View Single Post
Old 05-15-2004, 09:30 AM   #20
lindil
Seeker of the Straight Path
 
Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: a hidden fastness in Big Valley nor cal
Posts: 1,680
lindil has just left Hobbiton.
all post lotr writings...

for me everything in UT as well as everything else written from 1950 on is pretty much pure gold.

For me JRRT only hit his pace with the wrapping up of the LotR. He really begins to shine in the UT, Silm and HoM-E 10-12 material.

Something crystallized in his writing and or mind and the level of reality conveyed by the words and stories becomes far denser and richer, even though the subject matter is almost always darker.

I especially loved the 2nd age and early 3rd age historical bits on the elves and Galadriel, and of course the Narn. It is a sad fact that HoM-E does so little to illuminate this area more.

Unfortunately, we are given only part of the whole Hurin cycle in UT and must get some bits from the Silm. But most notably missing from UT is the Wanderings of Hurin now in HoM-E XI.

Still, I remember when [i]unfinished Tales[/i came out in 1980. It opened up beautiful new vistas even as it filled in major holes.


I reality UT should probably be reworked into the HoM-E series [ HoM-E XI.V] as we are denied quite a bit of lore in the 'general editor' mode CJRT did UT in. We see no textual jumbles in the Narn [and are still clueless as to the contents of the missing account of Hurin slaying orc or trolls at sunset at the Nirnaeth.

But the writings grow deeper and more satisfying as I fet older.

LotR may be the most well known. but his last 20 years of Silm writings are, I believe , his magnum opus, even if an unfinished and chaotic one.
__________________
The dwindling Men of the West would often sit up late into the night exchanging lore & wisdom such as they still possessed that they should not fall back into the mean estate of those who never knew or indeed rebelled against the Light.

Last edited by lindil; 05-15-2004 at 09:42 AM.
lindil is offline   Reply With Quote