SWG Re-Read - Wrap-up Post
Wrap-up Post
Wrap-up and Acknowledgements
Well, we're done.
Don't get us wrong, it has been fun to discuss The Silmarillion with all of you. There have been a lot of great ideas and opinions, some of them new, some of them old favourites. This has been a great opportunity to learn more about The Silmarillion, both from the side of what's „official“ (a.k.a. „canon“) and from the side of what our fellow fans make of it. Neither of us had previously read The History of Middle-earth cover to cover, so we've discovered a lot of new things while researching the history of individual chapters. (We still haven't read it all, but we've now seen a lot more of it! ;)) Some things that we thought were purely fanon or headcanon actually proved to have been canon at some point. Other things that we've always accepted as canonic fact proved to be purely collective fanon. Not that there's anything wrong with fanon. We don't want to come across as canatics, because if this project has shown one thing, it's shown that „canon“ really is an extremely flexible thing. But it's interesting to see how mistaken our perception of what is what can sometimes be. We hope that our research may prove useful to other fans by providing an overview of the different stages that the individual chapters in The Silmarillion have gone through.
We don't know about you, but for us, this project has also helped us to appreciate the work Christopher Tolkien has done a lot more. It's been tough and occasionally gruelling work to just read up on all the different versions and trying to keep up with all the changing of names, scenes and events. Putting them together from scratch, or rather, from the heaps of papers and notebooks in the garage-study, must have been an incredible effort. So even when there are parts where we wish Christopher Tolkien had decided differently (or, in some cases, had simply discovered a certain version before the publication of The Silmarillion, rather than years later), we stand in awe of the sheer amount of work. Of course, we think that some chapters could nonetheless do with some serious revision...
Some fans (including both of us :) like to follow the „literary agent“ act, i.e. to act like all the events from The Silmarillion really happened (more or less) like that, were recorded and compiled by various characters, and merely unearthed and translated by Tolkien. Naturally, a look into the History of Middle-earth, which records the many changes Tolkien's work went through over the years, is going to ruin that theory. On the other hand, for those of us who are also active as (fan-)authors, it's fascinating to get an insight into Tolkien's writing process, and to see how much storylines can change over time - often for the better. As such, it's inspiring and encouraging. A first draft is just that: a first draft - and anything can grow out of it.
On the FAQ post, somebody has asked whether there is going to be another re-read next year and more of you are probably wondering the same thing. The honest answer is: We don't know, but if there is, we're not going to run it. We need time for our own creative (and otherwise) endeavours that we've had to put on hold because we had to keep our deadlines, and we're not going to plunge into another time-consuming adventure again. Yes, there are other Silmarillion-related works that could be (re-)read, from The Children of Húrin to Beowulf. If anyone wants to tackle those, I'm sure they can volunteer and get the mods permission for a reading project, just as we did a year ago. But it's not going to be us - sorry! We're flattered that people enjoyed this project so much that they'd like another one, but we have to catch up with all the plotbunnies that we stirred up during our research first. Some of them have been nibbling on our toes for months now. ;)
As for the Silmarillion itself, as we've said on all discussion posts, discussion never ends and you're absolutely welcome to continue discussing things (or to jump in afresh) if you want.
oloriel wants to use this chance to thank her collaboratrix, indy1776. It's been an absolute pleasure working with you. I've often had to collaborate with someone on research projects while in university, and from what I've seen there, getting reliable collaborators who do their work on time, in depth, and without constant prompting is really rather rare. But Indy did all that. It was never a problem to rearrange our usual research schedule for reasons like holidays, building disasters or childbirth: She'd agree to do her side of the work earlier, and just did it. Try that with your average co-student. -- Moreover, she provided the patience and humour that were sometimes needed to, hm, balance my aggressive approach to certain topics and my control-freak tendencies. She also handled the inexplicable disappearance of my copy of The Treason of Isengard (just when I was needing it) very nobly and wisely. (It still hasn't reappeared, by the way.) In conclusion, thank you so much!
indy1776 wants to thank her collaboratrix oloriel as well. Heading into a co-written project is never easy, because there's no way to know if your partner(s) will bail or dump most of the work on you. Lyra absolutely did not despite a newborn, vacations, and everything else she had going on. Furthermore, she likewise worked hard when my vacation and later a national holiday required chapters to be done early, as well as handled admirably my own control-freak tendencies as well as the uncertainty that resulted when I had a medical problem crop up that nearly resulted in surgery. There were many times when she made me laugh and made me look at canon in new ways. Thank you so, so much, Lyra. It has been wonderful working with you.
