Posted: March 10, 1999 at 00:36:18: by Goodgulf
: : That's a good synopsis, though as the "History" series grew
: : larger and larger, I wondered if perhaps Christopher Tolkien
: : shouldn't have titled it, "Every Scrap of Paper My Father Ever
: : Scribbled On That Has Any Bearing On the Lord of the Rings."
: : Some of the drafts seem trivial in their change of content. The
: : books detail (and I do mean DETAIL) every nuance of change in
: : sentence structure, spelling, dates and any other revisions
: : made by his father prior to and even after the publication of
: : the LOTR. As a one time English lit major, I can only be
: : thankful that we don't have access to Shakespeare's early
: : drafts of his plays.: The books don't get into that kind of detail very often at all, and in fact Christopher points out where he excluded a great deal of material (usually the earliest drafts, or barely legible drafts).
: : Goodgulf
Yes Christopher Tolkien does omit material that is either illegiable or of no merit. But I defer to your obvious expertise in this area. Indeed I have have had a difficult time getting through the History of Middle-Earth, so I'd better keep my big mouth shut. I much preferred the "Unfinished Tales". And now that I've had a chance to re-read the Silmarillion, I find that it is not as stodgy as I first thought. Indeed, the writing is often a notch above LOTR (in my untutored opinion), though the air of tragedy that encompasses much of the book can be a bit depressing. But I'm afraid I do not share your enthusiasm for reading the evolution of various drafts of LOTR. I believe they are important for sholarly study into how Tolkien wrote, but my main interest is in the final draft as it stands today. Goodgulf
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