"FOREWORD" - читать интересную книгу автора (vol06)

FOREWORD.

As is well known, the manuscripts and typescripts of The Lord of
the Rings were sold by J. R. R. Tolkien to Marquette University,
Milwaukee, a few years after its publication, together with those of
The Hobbit and Farmer Giles of Ham, and also Mr. Bliss. A long
time elapsed between the shipment of these latter papers, which
reached Marquette in July 1957, and that of The Lord of the Rings,
which did not arrive until the following year. The reason for this
was that my father had undertaken to sort, annotate, and date the
multifarious manuscripts of The Lord of the Rings, but found it
impossible at that time to do the work required. It is clear that he
never did so, and in the end let the papers go just as they were; it
was noted when they reached Marquette that they were 'in no
order'. Had he done so, he must have seen at that time that, very
large though the manuscript collection was, it was nonetheless
incomplete.
Seven years later, in 1965, when he was working on the revision
of The Lord of the Rings, he wrote to the Director of Libraries at
Marquette, asking if a certain scheme of dates and events in the
narrative was to be found there, since he had 'never made out any
full schedule or note of the papers transferred to you.' In this letter
he explained that the transfer had taken place at a time when his
papers were dispersed between his house in Headington (Oxford)
and his rooms in Merton College; and he also said that he now
found himself still in possession of 'written matter' that 'should
belong to you'. when he had finished the revision of The Lord of
the Rings he would look into the question. But he did not do so.
These papers passed to me on his death eight years later; but
though Humphrey Carpenter made reference to them in his
Biography (1977) and cited from them some early notes, I neglec-
ted them for many years, being absorbed in the long work of
tracing the evolution of the-narratives of the Elder Days, the
legends of Beleriand and Valinor. The publication of Volume III
of 'The History of Middle-earth' was already approaching before I
had any idea that the 'History' might extend to an account of the
writing of The lard of the Rings. During the last three years,
however, I have been engaged at intervals in the decipherment
and analysis of The Lord of the Rings manuscripts in my possession

(a task still far from completed). It has emerged from this that the
papers left behind in 1958 consist largely of the earliest phases
of composition, although in some cases (and most notably in the
first chapter, which was rewritten many times over) successive
versions found among these papers bring the narrative to an
advanced state. In general, however, it was only the initial notes
and earliest drafts, with outlines for the further course of the
story, that remained in England when the great bulk of the papers
went to Marquette.