A suggestion by Dawn

[drcodemilich.livejournal.com]

Hey... Um the easiest way to put this is that I am in a history course that requires me to write a 10 page paper, so I chose to write about how J.R.R. Tolkien's work on Lord of the Rings and the Silmarillion was impacted by his experience in the trenches. STOP... I am familiar with the fact that he denied this and I am also aware fully that this is a controversial subject; however, I wanted to write about LOTR and the Silmarillion having to do with WW1. I simply need some sources that could lead me into the right direction that are analyzing his work. I am not completely familiar with the Silmarillion so it is my weakest point. It would be great if I could have tips on how to organize my thoughts as to fit the timeline of Tolkien's potential experiences and other's experiences in the trenches with the explanation and analysis of his writing... basically this means I need help fitting a square in a small circle slot. Any kind of suggestions about anything to do with it or sources like interviews, analysis, critics etc. would be awesome. Also if anyone were to be interested a potential interview with someone who is qualified as a scholarly individual with a great understanding of either LOTR or the Silmarillion it would be paradisaical. Thanks to Dawn for the suggestion and if this was not the right place to put this please say so.

-Thanks,
drcodemilich

Comments

[hhimring]

I have to confess I'm not really sure what you are asking me here (and also I'm less familiar with this particular material than the First Age).

If you are looking for earlier drafts of the crossing of the Dead Marshes, these should be in the volume "The War of the Ring" in the section "The Ring Goes East".
If you are looking for earlier versions of the account of the first battle of Dagorlad in Appendix A, that should be in "Peoples of Middle-earth".
The first mention of that battle in LOTR is actually in the Council of Elrond chapter, but I don't know whether it was already mentioned in the earlier drafts. If so, these would be in "The Story Continued" in "The Return of the Shadow", I think. (Also, there's the poem about Gil-Galad, but I'm not sure where that first came in.)

If you want a table of contents of HoME, you can Google the "Mellonath Daeron" page on the Forodrim website (that's what I've just been using; I'm not linking because it would probably trigger a spam filter).

Hope this helps!

[drcodemilich.livejournal.com]

Thanks!