Talk:J. R. R. Tolkien

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[edit] Suggestions for maintaining FA status

Well, the article is worthy of FA. Something bugs me though: an unwiedly list of books he wrote and see also farm. I recommend some clean-up. WikiNew 21:07, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

I'm all for a tidyup, but wiping the whole list of his bibliography 3 days later seems a little heavy handed (see edit here). Perhaps something like a "selected bibliography" would be preferable to losing the whole section. This approach seems to work well on the Isaac Asimov article, a writer with over 500 books to his credit. Any thoughts? --Oscarthecat 15:31, 18 March 2007 (UTC)

The Asimov article, which wouldn't pass at FA today, is discussing an author who wrote an enormous amount. Tolkien in contrast, was a University professor first and in terms of output was an incredibly talented amateur. In my view, sometimes going back to the drawing board is a good thing. WikiNew 15:36, 18 March 2007 (UTC)

Think we agree that the original list was unwieldly, how about breaking it down to just this? --Oscarthecat 16:39, 18 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Selected bibliography

[edit] Fiction and poetry

[edit] Posthumous publications

[edit] Audio recordings

  • 1967 Poems and Songs of Middle-earth, Caedmon TC 1231
  • 1975 JRR Tolkien Reads and Sings his The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings, Caedmon TC 1477, TC 1478 (based on an August, 1952 recording by George Sayer)

I see nothing wrong with the list, the article passed FAC with it, and I don't see why we should change it now... dab (𒁳) 18:43, 18 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The posthumous works: rephrasing?

The article currently has 'Most of the posthumously published books were compiled from Tolkien's notes by his son Christopher Tolkien.' While this is perhaps not strictly inaccurate, it is highly misleading, and similar statements have given rise to the notion that CRT has done a Brian Herbert job on his father's legendarium. Perhaps a better statement would be, 'After his death, his son and literary executor Christopher Tolkien edited a coherent version of the Silmarillion from his father's many disparate texts. Christopher subsequently published the greater part of Tolkien's drafts and incomplete manuscripts in Unfinished Tales and the twelve-volume History of Middle-earth.' Solicitr 13:43, 19 March 2007 (UTC)

Rather than expand toward the explanation given later in the article, I shorten the sentence in the lead to "The posthumous books were edited by his son Christopher Tolkien". Do you think the explanation given further down the article is adequate? Carcharoth 11:28, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

It's not bad, although I think I still prefer the phrase 'coherent version.' Perhaps HoME shouldn't be described as 'background material', though, but as a scholarly presentation of the original texts. Solicitr 16:21, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

I've rewritten that bit. Does it read any better now? Carcharoth 02:03, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Lyndney Park

'He also assisted Sir Mortimer Wheeler in the unearthing of a Roman Asclepieion at Lydney Park, Gloucestershire, in 1928.'

This is simply incorrect. There's no evidence that Tolkien ever so much as visited the dig. The limit of his involvement was to write a philological note on the name Nodens (a Celtic deity), which was included in the excavation report as an appendix. The notion that Tolkien was somehow involved in the 'unearthing' has unfortunately been pushed recently by those taken with the idea that a Romano-British ring found at the site somehow inspired the One Ring, in defiance of all known facts. Solicitr 14:01, 19 March 2007 (UTC)

Changed and tidied up. Thanks. Carcharoth 11:35, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Bibliography article

Someone started a fork at List of books by J. R. R. Tolkien. Apart from the fact that the bibliography is not all books (many are essays and poems), a title already exists waiting for such a spin-off article: Bibliography of J. R. R. Tolkien (currently a redirect to the section). The article is already out-of-sync with the section, so I propose putting the article up for deletion and keeping the bibliography as a section in the main article. It is not that long, and it is better for it to be comprehensive than a selected list with a slightly longer article including everything. In future, maybe an annotated list of his works might be an idea, but then so would a timeline. See what I did at User:Carcharoth/Tolkien timeline. If we are going to have a separate article for the bibliography, how about one for a timeline? Carcharoth 11:21, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

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