Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes...

[Bêthberry]

[quoted by davem: I think that depends on how'close' Elves are to us - are they simply extremely long lived 'humans' or are they different not just biologically, but spiritually & (specifically in this case) mentally? [/quote]

I think we have to remember that elves are not extremely different biologically from humans. They can reproduce with humans, after all.

But I would like to turn this question back to the reason for this fiftieth anniversary edition.

quoted by davem:

Maybe it would be helpful to quote from the introduction to the new edition
[davem then quotes]
That the printer had quietly reset The Fellowship of the Ring, & that copies had been issued without proof having been read by the author, never became known to Tolkien; while his publisher, Rayner Unwin, learned of it only thirty eight years after the fact. Tolkien found a few of the unauthorised changes introduced in the second printing.

In 1992 Eric Thompson.. noticed small differences between the first & second impressions of FotR.

The observations of Dainis Biseniecks, Yuval Kfir, Charles Noad & other readers, sent to us directly or posted in public forums, have also been of service.

Efforts such as these follow the example of the author of LotR during his lifetime. His concern for the textual accuracy & coherence of his work is evident from the many emendations he made in later printings, & from notes he made for other emendations which for one reason or another have not previously (or have only partly) been put into effect.

The fiftieth anniversary of LotR seemed an ideal opportunity to consider the latest (1992) text in the light of information gathered in the course of decades of work in Tolkien studies...with an electronic copy of LotR searchable by keyword or phrase....Christopher Tolkien even observed to us that some apparent inconsistencies of form in his father?s work may have been deliberate: for instance, although Tolkien carefully distinguished house[ ?dwelling? from House ?noble family or dynasty[/i]?

Many of the emendations in the present text are to marks of punctuation....

[/i]Most of the demonstrable errors noted by Christopher Tolkien in HoME also have been corrected, such as the distance from the Brandywine Bridge to the Ferry (ten miles rather than twenty) & the number of Merry?s ponies (Five rather than six), shadows of earlier drafts. But those errors of content, such as Gimli?s famous (& erronious) statement in Book III, ch 7, ?Till now I have hewn naught but wood since I left Moria?, which would require rewriting to emend rather than simple correction, remain unchanged.

So many new emendations to LotR,& such an extensive review of its text, deserve to be fully documented. ,,,To this end, & to illuminate the work in other respects, we are preparing a volume of annotations to LotR for publication in 2005.[/i]

(Wayne Hammond & Christina Scull)
[end of davem's quote]
This may give the impression that CT was not responsible for the changes, but the real point is, many have been made as a result of his work & all have been authorised by him, so he had the final say in what happened.

Would such an edition have been undertaken at all without Christopher Tolkien? How often do we have "definitive" or "authoritative" editions of works published fifty years after an author's death? Certainly we have "critical" or "scholarly" editions, but is it common to have editions which assume to correct errors in the effort to retrieve authorial intention?

I am probably going to be going out on a limb here and angering people who deeply respect and admire Christopher's work, but I think the relationship between Tolkien père and Tolkien fils is uttterly fascinating. Here were two creative minds engaged in the imaginative pursuit of the same Middle-earth. But what exactly was that relationship?

I don't ask this to disparage CT's work but to understand better JRRT's work. Can we assume that CT was a perfect mirror reflecting exactly what his father wished? Did any of his own preconceptions, values, intentions ever play a role in shaping the Legendarium? Has CT withheld letters from publication because in his estimation they do not reflect adequately upon JRRT's work? If I have my facts right, didn't CT close off all communication with his own son Simon because Simon choose to have some dealings with Peter Jackson? That strikes me as incredibly controlling and dominating, although I must admit I don't know all the details of the story. At what part did CT refuse to have anything to do with PJ? (Is this totally true,even?) Would the films have been different if CT had agreed to work with PJ?

I think we are dealing with a fascinating phenomenon in literature. We have, essentially, two minds responsible for the continued appearance of a work of art before the public--and not just continuing, since CT was responsible for some of the initial maps as well. It is as if, with JRRT saying that fairey stories never end, we have a second author coming along and furthering the story.

Has anyone ever seen a study of CT's role in all of this? What must it have meant to JRRT to have a keen mind share Middle earth so enthusiastically with him? I guess it is the scholar in me that wants to ask this question.