A big thank you to lignota, ljusastjarnan, and the_winterwitch for providing banners and icons for this projects. Little graphic treats make everything more fun!
We would also like to thank the SWG mods for letting us run this project on their platform.
And naturally, we need to thank all of you who participated, no matter whether you commented on one post, some of them, all of them, or just read along silently. Without you, all our work would've been in vain (and that would've been seriously frustrating!), and you've provided fantastic input. Thank you all for sharing your ideas, theories and different angles. We haven't always managed to respond to all of your comments individually, but we've appreciated them all. When we decided to take on this project last year, it was partly out of annoyance with the commonly repeated complaint that Tolkien fandom on LJ is dead. You've helped us to prove that it's still alive and kicking!
In conclusion, it's been a great experience. But it's also been an experience from which one needs to recover, and so, like Bilbo, we are now looking forward to sitting beside the fire, thinking our own thoughts, and re-prioritising our spare time. Indy has observed that we've produced over 105,000 words purely on The Silmarillion and the related content in the History of Middle-earth over the course of the last year. That may explain why we've felt like we had absolutely no time for other creative endeavours!
So it's good to be done. Time to celebrate!
Discussion Time
Because it's been so instructive and fascinating to discuss things with you, we're using this chance for some more discussion. Because all of us have now freshly (re-)read the entire Silmarillion, we'll address general Silmarillion topics this time. However, if you want to discuss material from individual chapters, that is also perfectly fine. You can do so in the corresponding chapter discussion posts, or here, whichever you prefer.
~ Do you remember when (and why) you first read The Silmarillion? If this was your first time, what did you think of it? If you have by now read it several times, has your perception changed?
~ What is your favourite chapter, character, and/or line from The Silmarillion?
~ What do you think of the style in which The Silmarillion is written? Do you think it would be as effective if Tolkien had used a more modern approach, or if he had stuck with the romantic fairy-tale style used for the Book of Lost Tales?
~ Are you (predominantly) happy with the outcome of the development of the story, or do you wish that Tolkien had stopped rearranging his ideas sooner - or taken them further?
~ Here are a few of recurring themes that can be found in Tolkien's writing. What do you think about them, and what do you think about the way in which Tolkien handles them? (We've tried to come up with snazzy names for them, à la TVTropes.)
- Love Conquers All
- Individuals Succeed Where Armies Fail
- Pride Goes Before A Fall
- Fate and Free Will
- Divine Rights
- Good Cannot Comprehend Evil
- The Fall
- Who Wants To Live Forever?
- The Futility of War
If there are any other themes you'd like to talk about, go ahead! As usual, we probably didn't think of everything, and this list is not meant to be exhaustive.
~ If you could witness one event of your choice from The Silmarillion, which would it be and why?
~ If you had one single chance to give one character from The Silmarillion one piece of advice, whom would you like to advise, and what would you tell them?
~ How does The Silmarillion impact your view of The Lord of the Rings and the Legendarium as a whole?
Fanworks
We invite you to revisit the various Fanworks Rec Posts . Like the discussion posts, these aren't going to be closed. So do got back to them, either to find new fanworks, to recommend things that haven't yet been recced, or to create new fannish responses to the individual chapters that could use some more love!
For your convenience, here is a linklist of all Fanwork Rec Posts.
Ainulindalë and Valaquenta
Of the Beginning of Days and Of Aulë and Yavanna
Of the Coming of Elves and Of Thingol and Melian
Of Eldamar and the Princes of the Eldalië
Of Fëanor and the Unchaining of Melkor
Of the Silmarils and the Unrest of the Noldor
Of the Darkening of Valinor
Of the Flight of the Noldor
Of the Sindar
Of the Sun and Moon and the Hiding of Valinor
Of Men
Of the Return of the Noldor
Of Beleriand and its Realms and Of the Noldor in Beleriand
Of Maeglin
Of the Coming of Men into the West
Of the Ruin of Beleriand and the Fall of Fingolfin
Of Beren and Lúthien
Of the Fifth Battle: Nirnaeth Arnoediad
Of Túrin Turambar
Of the Ruin of Doriath
Of Tuor and the Fall of Gondolin
Of the Voyage of Eärendil and the War of Wrath
Akallabêth
Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age
And now we have reached the end. We hope you enjoyed this project. Thank you for playing along, and all the best wishes for a creative, fannish, and scholarly 2015!
