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#1 | ||
Cryptic Aura
Join Date: May 2002
Posts: 6,003
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Good ideas and suggestions from everyone here!
One point which I don't think has been mentioned is the postumous nature of the book. The Silmarillion never existed as a single, comprehensive text in The Professor's lifetime. What we have is a selected edition from his literary executor, his son, Christopher, with help from Guy Kay. Now before anyone jumps up to say this is another razz at the son, let me quote a bit from the Foreward. Quote:
This is in addition to the conception of the materials which JRRT had: that The Silm is Quote:
For years I've used The Silm as a sort of encyclopedia, delving in at various stories and stages where I needed or wanted some information about those old sources. I've come to appreciate Tolkien's Legendarium much more from reading, for instance, BoLT, so I guess I read The Silm as an historical document itself rather than as a ripping good yarn. I like to think I am reading it consistently with JRRT's idea of ancient sources.
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I’ll sing his roots off. I’ll sing a wind up and blow leaf and branch away. Last edited by Bêthberry; 03-07-2011 at 09:22 AM. |
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#2 |
Blossom of Dwimordene
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: The realm of forgotten words
Posts: 10,514
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I haven't yet read BOLT - or any HOME books, for that matter - and I enjoy reading The Sil very much. I think that the ajor reason for it being a bit difficult at first is that it's trying to fit a lot of material into a small space (like it says in the quote that Bethberry provided). After rereading it, though, it became very clear for me, and VERY enjoyable.
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You passed from under darkened dome, you enter now the secret land. - Take me to Finrod's fabled home!... ~ Finrod: The Rock Opera |
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#3 | |
Wight
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Settling down in Bree for the winter.
Posts: 208
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Rewrite?
Quote:
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#4 |
Curmudgeonly Wordwraith
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Ensconced in curmudgeonly pursuits
Posts: 2,515
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A Silmarillion for Simpletons? No thanks.
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And your little sister's immaculate virginity wings away on the bony shoulders of a young horse named George who stole surreptitiously into her geography revision. |
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#5 |
Byronic Brand
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: The 1590s
Posts: 2,778
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I note with concern, astonishment and admiration, Durelin, that you wrote an excellent Thuringwethil in Treachery of Men without having read her story!
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Among the friendly dead, being bad at games did not seem to matter -Il Lupo Fenriso |
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#6 |
Estelo dagnir, Melo ring
Join Date: Oct 2002
Posts: 3,063
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Aw, thanks....actually I *did* read (some of?) her parts.
![]() And I did research for your RP, Ang! ![]() |
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#7 | |
Wisest of the Noldor
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Quote:
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"Even Nerwen wasn't evil in the beginning." –Elmo. |
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#8 | ||||
Ghost Prince of Cardolan
Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 1,036
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Quote:
Very briefly described: after writing a very brief 'sketch' of what would turn out to be the First Age, Tolkien wrote a complete and finished version of 'a Silmarillion' in 1930 (Qenta Noldorinwa or QN), then wrote an expanded version in the mid to later 1930s, but left a gap as he jumped to the end (Quenta Silmarillion or QS). There were also the Annals: briefer accounts of the same history covered by QN and QS. Tolkien sought to publish the Silmarillion at this time, but (long story made short) it was rejected. He then works for a long time on The Lord of the Rings, and in the early 1950s, hoping that the Silmarillion will be published along with The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien expands and updates parts of QS and the Annals (taking up again the long prose versions of the Three Great Tales) That's really a very simplified description, but anyway, the point is that perhaps there is more extant text than some who have not read The History of Middle-Earth might think. Anyway, when Christopher Tolkien took up the task of making the material public, he began with a different kind of presentation in mind. Guy Kay explained... Quote:
Quote:
With respect to the ruin of Doriath we find a level of creativity that even Christopher Tolkien came to regret, as the story here contains elements that actually cannot be traced to any of JRRT's writing. Due to the fact that this part of the tale had been skipped in the Quenta Silmarillion of the later 1930s (the 'gap' I referred to), and the fact that The Wanderings of Hurin was abandoned too soon, the 'Silmarillion account' of the Ruin of Doriath still dated from 1930 (QN)! Even Christopher Tolkien later noted that he probably could have stuck better to his father's intent, but as an example of CJRT's opinion of the story as it stood in Quenta Noldorinwa, he noted that it ruins the gesture if Hurin asks for Thingol's aid to carry the treasure to Menegroth -- the very treasure Hurin will then use to cast at Thingol's feet to try to humiliate the Elf. That's a creative decision in my opinion, even though it went against the actual story as it stood in 1930 (thus in the 1977 Silmarillion, Hurin alone brings the Nauglamir to Thingol, without need of aid, not the treasure from which the Nauglamir is later made). In any case, here is a notable reference to something that hails from the relevant part of the story. Quote:
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