Well, look at the section from Ainu§25...
Quote:
|
But think not, Ælfwine, that the shapes wherein the Great Ones array themselves are not at all times like unto the shapes of kings and queens of the Children of Ilúvatar; for at whiles they may clothe them in their own thought, made visible in forms terrible and wonderful. And I myself, long years agone, in the land of the Valar have seen Yavanna in the likeness of a Tree; and the beauty and majesty of that form could not be told in words, not unless all the things that grow in the earth, from the least unto the greatest, should sing in choir together, making unto their queen an offering of song to be laid before the throne of Ilúvatar.
|
It's not that it's impossible to deal with the intrusion of the first person singular
"I myself...have seen", it's just awkward to do so as an editor knowing it was written thus. It's not just eliminating an address to Ælfwine like in the beginning of the above quote. It can be reasonably kept in the text, if we gut the entire sentence and it's meaning. Here's an example (and excuse the slipshod notation, I'm going off the cuff):
Quote:
|
And {I myself}[the XXX themselves], long years agone, in the land of the Valar have seen Yavanna in the likeness of a Tree; and the beauty and majesty of that form could not be told in words....
|
I left it XXX because we'd have to ask who was it that saw her like that. The Noldor? All the Eldalië? Pengoloð? That choice may go beyond editing.
I think keeping the sentence intact as a footnote is best because the intent of the sentence is expressing the intensely personal. Pengoloð's own experience of having seen a Vala in this beyond-Treebeard shape was so striking that he had to interject it here. Yes he said it to Ælfwine in the true text, but he would say it to every reader like this:
Quote:
|
And I myself, long years agone, in the land of the Valar have seen Yavanna in the likeness of a Tree; and the beauty and majesty of that form could not be told in words, not unless all the things that grow in the earth, from the least unto the greatest, should sing in choir together, making unto their queen an offering of song to be laid before the throne of Ilúvatar. [Quoth Pengoloð.]
|