What do you wish Tolkien....

[Galin]

Originally Posted by Cirdan

(...) and/or that whilst in the throes of his imaginative, creative processes he was unrestricted by what came before and just let ideas flow freely since he did not expect every single scribble to be published and scrutinized by the masses!

Well put! I should add that to my usual rant on Tolkien-published text being of higher (Valinorean?) stature than other types!

But I may or may not credit you when I steal it though

[Findegil]

About the problem of 'ros': I think that for Tolkien a barrowed stem 'ros' meaning foam, spindrift would not have worked, because it would have created the same unwanted situation of 2 homophone stems with completly unconected meanings. Tolkien had not a problem with the history behind the 2 stems but with the fact of their existence. But in the end he was forced to accept them, because both meanings were already published.

Posted by Cirdan:

??? Are you saying that the Valar did not want Tar-Minastir to send the great force which saved Eriador when Sauron had the mastery there?

Yes, that is exacly what I meaned. Look at the longterm outcome of the involvement of the Numenoreans: 1 Generation later they came not as helper but as masters and conquers to the men of Middle-Earth. They became proud and greedy. And started soon (as the Valar recone time) to rebel against the authority of the Valar. It ended all in the foul idea of Ar-Pharazon, that he could control Sauron and in Saurons subsuquent coruption of almost all Numenoreans.

Most probably the Valar had some beter plan how to counterakt against Sauron in the Second Age. Maybe that did not include a rescue for the lingering Elves in Middle-Earth, that had sined again by making and keeping the Rings of Power and had anyway a way of escape into the west.
But this is all speculation and the recorded history of Middle-Earth went otherwise.

Respectfuly
Findegil