Elizabeth
Half-elven
Welcome to Chapter 17! I have been wrestling with computer issues the last couple of weeks, and am not as organized as I would have liked, so I can't tell you how many posts I'll have, but I hope we can still have a good discussion. Please note that I live in the Far, Far West, only one time zone East of the International Date Line. Perhaps as close as I can come to Tol Eressea! So it's late Sunday night here.
I assume the overall organization of the Sil was determined by Christopher T. and his collaborator Guy Kay. They have developed a strategic interweaving of chapters featuring absorbing or even thrilling narratives, such as the episodes involving Fëonor, the Rebellion of the Noldor, and last week's adventures of Aredhel, Eöl, and Maeglin, with background essays on the history, culture, and geography of Middle Earth. This is one of the historical treatises.
The first time or two I read the Sil, I found the background chapters tedious, and tended to skip or skim them, as I suspect many readers do. But, as glorious as the action narratives can be, I became fascinated with the world of Middle Earth itself, and found that the background chapters helped satisfy my thirst for knowing more about this world and how it operated. I hope some of you share that fascination and will not just hide under your desks or in the Hobbit forum until the action resumes next week!
1. How do you feel about the mix of narrative and background in the book so far? A good balance? Too much of either?
Most of the material in this chapter was written quite late, in 1958. Christopher writes of this chapter:
As we learned a few weeks ago, Men first awoke in the land of Hildórein in eastern Middle Earth "At the first rising of the Sun." About 300 years have passed (some ME chronologies assert 320 years) since then.
To the extent that Tolkien attempted to avoid direct conflict with Biblical accounts, we could easily imagine that the groups of Men that we see in this chapter split off from the ones that the Genesis story followed at some point to seek a different destiny.
2. What do you think Men have been been doing for 300+ years? Wandering about cluelessly like the Elves at Cuviénen? Following the Biblical narrative off-stage? If you wish, speculate on how much of the Genesis history elapsed before this group split off and headed West.
Next: Finrod Felagund goes hunting, and finds something he didn't expect.
I assume the overall organization of the Sil was determined by Christopher T. and his collaborator Guy Kay. They have developed a strategic interweaving of chapters featuring absorbing or even thrilling narratives, such as the episodes involving Fëonor, the Rebellion of the Noldor, and last week's adventures of Aredhel, Eöl, and Maeglin, with background essays on the history, culture, and geography of Middle Earth. This is one of the historical treatises.
The first time or two I read the Sil, I found the background chapters tedious, and tended to skip or skim them, as I suspect many readers do. But, as glorious as the action narratives can be, I became fascinated with the world of Middle Earth itself, and found that the background chapters helped satisfy my thirst for knowing more about this world and how it operated. I hope some of you share that fascination and will not just hide under your desks or in the Hobbit forum until the action resumes next week!
1. How do you feel about the mix of narrative and background in the book so far? A good balance? Too much of either?
Most of the material in this chapter was written quite late, in 1958. Christopher writes of this chapter:
Arda Reconstructed describes it as a "major expansion of the 'Edain' portion of what had been called 'Of the Naugrim and the Edain' (and before that, 'Of Men and Dwarfs'), which had been … in the earlier Quenta." The complete text can be found in "The Later Quenta Silmarillion" section of The War of the Jewels (HoME XI), even though most of that text is included in our published chapter. I will point out the few interesting or significant changes and omissions when we come to them, and am grateful to Veronwë_the_Faithful for his commentary in Arda Reconstructed.
As we learned a few weeks ago, Men first awoke in the land of Hildórein in eastern Middle Earth "At the first rising of the Sun." About 300 years have passed (some ME chronologies assert 320 years) since then.
To the extent that Tolkien attempted to avoid direct conflict with Biblical accounts, we could easily imagine that the groups of Men that we see in this chapter split off from the ones that the Genesis story followed at some point to seek a different destiny.
2. What do you think Men have been been doing for 300+ years? Wandering about cluelessly like the Elves at Cuviénen? Following the Biblical narrative off-stage? If you wish, speculate on how much of the Genesis history elapsed before this group split off and headed West.
Next: Finrod Felagund goes hunting, and finds something he didn't expect.
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