Christopher Tolkien to finish lost Middle Earth novel - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

William Cloud Hicklin · 04-22-2007, 06:07 PM

I was needlessly obscure. What I was trying to say was that CRT's scrupulosity has developed over the years, so that he now regards some of what he did thirty years ago as having "overstepped the editorial function." Therefore he has given us the Narn as written (or as nearly so as possible), without introducing alterations from other sources even when they are later or more 'correct.'

I disagree that this 300-page book should replace Chapter 19 of the 1977 text. The Silmarillion was always supposed to be an epitome, a compressed and summarised account: as CRT points out in the Appendix, his father's intention was to write 'Silmarillion versions' of the Great Tales as abridgments of the 'long versions' (whenever he got around to writing those); he started the ball rolling when he wrote the later entries of the Grey Annals as compressions of the later part of the Narn (the first bit written).

04-22-2007, 06:07 PM	#32
William Cloud Hicklin Loremaster of Annúminas Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 2,330	I was needlessly obscure. What I was trying to say was that CRT's scrupulosity has developed over the years, so that he now regards some of what he did thirty years ago as having "overstepped the editorial function." Therefore he has given us the Narn as written (or as nearly so as possible), without introducing alterations from other sources even when they are later or more 'correct.' I disagree that this 300-page book should replace Chapter 19 of the 1977 text. The Silmarillion was always supposed to be an epitome, a compressed and summarised account: as CRT points out in the Appendix, his father's intention was to write 'Silmarillion versions' of the Great Tales as abridgments of the 'long versions' (whenever he got around to writing those); he started the ball rolling when he wrote the later entries of the Grey Annals as compressions of the later part of the Narn (the first bit written).