Immortality and the sons of Elrond

[Aiwendil]

Originally Posted by Ibrîniðilpathânezel

If I'm recalling his intro to the book correctly, Foster out-and-out refuses to include any information that doesn't appear in TH, LotR, or TS. A good example is his comment that Gandalf "may have been a Maia," and that it is "tempting" to equate him with the Maia Olorin. Tolkien plainly says in Unfinished Tales and in many other writings that the Maia Olorin IS the wizard Gandalf, but it didn't show up in the "story books" (for lack of a better term), so Foster disregards it. For me, that doesn't make him the best source for definitive information about Tolkien's works.

Well, the revised edition of Foster's Guide was published in 1978 whereas UT and HoMe were published over the course of 1980-1996, if I recall correctly - so let's not be too hard on Foster! Actually I think his Guide is on the whole pretty good considering that the only Middle-earth writings available at the time were The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, the '77 Silmarillion, and The Road Goes Ever On, and The Adventures of Tom Bombadil.