"GL3" - читать интересную книгу автора (vol10)

PART THREE.

THE LATER
QUENTA SILMARILLION.

THE LATER QUENTA SILMARILLION.

(I) THE FIRST PHASE.

In this book, as explained in the Foreword, my account of the
development of The Silmarillion in the years following the completion
of The Lord of the Rings is restricted to the 'Valinorian' part of the
narrative - that is to say, to the part corresponding to the Annals of
Aman.
As with the Annals of Valinor (Aman) (p. 47), my father did not
begin revision of the Quenta Silmarillion as a new venture on blank
sheets, but took up again the original QS manuscript and the
typescript (entitled 'Eldanyare') derived from it (see V.199 - 201) and
covered them with corrections and expansions. As already seen (p. 3),
he noted that the revision had reached the end of the tale of Beren and
Luthien on 10 May 1951. The chapters were very differently treated,
some being much more developed than others and running to several
further texts.
An amanuensis typescript was then made, providing a reasonably
clear and uniform text from the now complicated and difficult
materials. This was made by the same person as made the typescript of
Ainulindale' D (p. 39) and seems to have been paginated continuously
on from it. I shall call this typescript 'LQ 1' (for 'Later Quenta 1', i.e.
'the first continuous text of the later Quenta Silmarillion'). It seems
virtually certain that it was made in 1951( - 2).
LQ 1 was corrected, at different times and to greatly varying extent.
A new typescript, in top copy and carbon, was professionally made
later, incorporating all the alterations made to LQ 1. This text I shall
call 'LQ 2'. In a letter to Rayner Unwin of 7 December 1957 (Letters
no.204) my father said:
I now see quite clearly that I must, as a necessary preliminary to
'remoulding',* get copies made of all copyable material. And I shall
put that in hand as soon as possible. But I think the best way of
dealing with this (at this stage, in which much of the stuff is in
irreplaceable sole copies) is to install a typist in my room in college,
and not let any material out of my keeping, until it is multiplied.

(* This word refers to a letter from Lord Halsbury, who had said: 'I can quite
see that there is a struggle ahead m re-mould it into the requisite form for
publication' (cited earlier in my father's letter to Rayner Unwin).)



It seems likely that it was soon after this that LQ 2 was made. It is
noteworthy that it was typed on the same machine as was used for the