[lindil]

I have been pondering for a few days now; why not an 'Annotated Silmarillion' if we have an 'Annotated Hobbit'?

OF course from out pov the ideal 'annotations' would be additional [canonical] material from HoM-E and UT and co., not various anecdotes, mythological, literary source information, bizarre drawings from obscure european editions and such [not that this is bad, the Annotated Hobbit is quite interesting actually].

Of course the immediate problem is that this really only an annotation if done in a way that is likely to be less than desirable a read.

But still the idea in general has merit, especially in light of the idea of Guy Kay's [CJRT's editorial helper on the QS77] idea [reently read in Tolkien's Legendarium' that the stories and such in HoM-E were better served as narrative material, than scholarly fodder. Well, since we have them one way, why not another?

So I think the idea of a

Silmarillion Companion or a Annotated Silmarillionor better yet utilizing our working titleTranslations frm the Elvish.

OF course for anything like this to pass muster with the estate [read CJRT] it could not have anything as 'creative' as the Fall of Gondolin, or speculative rewrites [even using JRRT's words] of the Ruin of Doriath.

But at the very least it might possibly be approved as a sort of dual column Silmarillion 'plus'

texttexttexttext......HOM-E/UT
texttexttexttext......HOM-E/UT
texttexttexttext......HOM-E/UT
texttexttexttext......HOM-E/UT
texttexttexttext......HOM-E/UT

which is exactly how the annotated Hobbit is set up [well the left hand pages anyway].

This [or parallel pages] in fact would work very nicely for the overlapping Annals of Aman/QS material.

Another option is that smaller glosses [say Salmar's horn] could be inserted as italics into the text, or things like the Shibboleth version of the death of Amras could be either directly inserted [with italics] or sidebarred.

Finrod & Andreth and Druedain material could ideally be inserted chronologicaly,

A [re]combined Narn would only make sense as a replacment chapter[s] and Of Tuor and his Coming could of course be a stand alome chapter placed before the Narn, with the remainder of the Gondolin material coming after.

As appendices ideally there would be Laws and Customs, Osanwe-Kenta, and conclude with the Commentary on the Athrabeth as [possibly] intended.

Something like this might pass muster with CJRT. Especially if editorial editions were absolutely minimal and easily spotted.

OF course an ideal companion volume [II] would be the Narrative version of the 2nd and 3rd ages.

This would be pretty hard to get accepted at all, although if the first one was in some form or fashion accepted, after its completion would of course be the time to suggest it.

Anyway, that is some of where my thought has been lately.

Of course one great thing about this version is there would be no Rog to deal with... [img]smilies/cool.gif[/img]

[ November 14, 2003: Message edited by: lindil ]