The Hall of Fire

You could construct a truth table with those two, Gandalf, and Tom Bombadil to describe the various possibilities for what happens to Ainu who spend a long time amidst mortality. Except that Tom wasn't an Ainu. :D:D We need HOF's first "What was Tom Bombadil" thread! C'mon, you can't be a...

If I may butt in, I thought that Christopher Tolkien had demonstrated that the Ambarkanta had largely been superseded in Tolkien's thinking, as part of his move away from the very literal, specific geography of the older Book of Lost Tales style of writing, towards the more "figurative" ap...

It's all kind of ironic, isn't it. We'll happily accept the Primary Myth (that of Middle-earth) without batting an eyelid, but should anyone suggest a Secondary Myth within that Primary one, that's just not on: I will not give up the Two Trees, regardless of what anyone has to say about them - not o...

Given Tolkien's doubts about the myths, he must have breathed a later sigh of relief that the Sil was not, after all, accepted for publication at the same time as LOTR. I don't believe this for second. :) It was Tolkien's greatest wish that the Tales of the Jewels and the Ring be published together...

However if you assume that the earth was round from the beggining and the sun and moon existed from the beginning than much of The Sil would be considered untrue right? Well, perhaps it would be more polite to say that the creation myths should be seen as just that, myths. (There's no reason to que...

I'll try. Just to summarise the background, some quotes. Sorry about the length, but it's all important. At the time Tolkien started to write LOTR, the largely 1930's Silmarillion myths were "true" and "real". The world was flat to begin with, and the Sun and the Moon were "...

A recent discussion on TORC touched on the issue of the role of the Ainur in the creation of Eä. I was putting forward the opinion that Eru's command of creation "Therefore I say: Eä! Let these things Be!" was responsible for providing the basic materials which the Ainur would use to "...

So, doubly ironic, then, that the Istari were not trusted to follow the right path themselves, but were "hindered" from using forces which the Valar considered inappropriate?

It occurs to me that when Gandalf says he was sent back "naked," he refers to more than just showing up in his birthday suit on Zirak-zigil. I think he may be alluding to the fact that his power as one of the Ainur (lesser order) is now less cloaked within the frailties of flesh. An inter...

Great idea, ttbk.:) You may have seen the one I did for the Books forum at TORC ( here ) But be warned, it can be all-consuming!. You might also want to consider doing it in an Excel spreadsheet or similar rather than just editing your post manually, because as it gets bigger that will give you the ...

Yes, those words of Tom's are the main counter-arguments to the proposal that the world was round "from the beginning". Most other references (e.g. to the Downfall of Númenor, "no stain yet on the Moon was seen", "darkness under the stars before the Dark Lord came from Outsi...

[Note: By the authority vested in me by ... me ... I split these posts off from the thread on Tolkien's Physical Universe - VtF] It is worth mentioning here, I think, that the concept of switching to a round world theory was not something that JRRT first came up with at the end of his life, only to...

Sorry guys, I didn't make my confusion clear. I'm pretty sure I understand the thrust of Tolkien's meaning in this sentence, and agree with the explanations just offered. It's the phrase "on point" I have never previously heard used in that way (or even used at all). I have even wondered i...

And this habitation might seem a little thing to those who consider only the majesty of the Ainur, and not their terrible sharpness; as who should take the whole field of Arda for the foundation of a pillar and so raise it until the cone of its summit were more bitter than a needle; What is this ' ...

Mmm, good point, Vononwe , I may being too pessimistic. I think Eluchíl was understating the extent of the problem, though; there are indeed many instances where it's not clear how the published text was arrived at (just look at CT's comment I posted about the story of Húrin at Nargothrond, for exam...

The Complete Tolkien Reader is by J.E.A Tyler, and, while it does use sources from the HoME series, it tries to be an encyclopaedia, not any sort of analysis of the Silmarillion . Hammond and Scull have written The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion , which I don't have, but from the review on Amazon does no...

There's no doubt it needs doing, but the scale and difficulty of it is pretty scary. Perhaps when broken up into sections like the TORC Annotated LOTR it would be more manageable. We'd probably find someone like Hammond and Scull, or Verlyn Flieger, or Douglas Anderson is already doing it, like what...

Yes, it was certainly glossed over by Tolkien, and the same goes for the Downfall of Númenor (certainly the side-effects, not so much the events themselves). I was just glancing over Christopher Tolkien's Commentary at the end of The Later Annals of Beleriand in HoME V (which discusses the issue), a...

I certainly agree with Athrabeth and (not all the) others that the whole concept of the World Made Round is immensely satisfying. I remember being almost transfixed with excitement (perhaps that's the wrong word) when I first grasped Tolkien's meaning as a teenager reading the Sil - a previously fla...

Sorry to just quickly jump back to the linguistic discussion, but, if in doubt, go to the primary source! :) Tolkien read a beautiful spoken version of Namarië (he also did a sung one but, shall we say, it wasn't really one of his strengths! :D) Anyway, he very clearly pronounces the final ë as &quo...