Indy & Lyra
Wrap-up and Acknowledgements
Well, we're done.
Don't get us wrong, it has been fun to discuss The Silmarillion with all of you. There have been a lot of great ideas and opinions, some of them new, some of them old favourites. This has been a great opportunity to learn more about The Silmarillion, both from the side of what's „official“ (a.k.a. „canon“) and from the side of what our fellow fans make of it. Neither of us had previously read The History of Middle-earth cover to cover, so we've discovered a lot of new things while researching the history of individual chapters. (We still haven't read it all, but we've now seen a lot more of it! ;)) Some things that we thought were purely fanon or headcanon actually proved to have been canon at some point. Other things that we've always accepted as canonic fact proved to be purely collective fanon. Not that there's anything wrong with fanon. We don't want to come across as canatics, because if this project has shown one thing, it's shown that „canon“ really is an extremely flexible thing. But it's interesting to see how mistaken our perception of what is what can sometimes be. We hope that our research may prove useful to other fans by providing an overview of the different stages that the individual chapters in The Silmarillion have gone through.
We don't know about you, but for us, this project has also helped us to appreciate the work Christopher Tolkien has done a lot more. It's been tough and occasionally gruelling work to just read up on all the different versions and trying to keep up with all the changing of names, scenes and events. Putting them together from scratch, or rather, from the heaps of papers and notebooks in the garage-study, must have been an incredible effort. So even when there are parts where we wish Christopher Tolkien had decided differently (or, in some cases, had simply discovered a certain version before the publication of The Silmarillion, rather than years later), we stand in awe of the sheer amount of work. Of course, we think that some chapters could nonetheless do with some serious revision...
Some fans (including both of us :) like to follow the „literary agent“ act, i.e. to act like all the events from The Silmarillion really happened (more or less) like that, were recorded and compiled by various characters, and merely unearthed and translated by Tolkien. Naturally, a look into the History of Middle-earth, which records the many changes Tolkien's work went through over the years, is going to ruin that theory. On the other hand, for those of us who are also active as (fan-)authors, it's fascinating to get an insight into Tolkien's writing process, and to see how much storylines can change over time - often for the better. As such, it's inspiring and encouraging. A first draft is just that: a first draft - and anything can grow out of it.
On the FAQ post, somebody has asked whether there is going to be another re-read next year and more of you are probably wondering the same thing. The honest answer is: We don't know, but if there is, we're not going to run it. We need time for our own creative (and otherwise) endeavours that we've had to put on hold because we had to keep our deadlines, and we're not going to plunge into another time-consuming adventure again. Yes, there are other Silmarillion-related works that could be (re-)read, from The Children of Húrin to Beowulf. If anyone wants to tackle those, I'm sure they can volunteer and get the mods permission for a reading project, just as we did a year ago. But it's not going to be us - sorry! We're flattered that people enjoyed this project so much that they'd like another one, but we have to catch up with all the plotbunnies that we stirred up during our research first. Some of them have been nibbling on our toes for months now. ;)
As for the Silmarillion itself, as we've said on all discussion posts, discussion never ends and you're absolutely welcome to continue discussing things (or to jump in afresh) if you want.
oloriel wants to use this chance to thank her collaboratrix, indy1776. It's been an absolute pleasure working with you. I've often had to collaborate with someone on research projects while in university, and from what I've seen there, getting reliable collaborators who do their work on time, in depth, and without constant prompting is really rather rare. But Indy did all that. It was never a problem to rearrange our usual research schedule for reasons like holidays, building disasters or childbirth: She'd agree to do her side of the work earlier, and just did it. Try that with your average co-student. -- Moreover, she provided the patience and humour that were sometimes needed to, hm, balance my aggressive approach to certain topics and my control-freak tendencies. She also handled the inexplicable disappearance of my copy of The Treason of Isengard (just when I was needing it) very nobly and wisely. (It still hasn't reappeared, by the way.) In conclusion, thank you so much!
indy1776 wants to thank her collaboratrix oloriel as well. Heading into a co-written project is never easy, because there's no way to know if your partner(s) will bail or dump most of the work on you. Lyra absolutely did not despite a newborn, vacations, and everything else she had going on. Furthermore, she likewise worked hard when my vacation and later a national holiday required chapters to be done early, as well as handled admirably my own control-freak tendencies as well as the uncertainty that resulted when I had a medical problem crop up that nearly resulted in surgery. There were many times when she made me laugh and made me look at canon in new ways. Thank you so, so much, Lyra. It has been wonderful working with you.
