"References to Sources in the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien" by Dawn Felagund (WiP) *AND* A Poll!

[dawn_felagund]

B2MeM Prompt and Path: Compile a List of Sources on a Specific Topic (orange path)
Format: Resource List
Genre: Resource
Rating: General
Warnings: Do not read while driving or operating heavy machinery.
Characters: n/a
Pairings: n/a
Creator's Notes: This is a WiP that may take years to finish. I decided to share it when I reached the midway point of The Silmarillion. Only a dozen-and-a-half more books to go!
Summary: For this prompt, I have decided to begin a project I have wanted to begin for a long time: make a list of every reference to fictional sources or lore or loremasters in Tolkien's works. This is for my own research on historiography and historical bias in the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, but I've opted to make it public so that others interested in this topic can benefit as well from my work.

References to Sources in the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien

The next topic on the orange path is "Meta on Fandom." As some of you know, I ran a survey on Tolkien fan fiction a little over a year ago, and I have all this untouched data just begging to be crunched and written about. Only since this is B2MeM and not the indulgence of my own blog, I'd like to write about something maybe interesting to people reading here? So if you have an opinion on what I should write about, please feel free to choose from the topics below!

ETA: Readers and feedback it is! Thanks, everyone! /ETA

[Poll #2064889]

Comments

[hhimring]

Thank you very much for sharing your resource, Dawn.
It was interesting to look at that list.
I suppose "wise of Eressea" could be a late addition, implying Numenoreans, but it could also be left over from the earliest times, when it was still Eriol recording?

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

So many interesting topics, how am I supposed to choose?
Besides the question of whether writing fanfic makes us better writers (I'd say yes, but I'd like to know whether the data agrees - and if it does, this should definitely be an essay that the world outside the fanfic community (TM) needs to read ;)), I'm also really curious about the canon issues - both what we learn through fanfic, and how flexible writers are about adapting their canon to new information (or new fandom trends I guess). So I hope you'll get to tackle more than just the winner from the list. :)

Thank you for sharing your list of source references! I recently stumbled across a list of different in-universe sources (http://www.forodrim.org/gobennas/chron_en.html) (which is internet-ancient, I'm sure you know it already - but some of the lore texts mentioned were completely new to me, bad Lyra!) and chroniclers, which I found very interesting, but your elaborate look at the different mentions in the published Silmarillion itself is even more fascinating. It's so easy to read over these little references to the transmission of lore without really noticing them - I'd never have thought there are so many of them! It's really a lot like the ubiquitous "as ic herde telle" or "as clerkes finden written in their boke" in real-world historical texts (which is exactly the point, I know). So, again, thank you!

O

[keiliss.livejournal.com]

I had to smile at 'Does writing fanfic make us better writers?' If E.L. James is anything to go by --- hell no! Seriously, I think that depends on the writer- practice hones skills, but on the other hand too much uncritical praise can make a writer lazy, I've seen that before. It's pretty much down to the individual.

[heartofoshun.livejournal.com]

OMG! OMG! OMG! You shared your "source" research with us! You literally brought tears to my eyes. I cannot believe I just found this. I could have missed it! I was crying tears of rage earlier in the week about finding references I wanted online and trying to access them and running up against gigantic paywalls! Outrageous prices--for access to a single article in an anthology, which might or might not even reference what I think it might!

Health care is important and childcare, a living wage, etc., etc., but all of this big $$$$ guarding of information is a scandal and an outrage against humanity.

Thank you for sharing.