Quote:
Originally Posted by Galin
I realize we use the texts we have, so to speak, but I like to remind/annoy that the Numenorean-Bilbo transmission seems to have more "fully" bloomed in the 1960s (the speculated date of AAm* throws me a bit here, but so be it with respect to this text and its Numenorean introduction).
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This is a generally excellent post, but I want to poke at this point a little more. If we assume that the Great Tales as they came down to us are Bilbo's translations from Numenorean texts, then how did
they know that Finrod was out and about again?
-Messages during the First Age, presumably by dream from Ulmo, but potentially brought back by Luthien and Beren on their rebirth. (Credit for this notion goes, I believe, to Philosopher@Large, though she may have cribbed it from somewhere else.)
-Messages brought during the War of Wrath, by the soldiers involved.
-Finrod himself actually showing up in the War of Wrath. Because the Valar would be utterly dense not to take the one person they have to hand who actually
knows the country Out East. ^_^ I realise this is a very implausible notion.
-Messages brought to Numenor by visitors from Eressea, possibly including Finrod himself. This is far and away the
simplest transmission.
Vardamir Nolimon was a noted scholar, and a credible source for at least some Numenorean Transmission texts due to that; he would totally have asked for any extra details the visiting Eldar could give him.
-Umm... and after that we're left with wizards and Glorfindel. At which point, if someone were making edits, they'd probably note in the Gondolin section that Glorfindel was back, right?
Taking all this into account, it seems likely to me that the Eresseans reported to the Numenoreans (and most likely to Vardamir) that Finrod was back. They
didn't say the same about Glorfindel, implying that this was the early Second Age, before he was restored - again, pointing the finger at Vardamir.
hS