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silwritersguildA while ago, I introduced the idea of SWG doing a reading of The History of Middle-earth series as it pertains to the evolution of The Silmarillion. While people were very interested in seeing the summaries posted for reference and discussion on our Yahoo! group, several also wished them to be posted on the ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
silwritersguild LiveJournal community, where they are more easily archived and found.
This is the first of the summaries, of the Foreword of The Book of Lost Tales 1. For those of you who do not have access to the essays and chapters being summarized and would like to read them, PDFs are available on our Yahoo! group. However, you must be a member of the Yahoo! group to access our files, which are password-protected for reasons of copyright. You may join the SWG Yahoo! group here. You do not need to receive group emails in order to be a member; if you need help joining or adjusting your email settings, please feel free to contact me at [email protected] or with a comment to any of my posts in this group.
Part of the purpose of this project is to share thoughts and ideas on The History of Middle-earth, so please don't hesitate to chime in with your thoughts, on either group.
The Book of Lost Tales was J.R.R. Tolkien's earliest work. Many of the ideas in the Tales were later rejected or the stories abandoned entirely, but in the Tales, we can see some of the roots for the stories and legends that later made up Middle-earth.
The Book of Lost Tales I as we have it was published six years after The Silmarillion was published posthumously. The Foreword addresses many of the issues that arose in the wake of The Silmarillion's publication and also explains the purpose of the History of Middle-earth project. The History of Middle-earth series seeks to show the evolution of the published stories as we know them and to do so with minimal complication for readers. The series includes complete or mostly-complete works of J.R.R. Tolkien interspersed with commentary from his son Christopher Tolkien, the author of the Foreword.
Perhaps most interesting about the Foreword, however, is its discussion of some of the issues and complications associated with The Silmarillion's publication after J.R.R.T.'s death, particularly as it relates to The Lord of the Rings. Anyone who has ever struggled with understanding--or liking--The Silmarillion should be heartened by this Foreword: Here, the "experts" themselves admit that it is a challenging book and that its publication after LotR is particularly problematic. C.T. describes a sense of outrage in many readers who, expecting another LotR, found themselves with a book of cursory myths written in a "Biblical," archaic style.
What is it that makes The Silmarillion such a challenge? J.R.R.T. himself admitted that the lack of Hobbits would be perceived by many as a loss, even by those without a particular liking for them. The Silmarillion lacks the "mediating" characters of LotR, those who take the strange world of Middle-earth and interpret it in a way that we residents of Modern-earth can easily understand. The Silmarillion, on the contrary, is said to "move the heart and the imagination, directly," without the intervention of a narrator(s).
Some critics have also speculated that The Silmarillion destroys some of the depth of LotR. The songs and stories barely alluded to in LotR create a sense of depth, of a very distant past that is barely glimpsed and so stirs the imagination. Some have wondered if expanding upon these stories was a wise course of action; if this might have destroyed some of the magic of those stories as they appear, briefly, in LotR. C.T. replies to this concern by acknowledging that many readers of LotR will have no need to delve further into the history of Middle-earth, but that it would be a mistake to deny those whose curiosity was awakened by LotR by claiming that the history his father had created was but an illusion rather than detailed stories in their own right. He further adds that there is depth in The Silmarillion as much of the history, songs, and lore is only barely alluded to and lends to a sense of times and places outside of The Silmarillion proper.
There is also discussion as to who is the true "narrator" of The Silmarillion and of the stories contained within The Book of Lost Tales. J.R.R.T.'s original idea had an explorer from England called "Eriol" (or "Ælfwine") journey to Tol Eressëa and hear the tales from the Elves themselves. As his work progressed, however, J.R.R.T. seems to have lost sight of this idea. There is allusion made that suggests that his later thinking may have placed The Silmarillion as part of the Red Book of Westmarch that Bilbo compiled and wrote and later gave to Frodo. At the time of publishing The Silmarillion, this was C.T.'s private belief, but he avoided putting The Silmarillion into this context for its readers, a decision that he later came to regret. The conclusion of C.T. and other scholars of Tolkien's work and world is that The Silmarillion was part of the Red Book of Westmarch, written by Bilbo using the written and living sources available to him in Rivendell.
