Yes, the letter (211, not 113; I've edited both my post and your quoting of my post to fix that error) is later than The Tale of Years, which Christopher indicates dates to around 1951-2. And there is some clearcut difference in the stories, since in The Tale of Years (as in the old Quenta Noldorinwa the twins go straight from being captured to being fostered, whereas in the letter they were captured, then left in cave, and then found. I think the fact that the "left in a cave" element is totally new is the best argument for the proposition that the fostering concept was abandoned.Galin wrote:OK, but I would include that one also need not (necessarily) read a fostering into this because we know the form of the tale as it existed elsewhere. Perhaps there's later evidence of the fostering in any event, but The Tale of Years mention appears to be earlier, and at the moment I don't remember anything else here (I checked the letter itself and it doesn't seem to be mentioned).
But what I am really baffled about right now is why I don't say anything at all in Arda Reconstructed about the fact that in both The Tale of Years and in the old Quenta Noldorinwa it is Maedhros who fosters the twins, not Maglor as in the published Silmarillion. That appears to have been an editorial change, unless I am missing something here, and is one that I certainly should have noted. It would seem to me right now that it probably was made to accommodate the change that was made later in the chapter (which Tolkien inexplicably edited without editing the earlier part of the chapter) in which Maglor is the one who is more sick of the oath than Maedhros, but in any event I should have noted it.