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Old 12-01-2004, 09:31 PM   #73
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.
I must say that I am still unsure and have not yet made up my mind concerning the hunt. But the fact that ToY as written simply has the Dwarves invading Doriath, sacking Menegroth, and killing Thingol suggests to me that the whole of the story at this point was changed from Q30. In other words, the ToY version seems to me to contradict the story of the treacherous Elves and Thingol's hunt. Now it's true that the ToY story had the critical flaw that it ignored the Girdle of Melian, and this led Tolkien to the story projected in the note. But I don't see the note as necessarily representing a reversion to the elements of Thingol's hunt and the treacherous Elves.

However, that line of reasoning isn't entirely clear-cut since it depends on the truth of the proposition that ToY contradicts Q30, which is, I suppose, an unclear point.

I suppose the maint point is that, to me anyway, it feels canonically safer not to mention the hunt or the treacherous Elves. Whether that safety is worth dropping those elements is unclear to me.

Certainly, though, the idea that the treacherous Elves aided the Dwarves in luring Thingol outside the border is to some degree fan-fictional. For the function of the treacherous Elves in Q30 was to allow Dwarves in. To keep them and change their function entirely seems too much of a liberty to me. Indeed - one wonders why in such a story the Elves could not have done what they did in Q30 and simply let the Dwarves through the Girdle.

It seems to me far simpler (and as a result, better, at least in the one point) to have Thingol simply hear of the Dwarves' hostile intent and ride forth to war beyond the borders. That follows the note with minimal elaboration. Also, whether Thingol is "lured or induced" from Menegroth or from his hunt seems quite irrelevant with regard to its believability - Thingol is equally foolish for stepping outside the Girdle in either case.
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