Take two part two
At one point
Tolkien made cursory emendations to the end section of
Quenta Silmarillion:
for example:
Turin Turambar . . . coming from the halls of Mandos revised to
Turin Turambar . . . returning from the Doom of Men at the ending of the World. "
In the margin of the manuscript my father wrote "and Beren Camlost" without direction for its insertion."
At this stage,
Feanor breaks
the Silmarils,
Yavanna rekindles the
Trees. And Tolkien put a large X against this section:
"In that light the Gods will grow young again, and the Elves awake and all their dead arise, and the purpose of Iluvatar be fulfilled concerning them. But of Men in that day the prophecy of Mandos doth not speak, and no Man it names, save Turin only, and to him a place is given among the sons of the Valar."
In any case, I can see why this was rejected, as the X appears to indicate. Here too, Christopher Tolkien "warns" however, that his father's mode of revision could be perfunctory
" . . . and it may be that such later emendations as he made in this case are to be regarded in that light than as implying any sort of final approval of the content."
Next, in
Morgoth's Ring, we have Author's note 7 to the commentary to the
Athrabeth Finrod Ah Andreth, where JRRT says that the "myth" that appears at the end of
the Silmarillion "is of Numenorean origin; it is clearly made by Men, though Men acquainted with Elvish tradition."
This appears to be in line with the Valaquenta: no longer a prophecy from Mandos himself, but a
Mannish myth. And then comes the late text
The Problem of Ros (The
Peoples of
Middle-Earth), and here we have, once again, a prophecy, but now hailing from a Mannish source, Andreth the Wise-woman.
"The language of the folk of Haleth was not used, for they had perished and would not rise again, unless the prophecy of Andreth the Wise-Woman should prove true, that Turin in the Last Battle would return from the dead, and before he left the Circles of the World forever should challenge the Great Dragon of Morgoth, Ancalagon the Black, and deal him the death-stroke."
And here in note 17 Christopher Tolkien recounts much of the external origins of the prophecy in general, starting back with Book II of HOME, and concludes:
"In this last reappearance of the mysterious and fluctuating idea, the prophecy is put into the mouth of Andreth, the Wise-woman of the House of Beor ( . . . ) Andreth prophesies of the Last Battle of the Elder Days (the sense in which the term "Last Battle" is used shortly afterwards in the text, p. 371)."
So (generally speaking) early versions > 1930s prophecy of Mandos (possibly approved later) > later 1950s Numenorean myth > 1968 or later, Mannish prophecy.
____________________
And not that I've given my full argument, but: did Christopher Tolkien make the right decision?
I can see both sides of the argument. For example, how do we know for sure that the last incarnation of Turin's return, in a Mannish prophecy, automatically knocks out the Numenorean myth of a "Last Battle"? I've heard that before anyway.
At the moment I can't recall CJRT ever regretting this particular decision. He included brief references to the Last Battle in both QS and AK, and would be aware of the references in
The Lord of the Rings itself, but I'm guessing that he saw this matter as "questionable enough" given other extant writings.
I'd say CJRT set his own bounds
as editor and son, and due to HOME, today we can be editors to some extent, but not son (obviously, but still, he's in a different position by being both Tolkien's son and the man making the version "everyone" will read).
His first intuition was to produce a mini-HOME, and after a one-volume internal version was decided upon, I think he was very reluctant to go beyond certain lines. But problems arose, and at least back in the 1970s, it seemed to him that the best course with respect to
The Fall of Doriath (one example that CJRT later regretted), was to invent an unauthorized solution to the problems he believed to exist.
I'm guessing he was very reluctant to do this, yet even this decision alone could open the flood gates for readers -- that is, I can imagine the argument being something like: if CJRT was willing to invent something "over here", why not include some form of end-scenario for QS that speaks to
Arda Healed? And not everything he chose for the constructed version represents Tolkien's last known idea about a given matter. It's complicated, no doubt.
Each decision is its own case, so to speak; and I'm reminded of Tolkien scholar Michael Drout, who wished Christopher Tolkien allowed himself to be "freer" with respect to the constructed
Children of Hurin for example -- whereas others might criticize from the other side; something like: where did Tolkien himself write that?
CJRT, between a rock and a stone
🐾
