Alright, I am in the process of reading the Lost Tales right now (wicked awsome book ) but I'm confused about one thing. WHat exactly is the difference between it and the Sil? Because in the notes Chris Tolkien has, he keeps referrring to stuff in the Sil, and all, but says, "Its differnent here...they use different names" are they two different sets of stories, or just the same stories told a little differently?
Just curious...so if anyone knows it would be nice....THanks
I managed to begin reading both at separate times but I wasn't able to finish them. I think Silmarillion is more like the Genesis, dating back to before the Elves were even created, and narrated as one story. Lost Tales is more topical, dividing the stories according to eras and characters. LT complements Sil that way I think. Plus they have ifferent names for each of the Elven language so that may explain the differences. Am not really sure though. Hmm, maybe I should get back to my reading.
__________________ Not all that glitters is gold.
Not all who wander are lost.
- JRRT
Elessea> The Lost Tales of Elfinesse were the original forms of what would later become The Silmarillion, and the background for the LotR Trilogy. Tolkien still had many elements of the BLT's in his "finished" Silm., before he died, but his son, Christopher, edited it so that it would fit with LotR....and thus published the Silm. we all know and love....
Basically, yea, the Silmarillion is just one of the later stages of the stories begun in the Lost Tales.
Unlike the Sil, though, the LT aren't designed to present a homogenous, 'true' story and give clear information to the reader, but rather to describe the process of developping the mythology and the languages, later continued with the other parts of the History of Middle-earth that don't as directly focus on the chronological history from within the Sil though. Even in the LT themselves, there are often different version of each story, or at least commentaries on the changes between the numerous sketches and their relationships amongst each other.
Apart from the presentation of the texts, another imo significant difference is the way they're written - the LT more have the character of the lingophile fantasies of a brilliant language professor-to-be, they focus more on names and tongues than on facts; everything's more richly told, full of amazing details and overflowing with fantastic imagination, there are irrealistic saltations and absurd protagonists and the language used is so much more careless, airily jumping from unworried, paradisic, cheerful scenaries to inevitably cruel, tearful or sinister fates.
Compared to the Lost Tales, the Silmarillion often seems like a perfect, powerful dressage horse next to the untaimed, wild, maybe naive LT-foal to me, perfectly written, perfectly serious, perfectly precise, a work of perfect beauty and perfect accuracy, leaving the observer stunned, amazed and fascinated, maybe feeling somewhat inferior next to this materialization of utter perfection; it is never wrong, each step, each leap, each turn is inevitably true.
The LT (or HMEs in general), in contrary, are often unsure, taking steps backwards just to redo them a second later, leaping aside in sudden fear, then again standing unmoving for minutes, just to jump up in the most pulchritudinous, gracile yet unpredictable saltations the next moment, quickly angered, easily lost in dreams; to follow it, a skillfull guide is needed, lest one be completely lost in the wilderness;
But in the end, the more beautiful, more fulfilling one to observe is probably the young mustang.
Ok, stop talking so much nonsense, Exa
Back to facts -
The Silmarillion is history, the Lost Tales the history of history.
Last edited by Exabyte on Mar 29th, 2005 at 09:19 AM
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) but I'm confused about one thing. WHat exactly is the difference between it and the Sil? Because in the notes Chris Tolkien has, he keeps referrring to stuff in the Sil, and all, but says, "Its differnent here...they use different names" are they two different sets of stories, or just the same stories told a little differently?
Mar 18th, 2005 11:24 PM
Your smarter! You answer.
ANGEL ~*~
