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The One Ring Forums:
Tolkien Topics: Reading Room:
I recall :):
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Eldy
Dor-Lomin
Jun 25 2022, 10:53pm
Views: 4847
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I'd be curious to know if anyone has any thoughts as to why this change was necessary.
My best guess is that Christopher meant for the replacement sentence to mean that the lands "about"—i.e., around—the city of Umbar were empty, whereas the original sentence implies that the whole coastline was empty of inhabitants, including the natural harbor where Pharazôn made his landing. If Tolkien "did not yet suppose that Umbar was a Númenórean fortress and harbour at the time of Ar-Pharazon's landing," as Christopher suggests in HoMe XII, then the whole coastline being empty would make sense, but once the change was made elsewhere that Umbar was already the site of a major settlement, Christopher felt the sentence's implication was inaccurate.
I'm not convinced this is actually what Christopher meant, but even if it was, both sentences are could be interpreted in different ways and I don't think the second is really that much clearer. I also like the visual of the sickle moon in the original, which adds a nice bit of physical description to a text that otherwise has little of it.
(This post was edited by Eldy on Jun 25 2022, 10:55pm)
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Edit Log:
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Post edited by Eldy
(Dor-Lomin) on Jun 25 2022, 10:55pm
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Post edited by Eldy
(Dor-Lomin) on Jun 25 2022, 10:55pm
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