"J.R.R. Tolkien - The History of Middle-Earth - 10" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tolkien J.R.R)

file:///K|/rah/J.R.R.%20Tolkien/TOLKIEN,%20J.R.R.%20...dle%20Earth%20Series%2010%20(txt)/vol10/CONTENTS.TXT (4 of 4)14-7-2004 22:28:40
file:///K|/rah/J.R.R.%20Tolkien/TOLKIEN,%20J.R.R.%20-%20The%20...20of%20Middle%20Earth%20Series%2010%20(txt)/vol10/FOREWORD.TXT




FOREWORD.

The Quenta Silmarillion, with the Ainulindale, the Annals of
Valinor, and the Annals of Beleriand, as they stood when my
father began The Lord of the Rings at the end of 1937, were
published six years ago in The Lost Road and Other Writings.
That was the first great break in the continuous development of
The Silmarillion from its origins in The Book of Lost Tales; but
while one may indeed regret that matters fell out as they did just
at that time, when the Quenta Silmarillion was in sight of the
end, it was not in itself disastrous. Although, as will be seen in
Part One of this book, a potentially destructive doubt had
emerged before my father finished work on The Lord of the
Rings, nonetheless in the years that immediately followed its
completion he embarked on an ambitious remaking and en-
largement of all the Matter of the Elder Days, without departure
from the essentials of the original structure.
The creative power and confidence of that time is unmistak-
able. In July 1949, writing to the publishers on the subject of a
sequel to Farmer Giles of Ham, he said that when he had finally
achieved The Lord of the Rings 'the released spring may do
something'; and in a letter to Stanley Unwin of February 1950,
when, as he said, that goal had been reached at last, he wrote:
'For me the chief thing is that I feel that the whole matter is now
"exorcized", and rides me no more. I can turn now to other
things...' It is very significant also, I believe, that at that time he
was deeply committed to the publication of The Silmarillion
and The Lord of the Rings 'in conjunction or in connexion' as a
single work, 'one long Saga of the Jewels and the Rings'.
But little of all the work begun at that time was completed.
The new Lay of Leithian, the new tale of Tuor and the Fall of
Gondolin, the Grey Annals (of Beleriand), the revision of the
Quenta Silmarillion, were all abandoned. I have little doubt that
despair of publication, at least in the form that he regarded as
essential, was the prime cause. The negotiations with Collins
to publish both works had collapsed. In June 1952 he wrote to
Rayner Unwin:

As for The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, they are
where they were. The one finished (and the end revised), and
the other still unfinished (or unrevised), and both gathering