View Single Post
Old 03-16-2018, 06:12 PM   #44
R.R.J Tolkien
Wight
 
R.R.J Tolkien's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2018
Posts: 156
R.R.J Tolkien has just left Hobbiton.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Huinesoron View Post
Regarding the specific question of whether Tolkien saw the Silmarillion as complete and consistent with LotR in the 50s, I would have to say no: what he probably saw it as was something that he /could soon complete/.

HoME5 (The Lost Road) contains the 1937 Quenta Silmarillion, abandoned when Tolkien started writing LotR. In the early parts, it is broadly the same as the Silmarillion we know and love - but it peters out long before the end. The tale of Beren and Luthien exists in draft form. The chapter on the Nirnaeth looks complete. The tale of Turin runs out with his flight from Menegroth. The falls of Doriath and Gondolin are unwritten (and in fact don't exist at all after the Book of Lost Tales from the 20s!), and the story of Earendil only exists from his approach to the Lonely Isle.

It's also interesting to note that JRR Tolkien's Silmarillion would have looked very different to Christopher's. We know this because the 1937 Silm comes with a title page!



Tolkien's Silmarillion was most definitely (as I think someone said) a compendium of different materials.

Finally: yes, the 1937 Silm is broadly consistent with LotR. So are all the later revisions (there's two whole books of HoME detailing the post-LotR Silm). But, you know what? Other than the details of the Tale of Tinuviel, so is the Book of Lost Tales! LotR simply doesn't make enough detailed references to the Elder Days to create wild inconsistencies.

I highly recommend hunting down the two volumes of BoLT, by the way, if you haven't already. They present a nearly complete (everything but the ending) narrative of Middle-earth that is both internally consistent (almost) and wildly different to what we know. It's a really weird experience, frankly - but very interesting.

hS

Amazing post and thank you for your knowledge. I will indeed hunt them down.
__________________
“I am in fact a Hobbit (in all but size). I like gardens, trees and unmechanized farmlands; I smoke a pipe, and like good plain food...I am fond of mushrooms.” -J.R.R Tolkien
R.R.J Tolkien is offline   Reply With Quote