Two Gandalfs

[HerenIstarion]

Originally Posted by Aiwendil

It was only a few years ago that I learned about the extensive changes that had been made to that chapter. Prior to learning about them, I never detected any discrepancy in tone.

I can put my name beneath that.

as for the

Originally Posted by Aiwendil

the character that eventually became Sauron, for example, started out as a cat.

I proclaim it the quote of the week and ask for permission to use it a signature (not immediately, but after some future change of my current one)

Funny thing being, for the rest of it I'm probably on the opposite end of the balance: I tend to assimilate all of the accounts to produce one coherent mental picture of any given character - but that probably would be rather a position of a 'low-brow' reader, who wants to know what to expect from 'persons' (and one can't help thinking of characters as 'persons' when carried off by the tide of the story) s/he is reading about, than 'high-brow' researcher who studies development of the text and characters.

I believe both approaches are lawful, both may be enjoyed (and by the one and the same person too) just my personal taste makes me prefer the former one.

With which I suggest we should rename (in the light of recent development, not without gentle push from yours truly, and with kind persmission of the author - lmp) current thread into Ganduplets Coming, or Canonicity Strikes Back and start it all anew

The last paragraph being a kidding, of course