* An unofficial New Silmarillion Outline *

[Findegil]

this barrow is deader than death

I will take it as an compliment for myself that you took so long to mark that.

One more thing I wanted to ask you - can you tell me what sources did you use for the 11 chapters you finished by now (as you said)?

I understand that you mean the Quenta Silmarillion chapters
. 1 Of the Beginning of Time
. 2 Of Valinor and the Two Trees
. 3 Concerning Naugrim, Ents and Eagles
… Of Aulë and the Dwarves
……Here are the words of Pengolod concerning the Naugrim
… Anaxartaron Onyalie
…… Of the Ents and the Eagles
. 4 Of the Coming of the Elves
… The legend of the Awaking of the Quendi (Cuivienyarna)
… Of the captivity of Melkor
… The Clan-names, with notes on other names for divisions of the Eldar
…… Lindar (Teleri)
…… Vanyar
…… Ñoldor
…… Sindar
…… Nandor
[b]. 5 Of Thingol and Melian
. 6 Of Eldamar and the Princes of the Eldalie
… The Names of Finwë's descendants
…… 1. The names of Finwë
…… 2. (The names of the child of Míriel)
…… 3. (The names of the children of Indis)
…… 4. (The names of the children of Fingolfin)
…… 5. (The names of the children of Finarfin)
…… 6. The names of the Sons of Fëanor
. 7 Of the Darkening of Valinor: Of Finwë and Míriel
. 8 Of the Darkening of Valinor: Of Fëanor and the Unchaining of Melkor
. 9 Of the Darkening of Valinor: Of the Silmarils and the Unrest of the Noldor
. 10 Of the Drakening of Valinor
… Of the Rape of the Silmarils
. 11 Of the Thieves’ Quarrel

First of all I did never claim these chapters where any think near finished! To produce a draft is a private leisure time occupation. The result is as fare from being finished as any readable text of chapter might be. The chapters are untouched by the group, which means they are worth no more than the nice hours I spent to produce them. The ecception to this are chapters 7 to 10 which have been discussed here a very long time ago, when the former active group of members found it neccessary to produce in a shorter time something as an example of how they imagined the end result of their edidting while working on the Fall of Gondolin.
The basic text for these chapters is the Later Quenta Silammrillion found in HoME 10 but of course there are passages skipt and adds and replacements from various sorces ranging from the Lost Tales to Words, Phrases and Passages- Eldarin roots and stems, PE17. If you and I will succed in re-establishing a working discussion, I will post my drafts chapter by chapter as the discussion goes forward.

Regarding Of the Coming of the Elves - I'm not entirely sure if the Clan-names should be kept inside the main body of the text - I think it should go in the appendices; same thing with the Cuivienyarna (sort of like the Tale of Adanel in the Athrabeth).

The Names of Finwë's Descendants don't belong (in my opinion) to the main body of text - the tone of it is not right, and it is too much of an intrusion in the main narrative. Besides, if one would edit the text of The Names of Finwë's Descendants and The Clan-names (in the chapter Of the Coming of Elves) to fit the narrative better, it would damage the original text of the essays and alter their nature. So perhaps it would be better to put them inside the appendices or to the Volume III of the Translations from the Elvish.

In both cases your oppinion is very welcome and might be in harmony with the oppinon of some other members. Draft making is often a kind of experimenting with possibilities. The group discussion is what decisides such questions. And therefore they have to wait for that discussion to happen.

But in any case, I have a proposal: how about including the essay Círdan found in The Peoples of Middle-earth as an appendix to the chapter Of Eldamar and the Princes of the Eldalië?

Appendicies are not much liked and often avoided (but see the discussion of the Athrabeth). In my draft the essay Círdan is taken up into the body of that chapter.

And I respectfully disagree with the splitting of the chapters Of the Beginning of Time and Of Valinor and the Two Trees.

Actually I would not call this 'spliting a chapter'. The questions was reased when we decisded to eliminate from the Ainulindale the part about the first conflict of the Valar upon Middle-Earth. In the editing of the Ainulindale we had enriched these passages greatly with the later material from the Annals of Aman. And we were sure that these infromation should not be lost. A very compressd summary of these events is found at the beging of the Later Quenta Silmarillion chapter Of Valinor and the Two Trees. To replace these 2 paragraphs with a big chunk of text was found unproportional and desrupting for the chapter title. Therefore we decisided to make this addition to the Quenta Silmarillion in a similar way as Christopher Tolkien had done in the published Silmarillion of 1977.

Respectuly
Findegil

P.S.: Sorry for being late with these answer, but I had to read the Athrabeth to prepair myself for the discussion, which took some time and was found more improtant for the moment.