[Rimbaud]

Hmm, well that opinion should send a few ripples...

Tarthang, in my humble opinion, JRRT had not 'finished' or 'final' version of anything. It wasn't the way he worked. A s I have said before, he was trying to create a mythology , not necessarily a straight-forward, linear and coherent story. To that end, he created and mutated many many storylines and told them with varying levels of detail. Put together, much of the work does not correlate exactly. However, he was desirous that people should read and enjoy his work, and so it fell upon CT, afetr his father's death, to create some sort of linear text for the major stories. JRRT had already constructed some of the way the book should be laid out; the frightful task of editing and assimilating the myriad stories was handled for the most part adeptly, IMO.

I agree with lmp's points, about Turin Turambar especially, and that ties in with Child's comment about taking greater time on the first release. That said, I still think he should have published a version of the Silmarillion. I suppose I would merely have preferred a greater level of detail to have been included.

[ July 16, 2002: Message edited by: Stephanos ]