Finally, C.T. sheds some light on the evolution of J.R.R.T.'s mythology that would become fixed in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, and later, The Silmarillion. Middle-earth and its mythology was something evolving over the course of its author's lifetime, and in commiting The Silmarillion to print, perhaps lends a mistaken impression of finality. Some of the ideas in the HoMe books were not rejected, even if they didn't make it into the published version as C.T. saw it.
silwritersguild LiveJournal community, where they are more easily archived and found.This is the first of the summaries, of the Foreword of The Book of Lost Tales 1. For those of you who do not have access to the essays and chapters being summarized and would like to read them, PDFs are available on our Yahoo! group. However, you must be a member of the Yahoo! group to access our files, which are password-protected for reasons of copyright. You may join the SWG Yahoo! group here. You do not need to receive group emails in order to be a member; if you need help joining or adjusting your email settings, please feel free to contact me at [email protected] or with a comment to any of my posts in this group.
Part of the purpose of this project is to share thoughts and ideas on The History of Middle-earth, so please don't hesitate to chime in with your thoughts, on either group.
The Book of Lost Tales was J.R.R. Tolkien's earliest work. Many of the ideas in the Tales were later rejected or the stories abandoned entirely, but in the Tales, we can see some of the roots for the stories and legends that later made up Middle-earth.
The Book of Lost Tales I as we have it was published six years after The Silmarillion was published posthumously. The Foreword addresses many of the issues that arose in the wake of The Silmarillion's publication and also explains the purpose of the History of Middle-earth project. The History of Middle-earth series seeks to show the evolution of the published stories as we know them and to do so with minimal complication for readers. The series includes complete or mostly-complete works of J.R.R. Tolkien interspersed with commentary from his son Christopher Tolkien, the author of the Foreword.
Perhaps most interesting about the Foreword, however, is its discussion of some of the issues and complications associated with The Silmarillion's publication after J.R.R.T.'s death, particularly as it relates to The Lord of the Rings. Anyone who has ever struggled with understanding--or liking--The Silmarillion should be heartened by this Foreword: Here, the "experts" themselves admit that it is a challenging book and that its publication after LotR is particularly problematic. C.T. describes a sense of outrage in many readers who, expecting another LotR, found themselves with a book of cursory myths written in a "Biblical," archaic style.
What is it that makes The Silmarillion such a challenge? J.R.R.T. himself admitted that the lack of Hobbits would be perceived by many as a loss, even by those without a particular liking for them. The Silmarillion lacks the "mediating" characters of LotR, those who take the strange world of Middle-earth and interpret it in a way that we residents of Modern-earth can easily understand. The Silmarillion, on the contrary, is said to "move the heart and the imagination, directly," without the intervention of a narrator(s).
Some critics have also speculated that The Silmarillion destroys some of the depth of LotR. The songs and stories barely alluded to in LotR create a sense of depth, of a very distant past that is barely glimpsed and so stirs the imagination. Some have wondered if expanding upon these stories was a wise course of action; if this might have destroyed some of the magic of those stories as they appear, briefly, in LotR. C.T. replies to this concern by acknowledging that many readers of LotR will have no need to delve further into the history of Middle-earth, but that it would be a mistake to deny those whose curiosity was awakened by LotR by claiming that the history his father had created was but an illusion rather than detailed stories in their own right. He further adds that there is depth in The Silmarillion as much of the history, songs, and lore is only barely alluded to and lends to a sense of times and places outside of The Silmarillion proper.
There is also discussion as to who is the true "narrator" of The Silmarillion and of the stories contained within The Book of Lost Tales. J.R.R.T.'s original idea had an explorer from England called "Eriol" (or "Ælfwine") journey to Tol Eressëa and hear the tales from the Elves themselves. As his work progressed, however, J.R.R.T. seems to have lost sight of this idea. There is allusion made that suggests that his later thinking may have placed The Silmarillion as part of the Red Book of Westmarch that Bilbo compiled and wrote and later gave to Frodo. At the time of publishing The Silmarillion, this was C.T.'s private belief, but he avoided putting The Silmarillion into this context for its readers, a decision that he later came to regret. The conclusion of C.T. and other scholars of Tolkien's work and world is that The Silmarillion was part of the Red Book of Westmarch, written by Bilbo using the written and living sources available to him in Rivendell.
Finally, C.T. sheds some light on the evolution of J.R.R.T.'s mythology that would become fixed in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, and later, The Silmarillion. Middle-earth and its mythology was something evolving over the course of its author's lifetime, and in commiting The Silmarillion to print, perhaps lends a mistaken impression of finality. Some of the ideas in the HoMe books were not rejected, even if they didn't make it into the published version as C.T. saw it.
