Barrow-Wight
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I think we need to keep HoME stuff out of the Chapter-by-chapter discussions. The idea was to discuss the Lord of the Rings and not the entire span of JRRT's writings, right?
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HoME is a wonderful resource for those who are interested in delving so deeply into the foundations of the story, but HoME is not LotR.
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The thing that has always made me uncomfortable about the publication of the volumes of HoME that related to LotR is that, unlike the material contained in the other volumes, we know for a fact that Tolkien had rejected the stuff in the early drafts of LotR.
This begs the question of whether that material should play any part in a discussion of LotR. Part of me wants it included in this discussion, but I know the danger - that it would exclude too many people who aren't familiar with HoME.
Also, we have to keep in mind always, that some readers like to indulge in the fantasy that LotR is 'real' history, & don't want to be reminded that its all 'made up' by being presented with different versions of the story - it can destroy the magic (breaking things to find out what they're made of, etc) Besides, the Books forum is still going - we don't have to include
everything in the chapter-by chapter section.