Quote Originally Posted by Resha View Post
Quote Originally Posted by Miriel View Post
I <3 Tolkien.

People have a hard time getting through The Silmarillion because it reads more like a history textbook (although a beautifully written one) than a standard narrative. But I honestly think that The Silmarillion is the best of Tolkien's work. And he thought so too. Getting The Silmarillion published was his life's goal, Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit were side projects meant to tempt the publishers to give the go ahead for The Silmarillion.

Anyway, I love Tolkien. I think he was a rather brilliant man. He had a wonderful way with words.
They published it post-humously, right? Does that mean he didn't actually get to finish it up properly, and that Chris' Tolkien had to? o_O Because that's a little sad, as far as things go.
What Christopher Tolkien did was gather up his father's writings, organize them, fill in some gaps and sent them off to be published. The work itself was Tolkien's. How it was put together was Christopher's but he went to great lengths to try and ensure that The Silmarillion was published in a way that was faithful to what his father would have wanted. The Silmarillion was never considered "finished" because all the way up to the ending years of Tolkien's life, he continued to work on the mythology of it all. And that kind of stuff can never really be finished.