NA-TI-02b: Okay, thanks for reminding me about this. I think the latest version is good.
Quote:
Do you refer to CoH in general as a late long version? If so, that would mean a terible lose in my oppinion. Such things as the wolf shooting of Beleg and the entrance into Nargothrond. These are details not anywere else to be found. Is it not the goal to compile a most detailed version?
Or do you refer to the opening part of the Narn only, which Tolkien finished himself to a high degree? I thought that the inclusion of parts of the poem in the earlier parts of the Narn would help to make the, in my view inascapable, changes between poesy and prosa in the later part more bearable. And I only included parts were the poem has some points of detail to add to the text of CoH and/or Narn.
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I'm referring only to the opening part of the Narn (sorry I wasn't clear) - I agree entirely that the
CoH version of the middle portions must be considered quite incomplete, and I agree with using the alliterative lay there. But the portion up to the meeting with Mim is surely to be regarded as a full, authoritative and more or less complete text. I believe we treated the late 'Tuor' the same way, and avoided adding earlier material to it for the sole purpose of elaboration. You do make a fair point that introducing excerpts from the lay early on could soften the transition to verse in the middle section. However, if we are entertaining concerns of an aesthetic nature, one could just as easily argue that adding the verse excerpts breaks the tone, rhythm, and balance of a text that Tolkien was, apparently, satisfied with from a literary standpoint.
NA-EX-27.25: I suppose you're right - Melian's gift of lembas makes little sense if Beleg is simply returning to the north-marches, but in
CoH there's no suggestion he's going to join Turin.
NA-TI-15.7: Yes, I agree we should probably just drop the sentence.