Hobbit (updated) which is beyond the scope of the project. I think we are able to use the text of the Prologue to LotR, simply because we are not given a source for it, whereas LotR and the rest are all explicitly sourced (and published).

2) The Letter to Milton Waldman: This ends with the end of the Second Age, and so cannot help us here.

3) The Synopses contained at the beginning of Two Towers and Return of the King: These worry me. They are not contained in all editions, and I am unsure if they are the words of Tolkien, or of his editor/publishers. I think to use these texts presents risks, as well as the issue of the events of Return of the King being almost entirely untold: a jarring change of pace from the description of the events of the first two books. To use Appendix B: the Great Years to construct a narrative would need to be almost entirely written wholecloth, and even then would produce only a choppy, awkward narrative. We may at best use it only for supplemental sentences to a narrative which must exist beyond it; we cannot use it as a primary narrative. Therefore, it seems to me as if the events of Lord of the Rings are not easy to tell. I am somewhat inclined to use the synopses at the beginning of TT and RotK, but I would need to have proof that they were indeed written by Tolkien himself. If we do any of these things, then we may be able to include HR and BFI, but we need to decide this first.

Sidenote: I used the narrative at the end of Appendix B which details the events of the War in the North in Mirkwood and Dale in the last chapter.

Last edited by ArcusCalion; 07-08-2018 at 09:44 PM.
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