* An unofficial New Silmarillion Outline *

[Maédhros]

It is interesting to now look back at the beginning of the Project and see how far we have advanced:

Posted by Aiwendil in 2001

My main concern regards the end of the Silm.: the Fall of Gondolin, the Ruin of Doriath, and the Voyage of Eärendil. The first of these could be fairly well compiled from the later Tuor and the lost tale. This would require a good bit of editorial alteration for consistency of plot as well as of style, but is feasible. The second, the Ruin of Doriath, is where real problems begin to pop up. About the first third of this exists in the long, in depth version, The Wanderings of Hurin. From the end of this all the way through the end of the book, though, there is nothing but the old Quenta Noldorinwa of 1930 (and a slightly expanded 1937 version of the end of 'Eärendil'). It would be quite a discrepancy to leap from such a fully formed narrative to such a brief summary - I think this is largely why Christopher basically ignored the Wanderings of Húrin and much of the Narn in the 77. The Lost Tales is no help here, as Tolkien didn't even begin drafting the tale of Eärendil. The only ways to handle this would be to drastically compress the Narn, Gondolin, etc., or to expand Earendil and parts of the Ruin of Doriath.

The main problems that we thought at the beginning of the project, have been dealt with and the chapters finished.

We in 2007 have completed from the Beren and Lúthien saga all the way to the end. Wow. In retrospect, I think that it has been a great effort by all of the members that have participated in one time or the other in this project.
A well deserved congratulations to us all.
You know, I have a file that Findegil sent me, and the Translations from the Elvish version that we dreamed of, is not that far off.

I only wished that Lindil would see what has happened to his idea to create a more complete Silmarillion. Cheers.