How close is the published The Silmarillion to JRRT's Silmarillion?

[jallanite]

Originally Posted by Galin

One forum I post at simply has a separate sub-forum for discussion of the 1977 Silmarillion as a book -- for a 'common ground' discussion of that book as a work in itself, and in that forum alone, HME concerns do not sidetrack any threads. Or they are not supposed to, anyway.

You might indicate the forum. It is not clear from what you say whether this group of discussions of the 1977 Silmarillion is simply one of several breakdowns of Tolkien’s writilng, none of which is necessarily supposed to be totally limited to the writing that they are mainly about. Many forums do have many more breakdowns that his one, but I have not seen any which tried to enforce any of them to only be about their main subject.

As an example, a questioner might be asking about more information about the Drúedain and it seems absurd to merely answer by saying that they are not mentioned in the published Silmarillion instead of also pointing out the mentions in Unfinished Tales and the HoME series with a short summary of what these works say, even if the original query as placed in a section of Silmarillion threads.

Likewise discussion of the Drúedain and proto-hominids seems to me to be reasonable, despite the fact that no such discussion appears anywhere in Tolkien’s work, so far as I am aware. I see more problems arising with attempts to limit discussion than with people getting more information than they want.

I rather expect that Inziladun wants to avoid mentions such as mine that Tolkien again and again indicates that much of the Silmarillion is, within his imaginary universe, only legend, and even untrue legend. If he and others can prevent anyone from mentioning such statements, then his incorrect theory becomes correct to the readers. It doesn’t even matter for Inziladun that Tolkien indicates this again and again because J. R. R. Tolkien does not say it in the published Silmarillion as edited by Christopher Tolkien.

Which is a good reason why posters in any forum, so far as I know, are not limited in the forum as Inziladun would like.

Anyway for myself, I also don't think HME is really a problem in any case, it's just that I can understand the desire of some who don't wish to read it and want to discuss The Silmarillion as it is, without HME concerns [that they know nothing about perhaps] possibly sidetracking some threads.

Christopher Tolkien has again and again indicated what he now sees as errors in his Silmarillion. Inziladun wants this not to be mentioned, because Christopher Tolkien has not produced a revised Silmarillion with changes. In short Inzaladun doesn’t want the truth revealed. Inzaladun is quite free to claim that Christopher Tolkien is wrong and that his Silmarillion is really perfect, despite what Christopher Tolkien has written. But he would rather that no-one who disagrees with him be allowed the write what they believe, because this might confuse new readers who don’t know that there are other versions of some of the material in The Silmarillion and works published in Tolkien’s lifetime.

Anyone is at liberty to ignore any post that they wish. There have been posts on this forum that I consider incorrect. But I have then argued against them or ignored them, not attempted to make it a rule that no-one be allowed to talk about them.

Also, I'm aware of the external details that underlie Galadriel's statement in The Fellowship of the Ring, but that doesn't change the fact that she does not state, in Fellowship itself, what mountains she is referring to.

Considering the other material I presented and the material in The Road Goes Ever On I now think that you are right, that Galadriel was primarily referring to the Eredluin / Ered Lindon. However it is also obvious that one must cross both the Eredluin / Ered Lindon and the Misty Mountains when traveling from Beleriand to Lórien. My intended point was that Tolkien in The Fellowship placed Galadriel’s journey to Lórien in the First Age and it is implied, though not definitely stated, that Galadriel married Celeborn upon arriving in his land of Lórien while in the Appendices in the revised version of The Lord of the Rings Galadriel and Celeborn, already married to each other, first journeyed to Lórien in the Second Age.

One can reconcile the two accounts by imagining that Galadriel did first go to Lórien in the first age and then returned to Beleriand late in the First Age and married Celeborn. Then Galadriel returned to Lórien a second time. But this disagrees with the statement in the published Silmarillion that no Noldor crossed the Ered Lindon during the First Age.

I felt that his apparent discrepancy was one of the matters to which Christopher Tolkien was referring when he wrote: “A complete consistency (either within the compass of The Silmarillion and other published witing of my father’s) is not to be looked for, and could only be achieved, if at all, at heavy and needless cost.”