Trampling the legacy, remaking the myth: in response to lindil

» proudfoot - in response to lindil

I'm not sure I want to recognize Christopher Tolkien as a writer. He always was the master editor to me, the man who cared enough to dive into his father's stash of papers to let the fans see eveything the Professor left behind, and let everybody realize just how comprehensive a world-view Tolkien had developed. I suppose that if one wanted to be technical, then filling in missing scenes in Tolkien's stories could stand as adding a creative element. I think that gap-filling really isn't a seperate act of writing since the original idea and framework come from somebody else. It's not like H.P. Lovecraft's ghost-written stories, where he reworked other people's uninspired rough drafts into salable stories.

Of course, after saying that, I was surprised to learn that Christopher had written "The Ruin of Doriath" mainly from whole cloth. Overall he did a good job of plugging a hole in the storyline with a comprehensible story. In hindsight now, there is a lack of detail in most of the chapter that is not present in the others, which argues it to be a hastily-written filler. The most Tolkien-like part of it is the opening pages where Hurin leaves Angband and journeys to Doriath. His successive displays of pride and humility in Thingol's court show a brave spirit uncrushed by imprisonment, despair, and age. The rest of the chapter lacks Tolkien's recurring theme of heroism in the face of adversity. Instead, it is a dreary, heart-breaking account of greed and bloodshed without good purpose or result. Morgoth does nothing to the Free Peoples in this part of the Silmarillion, unless it is to laugh while his foes destroy each other.(I remember a couple of time when I finished the chapter and wondered exactly why the Big Shiny Stones were worth this much trouble to everyone, either to own or to seek.)The fate of Dior's sons was especially cruel and unlike the Noldor of Tolkien, even in a Silmaril-induced frenzy. I suppose Christopher could justify the chapter as showing the ultimate fulfillment of the Ban of the Valar, and the source of the Elves' hard-won wisdom that they abundantly dispense in LOTR.

-- posted by proudfoot