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Originally Posted by littlemanpoet
I think that Christopher has tied his own creative hands far too much. There are glaring examples of this in Turin.
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There are - & I'm sure that it would have benefitted from the inclusion of elements from the Lay. However, in some ways that would have worked against his purpose - which was making his father's work available, rather than just making the story available in the best possible form.
Of course, you are right about it being one of the great tragedies of Tolkien's creative life that he got distracted into writing those 'lesser' (but still fascinating) works. Christopher has given us a glimpse of what might have been. CoH works, but its pretty clearly not what Tolkien would have given us had he managed to complete it to his satisfaction. I wonder if his reputation among the 'literati' would have been different had the First Age Trilogy been published.
Its incredibly sad that the other tales will languish mostly unread in a fuller form - well, tbh, in any form, given that most casual fans don't even attempt the Sil, let alone UT & HoM-e.
I wonder why Tolkien chose the path he took - can't help wondering how much influence his correspondents had in the post LotR period, with their constant questioning of the works theological credentials, or their pointing up of 'similarities' with Christianity. I can't help feeling that Tolkien the amateur theologian/philosopher took that path too eagerly, & that we lost probably his greatest work for that very reason.