The Book of Lost Tales Part I: A Readthrough

[jallanite]

Originally Posted by Formendacil

1. Rúmil's speech seems to be littered with a bit more Elfin than what is reported of the others (who are all supposed to be speaking Elfin anyway...): "when tirípti lirilla here comes a bird, an imp of Melko" and he speaks of Mar Vanya Tyaliéva rather than the Cottage of Lost Play. It gives him a distinct character but its an inconsistent application of the translator conceit, I think.

But the only words not translated in Rúmil’s speech (except for the expletive tirípti lirilla) are names of people and places, which one should not expect to be translated, even when a translated version of the name might make sense in English. The same practice of not translating personal names and place names is the normal practice in written tales set in non-English environments. A story set in France would refer to the city of l’Havre, not to a city called The Harbour, to the Jardin des Plantes, not to the Garden of Plants, to François and Pierre rather than to Frank and Peter. Tolkien is here following normal practice used by translators.

2. "Gods" could (should?) probably join the discussion of "fairies" and "Gnomes" regarding words used in the BoLT and not much in the later works.

The word Gods is used less than here in later works by Tolkien, but still used, whereas fairy is used only once in The Hobbit and gnome not at all. Douglas Charles Kane in his Arda Reconsidered, page 251, writes:

With a few small exceptions, Christopher [Tolkien] eliminates all reference to the Valar as “gods,” although that terminology remained common in the later versions of both the Quenta and the Annals.

3. … it's still a valid connection to make anyway, because we know Tolkien was a reader of sci-fi (at least a decade later).

Agreed. There is also a letter from Tolkien to Richard Lupoff which admits to Tolkien having read earlier Martian Books by Edgar Rice Burroughs but declares a distaste for Burroughs’ Tarzan character. See http://books.google.ca/books?id=B0lo...page&q&f=false .

Originally Posted by Tar-Jêx

The transition between the Silmarillion and BoLT is often quite difficult, as the name are all different, very few the same.

Hardly so. Most of the major characters have exactly the same names as in versions written later: Ilúvatar, Manwë, Varda, Ulmo, Yavanna, Oromë, Mandos, Tulkas, Fëanor, Barahir, Beren, Lúthien, Beleg, Tuor, Huor, Turgon, Idril, Glorfindel, and Elwing, for example. A few characters have smaller changes of name: Melco later becomes Melcor, Ungweliantë later becomes Ungoliant, Tinwë Linto later becomes Thingol, Dairon later becomes Daeron, Meglin later becomes Maeglin, Eärendel later becomes Eärendil, Sorontur later becomes Thorondor, Glorund later becomes Glaurung, Kosomot later becomes Gothmog and so forth.

In contrast very few characters have totally different names. Melian is one of these, being variously named as Gwedheling, Gwendelin(g), Gwenthlin, and Gwenniel. And notoriously Sauron is replaced by Tevildo, King of Cats, or rather the opposite is true. The other such renamed characters are minor characters.

You seem not to recall much of the work. I suggest trying to reread it before commenting on it. There are indeed many changes of names and of style and of plot in respect to the published Silmarillion. If this bothers you then you are missing one of the main reasons for interest in any author’s early version of a work: the differences from the later version or versions.

I recall when this volume first appeared. Christopher Tolkien had already published Unfinished Tales and one hoped for more. That he now intended to publish early versions of all his father’s work was totally unexpected, considering earlier remarks which had suggested no such course.

The work was for me a delightful surprise.

On page 4 of this volume Christopher Tolkien writes: “We do not actually see the Silmarils as we see the Ring.” That seems to me to be a flaw in The Silmarillion, perhaps a necessary flaw considering that The Silmarillion was supposed to be a summary of imagined fuller accounts.

But The Book of Lost Tales, while incomplete and in disagreement with later conceptions told its tale in full. The reader sees the growth of the Two Trees in Tolkien’s only full description of them. The reader sees the city of the Valar with the only descriptions of the dwellings of the Valar, internal and external. One sees the Silmarils themselves as Fëanor creates them. One sees Rúmil himself, not as a vaguely imagined ancient elven sage responsible for an early writing system but as an eccentric, old codger, enraged at meeting with a bird whose speech he cannot understand, and then blaming the no-doubt innocent bird for the sage’s ignorance.

The story, though incomplete, is most enjoyable.