Morgoth v. Sauron - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Elenhin · 11-15-2001, 08:45 AM

Elrian, I'm afraid you have the textual history backwards.

The texts found in the latest volumes of the History of Middle-Earth series are the latest pieces of text JRRT wrote about Middle-Earth. Cristopher gives them completely unaltered: he even refuses to change words which are obviously false (such as Fingolfin in the Nirnaeth Arnoediad - that should obviously be Fingon) or to insert words which obviously belong there.

The published Silmarillion, on the other hand, is by no means the finished version JRRT was aiming for. It was pieced together by Cristopher, most often using the latest stories but sometimes he had to fall back to older stories (Fall of Gondolin) or even make up some stuff (Fall of Doriath). This is because JRRT was constantly rewriting the texts and so they often became inconsistent with each other. Cristopher also had to combine two separate texts, Quenta Silmarillion and the Grey Annals, into one. All this often leads to confusion and problems when trying to find out where a phrase or a passage in the published Silmarillion really comes from.
(Not that Cristopher didn't do a good job - I really like the version because of its internal consistency, but sometimes it just is confusing people about the latest intentions of JRRT.)

[ November 15, 2001: Message edited by: Elenhin ]

11-15-2001, 08:45 AM	#19
Elenhin Wight Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Vantaa, Finland Posts: 205	Elrian, I'm afraid you have the textual history backwards. The texts found in the latest volumes of the History of Middle-Earth series are the latest pieces of text JRRT wrote about Middle-Earth. Cristopher gives them completely unaltered: he even refuses to change words which are obviously false (such as Fingolfin in the Nirnaeth Arnoediad - that should obviously be Fingon) or to insert words which obviously belong there. The published Silmarillion, on the other hand, is by no means the finished version JRRT was aiming for. It was pieced together by Cristopher, most often using the latest stories but sometimes he had to fall back to older stories (Fall of Gondolin) or even make up some stuff (Fall of Doriath). This is because JRRT was constantly rewriting the texts and so they often became inconsistent with each other. Cristopher also had to combine two separate texts, Quenta Silmarillion and the Grey Annals, into one. All this often leads to confusion and problems when trying to find out where a phrase or a passage in the published Silmarillion really comes from. (Not that Cristopher didn't do a good job - I really like the version because of its internal consistency, but sometimes it just is confusing people about the latest intentions of JRRT.) [ November 15, 2001: Message edited by: Elenhin ]