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A forum for discussion of Voronwë's book, Arda Reconstructed: The Creation of the Published Silmarillion
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Voronwë the Faithful
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Post by Voronwë the Faithful »

I got a copy of the Hither Shore review from the editor. It is, of course, in German. Looking at a rough internet translation, it looks like a fairly straightforward review, mostly just describing what I do in the book, though it does make the point that my opinions about the changes that Christopher made are subjective. Which, of course, they are.

I'll probably try to track down a more accurate translation. Any volunteers?
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Post by Voronwë the Faithful »

Quite a nice review in the Festival of he Shire journal by Elizabeth Currie:

http://www.festivalintheshire.com/journal/9revarda.html
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Post by Primula Baggins »

That is a wonderful review, Voronwë! :bow:
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
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Post by N.E. Brigand »

Not a review, but a reference to a review. Christina Scull, in noting the fifteenth anniversary of her move to the U.S., and including some picutres of the astonishing book collection she and her husband, Wayne Hammond, have amassed, chronicles their accomplishments over that period, including her review of the "controversial book, Arda Reconstructed". Just a passing remark I mention for completeness' sake. (And speaking of passing remarks, notice the comment by Bruce G. Charlton, who has found a neat connection between one of Tolkien's paintings and "The Notion Club Papers".)
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Post by Voronwë the Faithful »

That's too funny. And a very interesting observation by Bruce Charlton.
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Post by N.E. Brigand »

And in Scull and Hammond's online Addenda and Corrigenda for the Reader's Guide (the second volume of The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide, published in 2006), they note that a paragraph should be added to p. 917, in the entry for The Silmarillion, describing AR.
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Post by Voronwë the Faithful »

Wow, that's pretty cool.
p. 917, entry for The Silmarillion, add new final paragraph:

In Arda Reconstructed: The Creation of the Published Silmarillion (2009) Douglas Charles Kane gives a detailed account of how Christopher Tolkien compiled The Silmarillion from the diverse texts left by his father, a much fuller account than is given in the entries for individual chapters in the Reader’s Guide. Kane’s discussions of, and sometimes profound disagreement with, the choices Christopher made are based solely on published sources. In response to discussion arising from the publication of this book, Christopher Tolkien explained that even the History of Middle-earth volumes contain only a selection of what his father wrote. See also Christina Scull (with contributions by Wayne G. Hammond), ‘Reflections on The Silmarillion and Arda Reconstructed’, Beyond Bree, August 2009; and replies, Beyond Bree, September 2009. Debate on this book and subject also was conducted in online forums.
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Post by Inanna »

WOW!

:love:
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Post by Voronwë the Faithful »

More good news:
The Mythopoeic Society

PRESS RELEASE: May 17, 2011

2011 Mythopoeic Award Finalists



Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature

Guy Gavriel Kay, Under Heaven (Roc)

Karen Lord, Redemption in Indigo (Small Beer Press)

Patricia A. McKillip, The Bards of Bone Plain (Ace)

Devon Monk, A Cup of Normal (Fairwood Press)

Sharon Shinn, Troubled Waters (Ace)



Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature

Catherine Fisher, Incarceron and Sapphique (Dial)

Terry Pratchett, I Shall Wear Midnight (HarperCollins)

Polly Shulman, The Grimm Legacy (Putnam Juvenile)

Heather Tomlinson, Toads and Diamonds (Henry Holt)

Megan Whalen Turner, The Queen’s Thief series, consisting of The Thief, The Queen of Attolia, The King of Attolia, and A Conspiracy of Kings (Greenwillow Books)



Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies

Bradford Lee Eden, ed., Middle-earth Minstrel: Essays on Music in Tolkien (McFarland, 2010)

Verlyn Flieger and Douglas A. Anderson, eds., Tolkien on Fairy-stories: Expanded Edition, with Commentary and Notes (HarperCollins, 2008)

Douglas Charles Kane, Arda Reconstructed: The Creation of the Published Silmarillion (Lehigh Univ. Press, 2009)

Steve Walker, The Power of Tolkien’s Prose: Middle-earth’s Magical Style (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009)

Michael Ward, Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C.S. Lewis (Oxford Univ. Press, 2008)



Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Myth and Fantasy Studies

Don W. King, ed., Out of my Bone: The Letters of Joy Davidman (Eerdmans Pub., 2009)

Ursula K. Le Guin, Cheek by Jowl (Aqueduct Press, 2009)

Farah Mendlesohn, Rhetorics of Fantasy (Wesleyan Univ. Press, 2008)

Leslie A. Sconduto, Metamorphoses of the Werewolf: A Literary Study from Antiquity through the Renaissance (McFarland, 2008)

Caroline Sumpter, The Victorian Press and the Fairy Tale (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008)





The Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature is given to the fantasy novel, multi-volume, or single-author story collection for adults published during 2010 that best exemplifies the spirit of the Inklings. Books are eligible for two years after publication if not selected as a finalist during the first year of eligibility. Books from a series are eligible if they stand on their own; otherwise, the series becomes eligible the year its final volume appears. The Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature honors books for younger readers (from Young Adults to picture books for beginning readers), in the tradition of The Hobbit or The Chronicles of Narnia. Rules for eligibility are otherwise the same as for the Adult Literature award. The question of which award a borderline book is best suited for will be decided by consensus of the committees.



The Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies is given to books on Tolkien, Lewis, and/or Williams that make significant contributions to Inklings scholarship. For this award, books first published during the last three years (2008–2010) are eligible, including finalists for previous years. The Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Myth and Fantasy Studies is given to scholarly books on other specific authors in the Inklings tradition, or to more general works on the genres of myth and fantasy. The period of eligibilit y is three years, as for the Inklings Studies award.



The winners of this year’s awards will be announced during Mythcon XLII, to be held from July 15-18, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. A complete list of Mythopoeic Award winners is available on the Society web site: http://www.mythsoc.org/awards/



The finalists for the literature awards, text of recent acceptance speeches, and selected book reviews are also listed in this on-line section. For more information about the Mythopoeic Awards, please contact the Awards Administrator: David D. Oberhelman, awards@mythsoc.org
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Post by Alatar »

Well deserved!

:clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:
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Post by Primula Baggins »

Is it worth going to Albuquerque in July? :D

(I say yes!)

Congratulations again!
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
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Post by Voronwë the Faithful »

I was already planning to go to the conference this year, so I'll get to hear my name called at the banquet.
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Post by Primula Baggins »

Here's hoping they call it twice! :D
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
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Post by Lalaith »

Awesome! :woohoo:
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Post by Frelga »

Congratulations, V! You are in quite a company!
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Post by Voronwë the Faithful »

I thought you might say that, given one of the nominees for the Fantasy Award for Children's Literature. :) I notice also that Ursula Le Guin is one of the nominees for the Scholarship Award in Myth and Fantasy Studies. And, of course, two of my favorite Tolkien scholars, Doug Anderson and Verlyn Flieger, are among my competition for the Inkling's Studies award for their great book Tolkien On Fairy-stories (which is interesting because it was a finalist in 2009, but not last year). Quite a company, indeed!

Last year I though that Michael Ward's Planet Narnia book was going to win, but it went to Dmitra Fimi's excellent Tolkien, Race and Cultural History . I'm also positive that Ward will win this year, since it his last chance (books are eligible to be nominated for three years, so I would have more chance after this year).
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Post by Teremia »

Wow, V! EXCELLENT news! Congratulations! Being on a list that includes LeGuin -- I don't think kudos get better than that, really.
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Post by Primula Baggins »

I noticed that, too!

(I hope to go hear Le Guin read and discuss some of her work at an SFWA event in Portland next month!)
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
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Post by Voronwë the Faithful »

A nice review in Mythprint by Holly Ordway. There should be a link up at the Mythopoeic Society website in the next couple of weeks or months, and I'll post that when it comes (and I notice it is there). A brief quote:
The work of Arda Reconstructed can best be summed up as painstaking: each chapter of The Silmarillion is evaluated, usually paragraph by paragraph, with source material cross-referenced to the twelve volumes of The History of Middle-earth. Kane is specific about the changes, indicating where multiple sources have been combined; where one source was preferred over others; and where material has been moved, deleted, rephrased, or expanded with editorial additions. Detailed charts are provided for each chapter, listing primary and secondary sources for each paragraph, cross-referenced by page number to The Silmarillion and to the other texts.

Kane’s approach for coding the changes looks cumbersome but turns out to be highly efective. I was able to cross-reference easily between Arda Reconstructed, The Silmarillion, and Morgoth’s Ring (and in the process conirm the accuracy of a sample of Kane’s comparisons). As tedious as the numbering and repetition may seem to the casual reader, they are invaluable to anyone who wishes to use Arda Reconstructed as a guide for further work.

And the conclusion:

Overall, Kane makes a convincing case that the published Silmarillion is best described as a posthumous collaboration between JRRT and his editors. How then should we evaluate The Silmarillion, given this new understanding of the process of its creation? Immediately after reading Arda Reconstructed, I was ready to declare that the published Silmarillion was too compromised to be a genuine example of JRRT’s work, and that we should instead read and study the original texts (The History of Middle-earth). A period of cooling-of, however, led me to wonder whether the relentless focus in Arda Reconstructed on editorial changes might have inluenced my judgment. I do hope for a new edition of The Silmarillion, revised with less intrusive editing, but I also think that the question of the published Silmarillion’s literary merit (as compared to the original versions) remains open; we need a study that assesses the work as a whole, in context. Arda Reconstructed is not that work, but it is a necessary precursor to it.

In the meantime, thanks to Christopher Tolkien’s ongoing editorial work, more and more of JRRT’s original material is available to the public; thanks to Douglas Kane’s labor of love in Arda Reconstructed, we have a useful guide to help us critically re-examine both the published Silmarillion and the sources behind it.
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Post by Elentári »

Arda Reconstructed reviewed by J.W. Braun on TORn, in context with Anne Frank's diaries....

Braun's conclusion? He gives Voronwë 4 stars!! :bow:
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