I have to say that I am very excited to see this book out. Thanks for all the great review links, Dave M and everyone. Aiwendil, your little review was very helpful: just the thing I was looking for before jumping in to it.
A friend and I were looking through the introduction and were intrigued by one particular passage and perhaps our excitement and optimism has gotten the best of us, but what do you think?
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It thus seems unquestionable, from my father's own words, that if he could acheive final and finished narratives on the scale he desired, he saw three "Great Tales" of the Elder Days (Beren and Luthien, the Children of Hurin, and the Fall of Gondolin) as works sufficiently complete in themselves as not to demand knowledge of the great body of legend known as The Silimarillion (10).
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Is there a possibility that CoH is the first of three new publications from the Tolkien family? I imagine that with a group like these members if there were any rumblings out there about such a thing, someone here would have heard about it.
Of course, the preface continues with this note immediately after the above quote:
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On the other hand, as my father observed in the same place, the tale of the Children of Hurin is integral to the history of Elves and Men in the Elder Days, and there are necessarily a good many references to events and circumstances in that larger story (10).
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Does this mean that CoH is the only one he considers "big" enough to do a complete book on? Why wouldn't Beren and Luthien or the Fall of Gondolin qualify?
What are your thoughts, and what have you heard on it in out there in the world?