Yes. Without conscious intent.
OK which still leaves it open that you are sugesting something negative about Christopher Tolkien's attitude towards women, something 'revealed' unconsciously through this asserted pattern.
Regarding the assertion of it simply being a product of the reduction of minor characters, no one who has made that assertion has been able to back it up with any evidence.
Well it would take a fair bit of time and energy to wade through
HME as you have, look at all the relative material, and provide text and opinions to back up such an argument. Maybe someone is attempting this, or will, I don't know, but I can easily think of people who could make a much better case than I could anyway; again if they had the time.
And I assume you are not here talking about the argument of who is or is not a minor character in the Silmarillion. We already have one opinion, for example, that all these characters on your list are arguably minor; and just for the record I think Carl Hostetter is exactly on the mark with his:
'And I submit that the nature of a character has nothing at all to do with their being a major or minor character: it is the extent of their presence and the importance of their role in a story that determines that.'
Having looked at the edits perhaps more completely then anyone, I feel confident that overall effect is greater on the female characters than on the male characters. There may be about as many edits to male characters as to female, but percentage-wise it is not close. Moreover, the quality of the edits are different. A good example is the edit regarding Galadriel that I discussed with Carl earlier in this thread
Where you noted:
'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.'
Again I would have to see all the arguable edits to judge as to whether or not we can point to something similar enough (subjective as that might be). But speaking of valiant...
In QS (Lost Road, and the Narn) Gethron and Grithnir are described as
'though they were now aged they were valiant…' and by fate and courage they passed over the Shadowy Mountains with Túrin. If I recall correctly, due to the compression of the Silmarillion these characters have no names, and despite noting that the companions passed through great perils, they are not specifically each described as valiant. One might even argue that they can hardly be said to have been included as 'characters' at all in the 1977 Silmarillion, where they are
'aged servants'
And concerning the example of Galadriel, does an argument for the redcution of minor characters necessarily need to counter the specific Galadriel related edits you raise, if from another perspective Galadriel doesn't really belong, in the first place, on a list of characters who have been reduced?
I've already noted that I think there are reasons to have made both edits that you refer to in AR concerning Galadriel (with respect to considerations of redundancy and ambiguity) -- but more importantly, in the published text Galadriel not only shows herself to be valiant, but is expressly said to be both fair and valiant in the book itself. And if it was Christopher Tolkien's self appointed job to note significant author-made alterations, if he were to see the matter similarly, then I submit there would be no real need to note these alterations as hailing from JRRT himself.
In other words, what is significantly altered about Galadriel here that needs recording for the reader of HME? But compare to texts and commentary in which Galadriel's history is significantly altered, or something notably new about her has been introduced, much of which is presented in
Unfinished Tales.
And not only do we have the 'seem inexplicable' comment in AR (or 'less explicable' in another section, where you offer no possible explanation in any case), you even go so far as to state that even in the unlikely event that the 'valiant edit' reflects a text not printed in HME
'it seems quite odd' that CJRT would choose to omit this,
'particulary without any explanation'
So there you still appear to question Christopher Tolkien's choice within a theoretical scenario where the change is Tolkien's -- and considering what question you are knowingly raising in your reader's minds, it baffles me a bit that you did not spend as much ink on at least reminding the reader of the ultimate picture of Galadriel in the 1977 Silmarillion.
Especially considering that she isn't in the book relatively all that much. Arguably
