Let the ranting begin...
I don't know how
Aule is finding these sites, I never run into them, but they are out there. I can't even guess how many there are. I'd like to point out that people should be careful of sources, but how is one to judge how good a source is unless he knows more about the
books than the source does?
But the information about
Middle-earth exist in
Tolkien's own writings. Anything else was derived from that source, or just made up, or mistaken. Be careful when reading websites and books about Middle-earth, you may be getting false information. Just so long as people know there is a chance what they are reading is not correct.
I would say in general if a site is giving all their information on Middle-earth from a book about Middle-earth not by Tolkien, the chances for error is double. Why are they using a book not written by Tolkien to provide basic information if they can use LotR instead? This is not to say all books about Middle-earth not by Tolkien are bad sources. I've never looked at any myself, but unless one knows as much as the author then he can't be sure if the information is correct, can he?
This is the second site Aule has shown me which claims to have used J.E.A. Tyler's
The Tolkien Companion, and both sites are full of errors.
I haven't looked at the book myself, nor do I know which information from these sites has come word for word form that book, and I am no expert but I did find this:
"The Tolkien Companion, by J.E.A. Tyler, is a sort of encyclopedia of Middle-earth lore. It is written to be enjoyable to read (a difficult task for an encyclopedia!), but in many cases that seems to have taken precedence over accuracy. Thus, the book is a very unreliable source of information about Middle-earth..."
You can read the rest here.
But I also found positive reviews, so decide for youself.
But Aule, the mistake that got to me the most at that website was this:
...The object of the war was the sole possession of
the One Ruling Ring made by the Elven-smiths of Eregion for
Sauron during the
Second Age.
It boggles my mind how someone can know certain pieces of information and not others that seem far more obvious.
Reading that site one can get the impression the person who put that information up has not read LotR and
The Silmarillion...
While some of these errors are funny, I think it is not really a laughing matter. I only hope people remember the source of Tolkien's Middle-earth, that is J.R.R.Tolkien. That is the only pure source that exists. All other sources are either direct from the Tolkien book, for from a source that was direct from the book, or a source from a source that was from a source that was direct from the book. You get the idea. Each time information passed along by means other than from JRRT to the reader, it loses purity and can eventually be crap.
The sites I have found that I judge to be good sources like to give their sources, sometimes down to the page number. I use web sources (Ardalambion, for example) and personally I view the sources that I trust as
places to find out where at in the books I can read certain information for myself, but I think it is best to read something straight from the books before passing it along to another person on a public website.
