How close is the published The Silmarillion to JRRT's Silmarillion?

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Mithalwen

I didn't mean it personally Inzil, I was speaking generally. I have heard tell of folk who don't like HoME mentioned because the like to pretend it is all real.

All right. I was afraid I had given that impression, and that wasn't what I'd meant at all.

Originally Posted by Mithalwen

I can't say I have read every word of Home either.. but I find it fascinating and useful . I don't think the published Silmarillion has automatic precedence over HoME since it was necessary in the first instance to have coherence and compromises had to be made.

I understand your point, to be sure. I just think that in some instances it becomes necessary, when debating particular points about the works, to have a definite standard. Otherwise, there would seem to be little point in putting forth opinions at all, when they can be countered by endless citations of drafts and whatnot. When the published Silmarillion and other sources are at odds, I'm going with the Silm. Let others do as they like.

[Mithalwen]

Ah well then we will have to wear pink hats on this because for reasons stated the published Silmarillion cannot be a definite standard. It is not to be discounted and may have been the best solution to the problem but a posthumous work left as unfinished as the Sil was from 60years of drafts just can't be THAT authoratative..

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Mithalwen

Ah well then we will have to wear pink hats on this because for reasons stated the published Silmarillion cannot be a definite standard. It is not to be discounted and may have been the best solution to the problem but a posthumous work left as unfinished as the Sil was from 60years of drafts just can't be THAT authoratative..

Fair enough. I've never said the Silm was anything like perfect. However, I think it's nearest thing to a definitive history of the Elder Days available. If/when the Estate puts out something to supplement or supplant it, I'll be more than happy to roll with that.

[Formendacil]

Rather than using loaded terms--and thus concepts--like "authoritative" or "definitive" when discussing the account of the 1977 Silmarillion, perhaps it would be better to consider it the standard account. This sidesteps the question of whether it OUGHT to be the best-known version and accounts for the fact, irrespective, it IS.

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Formendacil

Rather than using loaded terms--and thus concepts--like "authoritative" or "definitive" when discussing the account of the 1977 Silmarillion, perhaps it would be better to consider it the standard account. This sidesteps the question of whether it OUGHT to be the best-known version and accounts for the fact, irrespective, it IS.

I initially did refer to it as the "standard", and that was indeed a better term.

[Mithalwen]

And what are huge chunks of HoME and UT and the Children of Hurin if not complements to the Sil. I have never said the Silmarillion should be supplanted but it has been supplemented..Pink is so my colour...

[Galin]

Hmm, well we have this from CJRT for example, in HME itself...

'The Silmarillion', again in the widest sense, is very evidently a literary entity of a singular nature. I would say it can only be defined in terms of its history; and that history is with this book largely completed (...). It is indeed the only 'completion' possible, because it was always 'in progress'; the published work is not in any way a completion, but a construction devised out of the existing materials.'

'Those materials are now made available, save only in a few details and in the matter of Túrin just mentioned; and with them a criticism of the 'constructed' Silmarillion becomes possible. I shall not enter into that question; although it will be apparent in this book that there are aspects of the work that I view with regret.'

Christopher Tolkien, The War of the Jewels


Of course, then there is the interpretation of that much