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Old 04-02-2004, 02:28 AM   #32
Raumohir
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I have to say that I was a little surprised that you guys weren't using any of BoLT-1 when constructing the Valaquenta. (Did you also not use it for the DoV?) I understand that you only used BoLT-2 for FoG because of the lack of narrative structure for the "compressed" parts. However, it seems to me that the Valaquenta (together with 'Of Beleriand and its Realms') is one of the least-narrative parts of the Sil. First time readers seem to always struggle with it because it reads more like a reference guide than a story. I feel like BoLT would help bring back a little bit of this flow.

Secondly, it seems to me like a good thing (and in accordance with the principles and the goals) to incorporate older details when you can, so long as they do not conflict in any way with later conceptions. The goals of the project after all, state that "much will be worked into the narrative framework provided by CJRT... whenever possible," and that it will be a "compendium, primarily in narrative form, of all of the writings." It's true that we don't know whether JRRT left these details out intentionally, but we also don't know if he left them out accidentally or because he simply ran out of time.

Having two versions might be a good compromise, but also seems like it might be nearly twice as much work.

As per Aiwendil's two points:

1. I feel like the same decision that applied to the QS should apply here. Only JRRT, it seems to me, could write the authoratative, in-Arda version. Anything else will have to rely on a translator somewhere along the way (even if an unnamed one); and, if it ever were to get published or even shown to the Estate, it might make it seem that much less presumptuous if it's clear that it's not purporting to be the official version, but rather something put together from the available pieces, "just as Bilbo did using the library of Rivendell."

2. Some examples of things that could be incorporated from BoLT-1:

A very basic change:
"With Manwë dwells Varda, Lady of the Stars, who knows all the regions of Eä. Too great is her beauty to be declared in the words of Men or of Elves; for the light of Ilúvatar lives still in her face. <BoLT1 Varda it was who at the playing of the Music had thought much of light that was white and silver, and of stars.> In light is her power and her joy."

An example of some better narrative flow:
<BoLT1 Behold, Manwë Súlimo and Varda the Beautiful arose> ... <Those twain gathered now wings of power to themselves and faired swiftly through the {three}[] airs> ... <Now swiftly as they fared {Melko}[Melkor] was there before them, having rushed headlong flaming through the airs in the impetuosity of his speed....>

And perhaps even, some added characters (as was done w/ FoG):
<BoLT1 With them came many of those lesser {Vali}[Ainur] who loved them and had played nigh them and attuned their music to theirs, and these are the Mánir and the Súruli, the sylphs of the airs and of the winds.>
And:
<BoLT1 Now behind those greatest chieftans came {Falman-}Ossë of the waves of the sea and <Cf. long-tressed> {Onen}[Uinen] his consort, and with them the troops of the {Oarni}[Earni],... spirits of the foam and the surf.>

(Note that this last bit may help with the recent mermaid problem and also help explain the '77 sentence that Ossë "is the governor of the waves and the movements of the Inner Seas, and many other spirits beside.")

Anyway, this was my first real post here. I hope it wasn't too impertinent, I'm just excited to get involved in some fashion. I also hope I used all that notation correctly...! Thanks for listening, and I look forward to participating more in this project.

~P.S. Sorry lindil, if I should have started a new thread as you suggested above, I didn't feel like I had the authority to start one with my first post (nor would I know how much, if any, I should copy over to it from here.)
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