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gondowe, to your point about Tal-Elmar and The New Shadow, the way in which they are given in the work is not intrusive into the story, and their unfinished quality may be explained by a simple preface that the conclusion of these stories was lost. As lindil has said, and as Findegil believes, the goal of this project is maximum inclusion: if the Professor wrote it, we will try to include it. I see no real reason to dismiss these two works simply because they are unfinished. In some ways, I think their unfinished nature is actually part of the allure of Middle-earth, where there are always more stories hiding beneath the pages, lost or unfinished. I see no compelling reason to exclude these works.
I have indeed reviewed your structure many times, and while it is incredible and much to be lauded, the goals of your project and the goals of this one are not the same. You have sought to present each work individually, edited for agreement, while this project seeks to follow Christopher Tolkien's method of combining the texts into a singular narrative. In addition, simply going by the chapter headings and subheadings you have given, it seems you are much freer with invention and insertion of unsourced material into the work, which is something we cannot do in this project. Therefore, while your structure is admirable, it is not necessarily in tune with what we are pursuing. In terms of the Third Age specifically, I see how you have organized it, which is much the same way in which it was organized in Appendix A: each kingdom treated distinctly, and with no linearly progressing narrative for the history. I have followed the model of the project in mine: creating a single, linear narrative in order to have one unbroken historical tale, from the creation to the reign of Eldarion son of Aragon. I was unable to insert some of the stories (the ones I have named above) into the direct narrative, but perhaps Findegil or Aiwendil will have a solution.
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