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Re: lost tales of the First Age and before

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  Posted by Curugon on May 25, 2000 at 15:37:06
In Reply to: lost tales of the First Age and before posted by shadowfax on May 24, 2000 at 12:43:42:



: Me too, but on the other hand, I'm glad he didn't. The exubarant overflowingly rich style of the earliest parts of the Silmarillion was toned down in subsequent re-writes, and Tolkien was still unhappy about them. He didn't see how he could tell people the sun was a chariot in an age when space exploration was developing so rapidly. Had Tolkien re-written the FA and pre-FA one final time, as he no doubt intended to do had he lived a few years more, we would probably have a far greyer watered down-to-earth mythology.

: I prefer to imagine (in this case) that Tolkien's original texts are the correct story, and the subsequent re-writes somehow misinterpretations, so it's a good thing we have HoME to go back to the original.

: This comment is for these particular examples. In some cases I think the story definitely improved as a result of his re-work.

I think the style in which Professor Tolkien wrote (in the Silmarillion) is the main factor in its effectiveness, meaning the fact that it reads like a history book (albeit far more interesting)! That makes it all the more fun and enjoyable to read, like reading a detailed account of the Battle of Gettysburg. It draws us in and makes us identify with these characters in ways that normal fiction does not.

-Curugon


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