The "New Silmarillion" aka "Translations from the Elvish" has been an extremely long-running fan exercise to compile the largest consistent version of the Silmarillion using everything we know (everything! including all known letters and UT/HoMe/NoMe/etc). Late last year, on the basis of the sale of Concerning... "The Hoard" and the uncovering of its details about the end of Doriath, the people involved thrashed out their version of the story from post-Brethil Húrin up to Dior going to Doriath. I find it quite instructive and it might be useful to keep some of this in mind even if SilmFilm decides to take a different approach to the source texts (eg stick with the 1977 Silmarillion as a base). Seeing the tweaks that need to be done for the sake of consistency are interesting, to me, since it shows the ripples of small choices.
Ruin of Doriath as seen by the "New Silmarillion" project
- Thread starter David_M_R
- Start date
Yes, this is one of the most problematic portions of the story to adapt, so it would be interesting to see the choices they have made regarding consistency in the narrative while honoring Tolkien's work on developing the story. It would be a shame to ignore/dismiss all of the content of "The Wanderings of Húrin" or "Concerning "The Hoard""...but that's not exactly compatible with the version in the published Silmarillion, either, so how much of it we incorporate in what way is an open question moving forward.
The outline is given at the link in my first post (the contrast is low, I can barely see it myself). The thread is then linked at top right of the post for those people that are curious about the discussion/logic of the decisions.
One item I found interesting is that the ultimate death of Mîm (arrow to the throat) is given as the same as the traitor Ban in Túrin's outlaw group from the Lay of the Children of Húrin, since in some sense Mîm occupied the same story space as the betrayer, even if the whole setting and timing is different. There was an argument about why this wasn't a completely random choice, via the curse of Androg, but this type of synthesis of elements is not the approach SilmFilm is taking.
One item I found interesting is that the ultimate death of Mîm (arrow to the throat) is given as the same as the traitor Ban in Túrin's outlaw group from the Lay of the Children of Húrin, since in some sense Mîm occupied the same story space as the betrayer, even if the whole setting and timing is different. There was an argument about why this wasn't a completely random choice, via the curse of Androg, but this type of synthesis of elements is not the approach SilmFilm is taking.