[Arvegil145]

One thing (among many others) that kept me delayed for so long is the fact that I have some doubts considering the entire project. First off, the matter of the Myths Transformed and the round world version of The Silmarillion. I know, probably more than most, that there are many problems with making such a revision to Tolkien's works. But still, I think it is worth a try, and if we are to succeed in such an attempt, though hard that attempt be, we would have the ultimate (or as ultimate as it could possible be) "Tolkien Parish".

Second problem I found (as you no doubt have seen already) is the Ælfwine/Eriol vs. Bilbo transmission of the legends of the Elder Days and of the Second and Third Age (including The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings). Seeing that Tolkien had obviously kept both Bilbo and Ælfwine I'm not so sure if Ælfwine should be discarded that lightly.

Now for a bit of fan-fiction - if Bilbo and Frodo (and later Sam) went to Eressëa it wouldn't be so hard a stretch to imagine that Ælfwine learned the stories of Bilbo, Frodo and Sam during his stay on the Island. But as I said before, this is only a concoction.



P.S. Concerning the Númenórean transmission of the legends I have some major problems with the entire concept. One of them is so hard to believe that I find it altogether hilarious - if the Númenóreans were the greatest mariners the world has ever seen, how then could they not know that the world is round?!

Another point that strikes almost as deep as the previous one is the Númenórean lore concerning other things than sea-faring - the Númenóreans were the most advanced human civilization that ever was. How then could they make such erroneous statements of the kind that the Sun and the Moon were made from the Two Trees of Valinor, etc., etc.

But all of this, of course, relies on the fact that the Elves knew the TRUE nature of the world, and that the Númenóreans and other kinds of Men made garbled tales about the origin and nature of the said world.

I simply cannot accept the Númenórean origin of the tales of the Elder Days and beyond them - I think that the Elven origin of those tales is, to me at least, the best mode of their transmission - not to mention the believability of them, and a much better ability to truly immerse oneself into the stories themselves.

Although I am aware that these tales (of the Elder Days) are just "tales" and that the world of Middle-earth is an imaginary world, I'm still inclined to regard them as "true" tales in the context of the world in which they take place - also, I am loath to consider such a great amount of history of Middle-earth as a myth inside a myth.