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Post by Fredeghar Wayfarer on Sept 24, 2021 11:31:30 GMT -6
Has anyone else bought this? This is the first Tolkien book that's been released since Christopher Tolkien's death. It's edited by Carl F. Hostetter. Supposedly, these are the last of Tolkien's notes so this may be the final Middle-earth book. But we've heard that before and they keep finding stuff to publish.
I can see why Christopher didn't include this material in the History of Middle-earth series. The opening chapters are mostly Tolkien's private notes and mathematical calculations about the rate of Elvish growth and aging, how many Elves there were in each generation, how long a Valian year is, etc. I'm kind of skimming through a lot of this. Not even Tolkien can get me interested in math.
Still, there are some cool details in here about Elvish customs of marriage and childbirth. Elf-women apparently remain pregnant for a full year of the sun (in one draft, they're pregnant for 8 years(!) but Tolkien abandoned this idea). There's also a part where Melian and the future Istari are sent to watch over the Elves at Cuivienen. So Gandalf and the gang may have been to Middle-earth prior to the Third Age.
Hopefully, the other chapters will be more interesting and narrative-driven. It does seem like there will be some cool nuggets of trivia and background info in this book though.
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Post by fanuidhol on Sept 25, 2021 7:59:07 GMT -6
Carl Hostetter is a well respected Tolkien scholar. I will definitely get this. I am not afraid of math. lol
Pregnant for 8 years? I don't care how long lived you are. Pregnant for 8 years is way too long. Nine months was too long.
Thanks for sharing.
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Post by fanuidhol on Sept 26, 2021 15:14:19 GMT -6
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Post by Stormrider on Sept 26, 2021 15:46:45 GMT -6
Really sounds very in depth. All the detail JRRT put into his work is mind-boggling. Also came across this educational site with a lot of other Tolkien related papers written by various Tolkien scholars. There are oodles of papers if you scrolls down the page. Or if you don't see anything JRRT related, type Tolkien in the search bar. www.academia.edu/
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