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Old 11-03-2017, 06:06 AM   #24
Aiwendil
Late Istar
 
Join Date: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,224
Aiwendil is a guest at the Prancing Pony.Aiwendil is a guest at the Prancing Pony.
VT-EX-30.1: I suppose I'm fine with leaving Arie(n)'s allegiance unstated. I think I prefer 'Arien' over 'Arie' for the etymological reason I mentioned.

VT-LQ-04b, VT-LT-06 & VT-LT-11.5: I'm not so sure about this. It's true that we don't have any definite statement that the gardens of Lorien and Vana do not border Ezellohar. But my impression of Valinor has always been one of a much larger region than that would suggest. Still, I suppose one could quibble about what exactly 'near to Ezellohar' means. I had pictured them being within sight of Ezellohar, but perhaps 'near' could mean miles away.

In any case, if we do add these descriptions back in, I think we need to eliminate the statements that the pools are disturbed only when it is time to 'water' the Trees, since AAm has the Maiar drawing from them to bring light to frith and field throughout Valinor.

VT-LT-06: I had been assuming that 'Lorien' replaced 'Murmuran' as the name of Irmo's dwelling. However, 'Murmuran' seems to refer to his house, while 'Lorien' refers to his lands/gardens as a whole. So I suppose 'Murmuran' could stay unless we reject it on linguistic grounds.

VT-LT-11: I think Findegil's suggestion is good.

VT-LT-13: I wonder whether we're justified in taking what was Nienna's hall and giving it to Mandos as well. Logically, what should come here would be a description of Vaire's hall, since the original is describing the neighbouring dwellings of Mandos and his wife. But the description is obviously unsuited to Vaire. Nor does it make much sense to retain it for Nienna.

I do seem to vaguely recall a statement somewhere in the post-LotR writings that Mandos contained separate halls for Elves and Men. Can either of you remind me where that is found? If that's indeed the case, then perhaps we do have justificiation for keeping the description of Fui's hall, even though Fui is no longer there.

Nonetheless, I do still wonder whether the rather 'primitive' description of the hall, with a ceiling of bat-wings (!) is still appropriate in the context of the later Legendarium. Actually, I am still for the same reason somewhat uneasy about most of the LT additions to this chapter.

Relatedly, it feels a little off to me that the vivid description of Mandos's halls here make no mention of the only two facts told of them in the Valaquenta: that they widen as the ages pass and that their walls are covered with Vaire's tapestries.

Omar and Nieliqui: I see no problems with these names phonologically, nor with Omar's other name, Amillo. I do wonder, though, whether Nieliqui can still be a "little maiden" if she is no longer the daughter of Orome and Vana.

VT-EX-39/VT-LT-14: I'm not sure I see a clear motivation for moving the passage from the Valaquenta to here. There are, after all, other bits of description of the Valar's dwellings in the Valaquenta, and I don't think it's a problem if the descriptions here are not comprehensive.
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