[Galin]

For the record I was not suggesting [and was only suggesting something as a possible solution to Inziladun's comments in any case] that HME be banned from this forum or any other.

One forum I post at simply has a separate sub-forum for discussion of the 1977 Silmarillion as a book -- for a 'common ground' discussion of that book as a work in itself, and in that forum alone, HME concerns do not sidetrack any threads. Or they are not supposed to, anyway.

And at least that's how it was when I first joined. Maybe not now.

Anyway for myself, I also don't think HME is really a problem in any case, it's just that I can understand the desire of some who don't wish to read it and want to discuss The Silmarillion as it is, without HME concerns [that they know nothing about perhaps] possibly sidetracking some threads.

Also, I'm aware of the external details that underlie Galadriel's statement in The Fellowship of the Ring, but that doesn't change the fact that she does not state, in Fellowship itself, what mountains she is referring to.

That was part of my point really: the 'external' details might inform the reader about the seemingly conflicting texts, but as we were not really meant to read the posthumously published descriptions [at least not necessarily all of them, and some as they are, in an arguably 'unfinished' state], especially 'rejected' draft material [we were not meant to read them from the author's perspective at least], we might, in my opinion, try to mentally strip this away when dealing with seeming variations.

Even doing so in this case, I admit things don't smooth over perfectly, but if the 'West' means Beleriand and Galadriel means the 'mountains' that stood between some of the Noldor and Celeborn in Doriath...