Another "new" Tolkien book

[Alatar]

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[Voronwë the Faithful]

Thanks for that, Al, even though it doesn't really tell us anything that we didn't already know.

[Eldy]

Yeah, thank you, Al! That description sounds consistent with what we saw in the recent photos: passages of Tolkien's writing reproduced, with brief small-font introductory commentary by Sibley, and grouped into chapters based on Tale of Years entries. But we'll soon find out for sure if there's more to it.

[Alatar]

Not much about the book, but a great interview.

[Alatar]

And in 2 hrs time

[Alatar]

This sounds like exactly what I was hoping for based on that second interview.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Doug Anderson pointed out to me that even though there is no "Look Inside" same at Amazon.com, there is at Amazon.uk.co:



The table of contents is literally the second age listings from the Tale of the Years. How very bizarre! From the sample (as Doug pointed out to me) it looks like a bunch of different texts from all over simply arranged in chronological order without any reference to where they are from, but also not combined together to make a coherent whole). Perhaps once I get the actual book I'll have a different impression.

(I've not listened to the interviews that Al posted.)

[Eldy]

That's pretty much what I expected, but it's somehow even more disappointing to see it in slightly longer preview form. The first chapter is a classic of example of something I've complained about before, in terms of treating the Second Age as mere fodder for backstory to LOTR rather than something with inherent worth as its own part of the legendarium. Chopping up the Second Age texts into little chunks destroys any sense of them as coherent works, and using the Tale of Years as a table of contents is pretty much the apotheosis of looking solely through the lens of LOTR.

[Voronmirdil]

In over 40+ years of buying compilations of Tolkien material as they came out (I have everything, beginning with Silmarillion, in US trade hardbacks), this will be the first such book I'm not going to buy.

At least Beren and Lúthien and Fall of Gondolin had Christopher's notes and comments, and Nature of Middle-earth had unpublished and obscurely-published material even though not edited by Christopher. This has none of that.

Voronmirdil

[Eldy]

Even if it brings little else of interest to me, I'm glad Sibley's book got you to post here again, Voronmirdil! I hope you've been well.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Agreed. Don't be a stranger.

[Alatar]

Horses for courses. This is of much more interest to me than a HoME style comparison of multiple fragments

[Inanna]

What Al said. I could not read HoME.

[Eldy]

I hope TFoN is of value to people who are nonetheless interested in dipping further into the Second Age!

[Voronwë the Faithful]

To be clear, I was not looking for a HoMe-like volume, or one like Beren and Lúthien or The Fall of Gondolin. I was looking for something which would stand on its own, more like The Children of Húrin. I am still withholding judgment until I have a chance to see the full work, but from what I saw in the Look Inside preview I was not impressed with what Sibley has done.

[Alatar]

Have a look at the video I just posted V. The first look from "Nerd of the Rings"

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Thanks, Al. I did watch that video, but it doesn't really change my preliminary opinion. I very much disagree with him that using the Tale of Years listings as the chapter titles was a good idea. I was pleased to learn that the Númenórean section of The Lost Road is included as an appendix (he doesn't say anything about the Notion Club Papers, though). Suffice it to say, I wouldn't have used this approach, but maybe it will work well for others.

[Alatar]

Definitely will for me I think.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Hmmm!


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[Jude]

Open it! Open it!