New Tolkien book coming!

[Inziladun]

I received my copy late last night. Looking forward to getting into it.

[Huinesoron]

Swiped the last copy in the bookshop today and I'm, uh, already halfway through. There's a LOT in there. Are we
.. does the Downs do spoiler warnings or anything? I guess it's been a long time since there was last actual new Tolkien that could be spoiled!

hS

[William Cloud Hicklin]

There is some truly amazing stuff in here. No detailed comments yet, lest SPOILERS

[Galin]

Just read the brief The Founding of Nargothrond!

Loved it!

[Galadriel55]

test


Aha! It works! Same code as for bolding, but replace the B with "spoiler". To read text, highlight it.

Cheers!

[William Cloud Hicklin]

All right: just to disturb the 'canonicity' applecart further: Gil-galad's name, in very late (ca 1969) writing, was Finwain. Which raises new questions about his parentage.

Another: the Great Eagles were, explicitly, Maiar in bird-form

And this: to answer long speculation, Cirdan was definitely not one of the "first Elves" who awoke beside Cuivienen, because all of that first generation refused to go on the Journey and became Avari

[Huinesoron]

Originally Posted by William Cloud Hicklin

All right: just to disturb the 'canonicity' applecart further: Gil-galad's name, in very late (ca 1969) writing, was Finwain. Which raises new questions about his parentage.

Also Finellach in another text, ca. 1965 (Of the Lands and Beasts of Numenor), though apparently this was already in HoME XII. I'd interpret Finwain as Young Finwe.

There's so much in here! The evolution of the timelines and generations is a study in itself, though for 'canonicity' purposes there's one text which falls a decade later than the rest. Certain chunks of it are very much "The History of Unfinished Tales", and Hostetter makes it very clear where this is the case; but the bulk of it is entirely new.

I'm finding the most fascinating bits not to be the big picture stuff and the philosophy - though there's some that I will definitely come back to - but the little nuggets of trivia you stumble onto along the way. My favourites so far:

- Generational Schemes, p. 128 - the family tree of Ingwe! For the first time, we have his father Ilion - 4th gen descendent of Iminye - his wife Ilwen, and his son Ingwil, brother of Indis.

- Key Dates, p. 95 - that the Eldar at Cuivienen were watched over by the future Istari, with new names, plus Melian - 'the only woman, but the chief'.

- Beards, p 187 - that Radagast 'had only short, curling, light brown hair on his chin'.

- Hair, p. 186 - that Ingwe had curly hair! Presumably this carries over in some measure to his descendents. Oh, and Gil-Galad had silver hair - as William Cloud Hicklin says, up goes the applecart again!

- Elvish ages and Numenorean, p. 152 - that at one point, Tolkien considered making Galadriel Celeborn's second wife!

And it just goes on and on! The entertainment habits of the Numenoreans - what happened to Finrod when he was building Nargothrond - less embarrassing names for Elmo and Teleporno - there's so much in here. I love it. It's mad.

hS