Douglas Charles Kane’s “Arda Reconstucted: The Creation of the Published Simarillion”

[jallanite]

Originally Posted by Voronwë_the_Faithful

It's nice to see that people are still talking about my book! jallanite, I'm very pleased that you found the book to be helpful. That is most gratifying.

You are welcome.

Regarding the issue of the reduction of female characters, I continue to believe that the evidence shows that there is a clear pattern of this being a result of the edits done.

I agree.

I obviously have no way of knowing whether this was done intentionally, or not, and I did not mean to imply in any way that I believed that it was (I honestly doubt very much that it was).

And you very carefully did not imply that Christopher Tolkien purposely did any of the things for which you blame him. When one is attempting to make a complete book out of numerous outlines, and attempting to do so reasonably quickly, then one almost has to mess up on occasion.

Obviously Christopher Tolkien, had he taken three times as long, would have done better. But how much better would have been a work which his father had left in such an unfinished state? I was very disappointed with The Silmarillion when it first came out, and still am, but Christopher Tolkien’s further works make it clear what he had to deal with and he has largely now given us all that his father had produced, something which at the time would have seemed impossible to publish.

I do not agree with all of your personal opinions which appear in your book, but it is those personal opinions (which you make it quite plain are only personal opinions) which make the book come alive for me. And obviously its main value and appeal is its detail and accuracy.