[Mithadan]

Since this is a common misconception, I will attempt to clarify. After JRRT died in 1973, his son gathered his papers and attempted to place them in a degree of order so that he knew what was most recent and what was an earlier, possibly rejected, draft. He did this quickly and the Sil was published in 1977.

While Christopher was familiar with the stories and materials in general, he made some errors in dating materials, ran into inconsistencies and pieces of storyline which lacked detail or did not exist. An example of the latter is the fall of Doriath for which there was almost no detailed or revised material; CT wrote that portion himself based upon what he believed his father intended.

After the Sil was published, CT began a more detailed and leisurely review of his father's papers and found information which he had missed as well as material which he misdated, using earlier drafts in the Sil rather than later. As a result, the published Sil is CT's edited version of his father's writings based upon his views as of 1973-1977 of what his father intended. As time progressed, and the HoME volumes were prepared CT realized he had made a number of errors and omissions in the Sil. So the Sil does not represent what JRRT intended to publish, at least as a whole. However, it is difficult to distinguish what JRRT actually intended from where JRRT was tinkering, speculating or experimenting with the tale from the HoME volumes. Thus our "Canon/New Silmarillion" forum.