CalvinbalI posted...
if Chris Tolkien regrets doing a rush job on the Silmarillion, why didn't he ever do a revised edition? It might not help his reputation to release the same book twice, but the hardcore Tolkien fans would probably appreciate having the book be closer in line with J.R.R.'s intentions.
I think there are two reasons for this:
1 - He's freaking old. The amount of work that would take would be backbreaking, even for a younger person. For him, in his advanced age, it could be fatal.
2 - He realized it was it was impossible. Too much internal inconsistency, since many key stories that were core to the mythos hadn't been touched since essentially the 1920s, being contradicted by later writings. Furthermore, for many key themes were never decisively decided upon Tolkien, such as Galadriel's role in the Kinslaying, Gil-galad's parentage, and Turin's utimate fate with regards to the Dagor Dagorath, or even if the concept of the Dagor Dagorath should even exist in the first place!
Because of this, I think this is part of the reason why he released the HOME series, so that we could get an idea of Tolkien's true intentions regarding the Silmarillion. And in any case, there simply is no need to "re-do" The Silmarillion. Despite its detractors, The Silmarillion is still beloved by Tolkien's fanbase.
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