[davem]

In CT's note on the final words in LotR he writes:

In all the texts of 'The Grey Havens' from the earliest draft Sam said to rosie when he returned to Bag End 'Well, I'm back.' 'Well. I've come back' does not mean the same thing.'

So, he clearly recognises that a particular phrasing, a particular choice of words, affects the meaning of what's being said. That being the case, & for all SpM says, I still wonder how he can justify this particular change. As B88 points out, there is a significant difference between 'do not' & 'need not'.

If I'm right (& its only speculation) that this edition is to be seen as definitve - though it seems from comments in the new foreword that this edition has been recorded electronically by Harper Collins as just that - it means that these changes are authorised by CT to stand from now on, & will be in every subsquent edition.

It may seem a trivial point - maybe Mithalwen is right. I suppose my own feeling is that, as we have so few comments about Elven psychology ‘from the horses mouth’ so to speak, these lines of Legolas’ are significant, & I can’t help thinking we need more justification for the change than CT has offered us so far. If this is to become the standard text, then pretty soon it won’t be possible to buy the original version - the only one Tolkien authorised. I know one could argue that Tolkien made more significant changes between the first & second editions of LotR , but he made those changes. It seems to me that this is different. This edition, as I pointed out recently in the Canonicity thread, contains between three & four hundred emendations. Most are of spellings (with others like the change from ‘smaller than the other’ in Aragorn’s reference to Pippin to ‘smaller than the others’). This one, though, I feel actually alters Legolas meaning not just his words.