Glorfindel - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

ArcusCalion · 12-13-2018, 10:52 PM

I like this change actually, I agree with gandalf's comments that it is currently an awkward start to a chapter, and this edit makes it much smoother. Personally, I think I am in favor of including this here and now. I would, however, use a different editing marker: GLOR-SL-02b and just include the removals into the existing GLOR-SL-02. This cleans up the text.

As for what the in-universe nature of this project is: simply, it's presented as Bilbo's official 'Translations from the Elvish' compiled from various sources around Rivendell. The books are said to have been added to and edited by Findegil, a scribe of Gondor during the Fourth Age, and in that format were preserved in the 'Thain's Book,' a copy of the Red Book of Westmarch containing the TftE, LotR, the Hobbit, and a large amount of unwritten material about Hobbits etc. Because Bilbo was compiling his work from a compilation of older sources, it follows exactly the format which we ourselves use in this project for the creation of our drafts. As to the question about Bilbo and his access to Glorfindel personally, this is true that he indeed had access. However, the TftE were (in the universe) transposed to Gondor, then in an unknown progression through around three or four more Ages till finally Tolkien supposedly found the Book and translated it. Thus, not all the chapters and notes in our text are necessarily required to be written by Bilbo himself. They may very well have been added at a later date by Findegil or unnamed other authors in the long unknown line of descent of textual preservation. (Of course, the real in-universe question of 'what is canonical is more complicated than this project can address. This project attempts to create an official 'canon' in the same way that CT did when he made the Silmarillion, and applies a universal standard to a varied body of texts to create a single unified narrative.)

12-13-2018, 10:52 PM	#7
ArcusCalion Quentingolmo Join Date: Aug 2017 Posts: 525	I like this change actually, I agree with gandalf's comments that it is currently an awkward start to a chapter, and this edit makes it much smoother. Personally, I think I am in favor of including this here and now. I would, however, use a different editing marker: GLOR-SL-02b and just include the removals into the existing GLOR-SL-02. This cleans up the text. As for what the in-universe nature of this project is: simply, it's presented as Bilbo's official 'Translations from the Elvish' compiled from various sources around Rivendell. The books are said to have been added to and edited by Findegil, a scribe of Gondor during the Fourth Age, and in that format were preserved in the 'Thain's Book,' a copy of the Red Book of Westmarch containing the TftE, LotR, the Hobbit, and a large amount of unwritten material about Hobbits etc. Because Bilbo was compiling his work from a compilation of older sources, it follows exactly the format which we ourselves use in this project for the creation of our drafts. As to the question about Bilbo and his access to Glorfindel personally, this is true that he indeed had access. However, the TftE were (in the universe) transposed to Gondor, then in an unknown progression through around three or four more Ages till finally Tolkien supposedly found the Book and translated it. Thus, not all the chapters and notes in our text are necessarily required to be written by Bilbo himself. They may very well have been added at a later date by Findegil or unnamed other authors in the long unknown line of descent of textual preservation. (Of course, the real in-universe question of 'what is canonical is more complicated than this project can address. This project attempts to create an official 'canon' in the same way that CT did when he made the Silmarillion, and applies a universal standard to a varied body of texts to create a single unified narrative.)