Kalessin and Bill F.
due to time constraints i will be forced to reply peicemeal.
Kalessin posted :
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From the critical perspective, the creation of Lord of the Rings, its vision, scope and narrative flow, is an act of integrity created by an author at the height of his powers. It is this one work which gives potency to all his other writings,
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I disagree completly with the characterization of LotR as 'the height of his powers, or the zentih of his writings.
I think his writing on the Silmarillion after the LotR. far surpasses the LotR just as much as the LotR was better than BoLT or HoME4 and the Hobbit.
And I am not just reffering to the above essays, but the Narn, the Wanderings of Hurin, the Coming of Tuor to Gondolin, of Cirion and Eorl, the LQ2 parts of HoME10, Aldarion and Erendis, the Faithful Stone, virtually every bit of narrative and prose he wrote after the LotR is in my estimation, improved in: lucidity, the ability to transmit an image of what he is talking of [ truly an elvish charcteristic], depth of writing.
Do not get me wrong, I love the LotR, and some of the sections are particularly wonderful [ Lothlorin, Gildor, the description of Bilbo and Frodo's sneaking out of the hall of Tales in Rivendell, the Elven ringbearers sitting up late at night near Dunland, along with many others are wonderful.
However the more I read the later writings, fragmentary and disjointed though they can be, the more I am aware of the fact that his powers as a storyteller continued to grow long after the LotR, indeed till around say the end of the 60's, when if I not mistaken he no longer wrote anything of length, but short works and notes on linguistic matters or individuals.
Also I would point out that he, himself considered the Silmarillion to be his magnum opus, and the LotR to be an 'intrusion'.
Bill ferny posted "
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but I don’t think that the latter writings consisting of the Osanwe-Kenta and the Athrabeth should necessarily be considered the essence of Tolkien’s cosmology, nor should it necessarily be considered as indicating that the essence of Tolkien’s cosmology was Christian (at least in the beginning). Perhaps, they can be considered the essence of his revision, or the fruit of his latter speculations, and as such they can indicate Tolkien’s growing appreciation of the Legendarium’s potential to contain spiritual truth as he saw it.
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I said "with the Athrbeth and Osanwe and L&C &Co.]the spiritual foundation of the Legendarium
becomes mature" - not essence.
A subtle, but I hope understandable distinction.
Meaning that it [ his legendarium's cosmology] had come to full fruition for him in this life.
It now had all of the depth and levels of meaning it could [ or at least would] be given by him.
And had come indeed full circle as a stand in mythology for England to become a pure work of co-creation, pointing back to the Creator himself [Christ] in a beautiful and subtle conversation coming from one of the most noble of his characters, Finrod.
Laws and Customs also adds to this 'spiritual maturity' not so much by it's discourse of the Valar and the Statute of F & M, but from it's achingly beautiful passages on the love of the Eldar for their children and the manner of their upbringing.
Osanwe-Kenta's high point to me is also less to do with it's lofty subject matter - the of debatings manwe's motives or ability to be duped by Morgothj, as in showing forth the ability buried within
us to communicate soul to soul, if our hearts are open and 'warm' enough.
Likewise the Narn deals with the issues of the 'curse of Morgoth' that the LotR does not, and Hurin and his family's endurance under such a succession of moral catastrophe's.
I have read in CJRT's notes to the Wanderings of Hurin that for JRRT, the Hurin/Turin saga had become the central tale of the Silmarillion.
to be continued [ God willing]...
[ January 14, 2003: Message edited by: lindil ]