Aelfwine wrote:
I'm afraid then that your choice of words was very ill considered, because I maintain that your wording strongly implies that.
I understand that that is your opinion. You have made it abundantly clear.
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This is only remarkable if you can establish that such descriptive terms were removed solely or predominately from female characters as compared to male characters. Otherwise, you're just cherry-picking your evidence.
I can't think of any comparable edits where, for instance, a prominent male character is described as being "the most fair and valiant" and it is changed to say that he is just "the most beautiful" (or similar words). I don't believe there are any.
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She most certainly is a much more minor character than Ossë. It was Ossë, not Uinen, who was responsible for the anchoring of Tol Eressëa short of Eldamar, and so for the continued separation of the Teleri (a significant fact of the linguistic history as well, of course); it was Ossë, not Uinen, who taught the Teleri ship-building; and it was Ossë, not Uinen, who raised up Númenor out of the Great Sea.
While that is true, it is still true that they are Maia of the same level; both were long counted among the Valar. Maybe it is my own failing, but I really don't understand how these things help justify an edit that further reduces Uinen's role. For that matter, to my mind the fact that Nerdanel is clearly a much more minor character than Fëanor does not in anyway justify the edit in which the statement that her father Mahtan taught her much about the making of things of metal and stone was changed to saying that he taught these things to Fëanor. Again, I can think of no equivalent edit involving a male character, even a minor one.
solicitr wrote:
There is also the chapter Of Maeglin (of which the real subject is Aredhel)- this was not actually part of the Silmarillion*, but CT included it anyway: a whole added chapter centered on a female character.
soli, as you well know, Aredhel was an essential character in the story from way back (in both the Quenta and Annals traditions), though under the name Isfin. To suggest that Christopher somehow "added" her in is simply not accurate. (I would also disagree with the assertion that Aredhel is the "real subject" of the chapter, but that is beside the point.) The chapter is critical to the overall story, and there was no way that Christopher could (or should) have left it out.