Reconstructing Arda: Of Fëanor and the Unchaining of Melkor (2008)

ALTHOUGH J.R.R. TOLKIEN IS BEST KNOWN for having written Lord of Rings (and to lesser extent, Hobbit), Silmarillion [Silm.] is arguably his most important work. He began working on stories that provided basis of what would become Silmarillion in 1917, while he was fighting in World War I, and he continued revising them in some context or another throughout rest of his life, until his death in 1973. These stories originally stemmed from two main sources: his interest in inventing languages, and his desire to create mythology for England (Letters 144, 230-231). However, they eventually became vehicle for his most profound reflections on such themes as death and immortality, and perils of timeless beauty; pride and hubris, and struggle between good and evil (as symbolized by Silmarils, holy jewels that alone preserved pure Light, yet also generated so much of strife described in these tales); and perhaps most importantly, tension between fate and free will. Even more than Lord of Rings, Silmarillion reflects melding of Tolkien's abiding Catholic faith with his deep knowledge of and respect for ancient pagan myth (and language). Unfortunately, however, Tolkien never completed this work. He left behind complex array of interrelated texts, none of which could be considered finished. In addition to Quenta Silmarillion (the History of Silmarils) itself, there were also closely related texts that were written in annal form (a short chronological record of events of successive years, although they often were extended into longer narrative passages). There were also number of essays, commentaries, and other works that further developed what became known as Tolkien's legendarium, including extended prose and verse versions of three Great Tales which formed core of mythology: tales of Beren and Luthien, The Fall of Gondolin, and The Children of Hurin. (2) These works were left in varying states of completion. earlier portions of narrative underwent significant amount of revision after Lord of Rings was published in mid-1950s, whereas some of portions were never updated after 1930, or even earlier. Moreover, towards end of his life, Tolkien contemplated vast reworking of many critical elements of his mythology, but he never carried through on this plan. After Tolkien's death, it was left to his son and literary executor, Christopher Tolkien (for ease of reference, I will from here on refer to him as Christopher, while continuing to refer to his father as Tolkien), to attempt to publish Silmarillion. factors described above made that particularly daunting and difficult task. In most of 12-volume work History of Middle-earth, Christopher documents in amazing detail development of work of his father that would become Silmarillion (four volumes trace history of creation of Lord of Rings). However, save for an occasional hint here and there, he mostly does not show final step: his actual creation of published work, with assistance of Guy Gavriel Kay (who was then graduate student but would go on to become successful fantasy author in his own right). Many readers of Silmarillion have developed impression that it was essentially written by editor from author's notes. Christopher himself calls this a serious misapprehension to which my words have given rise (Book of Lost Tales, Vol.1 [BoLT 1] 6-7). Other readers make assumption that they are basically reading what Tolkien himself wrote, with only minor editorial interference. This assumption is equally mistaken. As Christopher states in Foreword to War of Jewels [WotJ] (the second of two volumes of History of Middle-earth that covers later Silmarillion), the published work is not in any way completion, but construction devised out of existing materials. …