What Next?

[Aiwendil]

Utulie'n Aure!

Yes, it would seem that the day has come when we finish the Fall of Gondolin.

Obviously, we now need to discuss what we will do next. And as Lindil has not been around for about a month (and has not replied to an e-mail I sent him a while ago) it looks like we'll have to discuss this in the absence of the founder of the project.

In my accustomed fashion, I will formulate the discussion in terms of a list of issues.

1. What do we do with the Fall of Gondolin draft? I think that a good first step might be to send it out to all the semi-active/former members of the project for review. This would have two benefits: first, it would generate some helpful comments and insights on our draft; second, it might rekindle the interest of some of those members. Perhaps we should send it to anyone who ever "officially" signed up for the project, regardless of how long they've been gone. Or perhaps we should send it only to those that have participated within, say, the past year.

2. A closely related procedural issue is when and how we are to go back and revise the Fall of Gondolin. It would be best, I think, not to do this whensoever any member desires. That would tend to create interminable discussion and also to deprive the current version of any kind of "official" status. On the other hand, we cannot simply declare it finished and never look at it again.

In the short-term, at any rate, I think that a decent course would be to send out the draft as proposed in 1, wait for a reasonable period so that any feedback is in, and then reopen discussion.

3. Related to 2, but applicable to the project in general: what is that status of the decisions made by voting? We have decided, if I recall correctly, the Orc/Ork, Bad Uthwen, ambiguous Balrogs, and Legolas issues by vote. I know that Lindil, for example, was unhappy with the Legolas decision. On the one hand, I hate to simply let these votes become absolute law and never be able to return to these issues, or reconsider them. On the other hand, I wouldn't feel at all right about simply reopening one of these issues and completely ignoring the previous result - particularly considering that most of the votes took place at a time when membership was higher, so in effect a very small group of people would be overruling the decision of a much larger one.

Note, again, that this is a very important issue not just for the Fall of Gondolin but for the project as a whole. It probably ought to be tied up before we commence another big project.

4. What is our next project? I know that Maedhros and Findegil have done some work on the Ruin of Doriath, which I, alas, have not yet looked at in great detail. Findegil has also brought up the possibility of going straight into Earendil.

I'm wary of starting another huge project so soon (especially the Ruin of Doriath, which is certainly the most problematic of any chapter). I think we should at least consider doing an easier section, one we could (one would hope) finish fairly quickly (more quickly, anyway, than the three years or so that FoG took).

In any case, I think we should finalize the Ainulindale and Valaquenta changes before starting on another big project.

5. As work on the Fall of Gondolin progressed, the more general discussions on matters that apply to the whole project became less and less active. I think that an unfortunate result of this is that a lot of former members who were interested in such questions but not so much in the technicalities of FoG lost interest. Now might be a good time to try to reinvigorate that interest (which might be done with my suggestion in 1 above) and re-open some discussions on general issues.