Quote:
Originally Posted by William Cloud Hicklin
All right: just to disturb the 'canonicity' applecart further: Gil-galad's name, in very late (ca 1969) writing, was Finwain. Which raises new questions about his parentage.
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Also
Finellach in another text, ca. 1965 (
Of the Lands and Beasts of Numenor), though apparently this was already in HoME XII. I'd interpret
Finwain as
Young Finwe.
There's so much in here! The evolution of the timelines and generations is a study in itself, though for 'canonicity' purposes there's one text which falls a decade later than the rest. Certain chunks of it are very much "The History of
Unfinished Tales", and Hostetter makes it very clear where this is the case; but the bulk of it is entirely new.
I'm finding the most fascinating bits not to be the big picture stuff and the philosophy - though there's some that I will definitely come back to - but the little nuggets of trivia you stumble onto along the way. My favourites so far:
-
Generational Schemes, p. 128 - the family tree of
Ingwe! For the first time, we have
his father Ilion - 4th gen descendent of Iminye - his wife Ilwen, and his son Ingwil, brother of Indis.
-
Key Dates, p. 95 - that the Eldar at Cuivienen were watched over by
the future Istari, with new names, plus Melian - 'the only woman, but the chief'.
-
Beards, p 187 - that Radagast
'had only short, curling, light brown hair on his chin'.
-
Hair, p. 186 - that Ingwe had
curly hair! Presumably this carries over in some measure to his descendents. Oh, and Gil-Galad had
silver hair - as
William Cloud Hicklin says, up goes the applecart again!
-
Elvish ages and Numenorean, p. 152 - that at one point, Tolkien considered making Galadriel
Celeborn's second wife!
And it just goes on and on! The entertainment habits of the Numenoreans - what happened to Finrod when he was building Nargothrond - less embarrassing names for Elmo and Teleporno - there's so much in here. I love it. It's mad.
hS