A big thank you to lignota, ljusastjarnan, and the_winterwitch for providing banners and icons for this projects. Little graphic treats make everything more fun!
We would also like to thank the SWG mods for letting us run this project on their platform.
And naturally, we need to thank all of you who participated, no matter whether you commented on one post, some of them, all of them, or just read along silently. Without you, all our work would've been in vain (and that would've been seriously frustrating!), and you've provided fantastic input. Thank you all for sharing your ideas, theories and different angles. We haven't always managed to respond to all of your comments individually, but we've appreciated them all. When we decided to take on this project last year, it was partly out of annoyance with the commonly repeated complaint that Tolkien fandom on LJ is dead. You've helped us to prove that it's still alive and kicking!
In conclusion, it's been a great experience. But it's also been an experience from which one needs to recover, and so, like Bilbo, we are now looking forward to sitting beside the fire, thinking our own thoughts, and re-prioritising our spare time. Indy has observed that we've produced over 105,000 words purely on The Silmarillion and the related content in the History of Middle-earth over the course of the last year. That may explain why we've felt like we had absolutely no time for other creative endeavours!
So it's good to be done. Time to celebrate!
Discussion Time
Because it's been so instructive and fascinating to discuss things with you, we're using this chance for some more discussion. Because all of us have now freshly (re-)read the entire Silmarillion, we'll address general Silmarillion topics this time. However, if you want to discuss material from individual chapters, that is also perfectly fine. You can do so in the corresponding chapter discussion posts, or here, whichever you prefer.
~ Do you remember when (and why) you first read The Silmarillion? If this was your first time, what did you think of it? If you have by now read it several times, has your perception changed?
~ What is your favourite chapter, character, and/or line from The Silmarillion?
~ What do you think of the style in which The Silmarillion is written? Do you think it would be as effective if Tolkien had used a more modern approach, or if he had stuck with the romantic fairy-tale style used for the Book of Lost Tales?
~ Are you (predominantly) happy with the outcome of the development of the story, or do you wish that Tolkien had stopped rearranging his ideas sooner - or taken them further?
~ Here are a few of recurring themes that can be found in Tolkien's writing. What do you think about them, and what do you think about the way in which Tolkien handles them? (We've tried to come up with snazzy names for them, à la TVTropes.)
- Love Conquers All
- Individuals Succeed Where Armies Fail
- Pride Goes Before A Fall
- Fate and Free Will
- Divine Rights
- Good Cannot Comprehend Evil
- The Fall
- Who Wants To Live Forever?
- The Futility of War
If there are any other themes you'd like to talk about, go ahead! As usual, we probably didn't think of everything, and this list is not meant to be exhaustive.
~ If you could witness one event of your choice from The Silmarillion, which would it be and why?
~ If you had one single chance to give one character from The Silmarillion one piece of advice, whom would you like to advise, and what would you tell them?
~ How does The Silmarillion impact your view of The Lord of the Rings and the Legendarium as a whole?
Fanworks
We invite you to revisit the various Fanworks Rec Posts . Like the discussion posts, these aren't going to be closed. So do got back to them, either to find new fanworks, to recommend things that haven't yet been recced, or to create new fannish responses to the individual chapters that could use some more love!
For your convenience, here is a linklist of all Fanwork Rec Posts.
Ainulindalë and Valaquenta
Of the Beginning of Days and Of Aulë and Yavanna
Of the Coming of Elves and Of Thingol and Melian
Of Eldamar and the Princes of the Eldalië
Of Fëanor and the Unchaining of Melkor
Of the Silmarils and the Unrest of the Noldor
Of the Darkening of Valinor
Of the Flight of the Noldor
Of the Sindar
Of the Sun and Moon and the Hiding of Valinor
Of Men
Of the Return of the Noldor
Of Beleriand and its Realms and Of the Noldor in Beleriand
Of Maeglin
Of the Coming of Men into the West
Of the Ruin of Beleriand and the Fall of Fingolfin
Of Beren and Lúthien
Of the Fifth Battle: Nirnaeth Arnoediad
Of Túrin Turambar
Of the Ruin of Doriath
Of Tuor and the Fall of Gondolin
Of the Voyage of Eärendil and the War of Wrath
Akallabêth
Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age
And now we have reached the end. We hope you enjoyed this project. Thank you for playing along, and all the best wishes for a creative, fannish, and scholarly 2015!
Indy & Lyra