[lindil]

version 2.o

OK let me simplify my survey:

What did you like or not like in the 'Guides/Encyclopedias to Middle-Earth' that you have you read/consulted.
And what would you most like to see in your 'perfect' guide? Anything [besides artwork, although I realize that is quite important] that you really do not want to see?

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what follows below was the original survey which has far quicker than I thought possible run it's course. So thanks to all below for your response, and thanks to everyone who takes the time to answer the above survey. Again, anyone just coming to the thread can ignore the bottom 1/2 of the post. I will however leave it up to give the context of the early replies.

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version 1.0

Which would you prefer to see my fellow BD'ers?

A} A Tolkien 'guide/encyclopedia' that covers the basics + HoME/UT in a more scholarly fashion, setting out the many changes the stories went through and underscoring the contradictions and difficulties, or

B} A 'guide/encyclopedia' that is written more from the perspective of an early 4th age loremaster who while having some contradictory accounts is primarily giving us a guide that shows the final and non-contradictory conceptions given in a hypothetical 'Translations from the Elvish' [HoME/UT].

If one in general prefers 'B', there is a further sub-option of

C] having along with B] a major appendix [or 2] that covers the major transitions in the story line and character development from Lost Tales to Silmarillion to later HoME/UT from a critical analysis POV or keeping with a pure B] just leaving the whole thing as a product of 'inter-middle-earth' scholarship,as above.

I hope that all makes sense.

Anyway I would be very intrigued by your replies.

thanks,

[ February 20, 2003: Message edited by: lindil ]