Quote:
|
Originally Posted by mark12_30
However, those are not the tales that are in question when we are referring to The Silmarillion, which (as we have it) is Translations From the Elvish by B. Baggins. The implication above was that only Elrond knew the stories contained in the Silmarillion, and by the time that Bilbo wrote them down, they were fraught with error syuch as Turin's talking sword.
However, this is illogical. Bilbo presented Frodo with his three-volume set as Frodo departed Rivendell just after the Ring was destroyed. Elrond was still at Rivendell. So was Glorfindel. So were many other elves. The tales were well-known: Valaquenta, Ainulindale; Beren & Luthien, Turin Turmambar, Alkallabeth. The implication there is that Bilbo wrote his translations while there were plenty of folk around him to check his accuracy. Chalking Turin's talking sword up to Bilbo's wild imagination is taking Bilbo's scholarship in to serious question-- why would he invent such a thing when he knew his volumes would be around for quite a while?
|
Bilbo had not to invent details of the story. It seems clear (because of your argumentation), that he wrote the things down, which he had heart from the Elves of Rivendell. But the Elves of Rivendell? Where do they know the details of Turin's last minutes. It could be, that they have made sense of the end of the story of Turin Turambar. Noone was there in Turin's last minutes. Mablung came too late. He saw Turin when he was already dead.
The Silmarillion (and the other works of Tolkien) wasn't written by an omniscient narrator, so the last minutes of Turin are open for speculation. Mablung saw the scenery of his suicide. His sword was broken and before Turin was leaving him, he had been in a unstable status (mental).
The story of the speaking sword could come from the sentence of Melian, that the dark heart of Eol had lived in the sword.
The consequence of these circumstances could create the menaing, that the sword has spoken. A rumour, that outlives thousands of years.