Hi Robin, are you're going to deal with, among other things, Christopher Tolkien's "erasure" of female characters from the 1977 Silmarillion (something Doug Kane also touched on in "Arda Reconstructed")? Then I may have a tidbit for you that has nothing to do with J.R.R. Tolkien's Legendarium, but a lot with Christopher's approach as an editor.
In his work on the Heidrek's saga, Christopher actually erases a gender change in the text. As William Layher comments: "... I differ with Christopher Tolkien, who gives a false impression of the shift from male to female in the Icelandic text by translating 'Hervarr' and 'he' as 'Hervör' and 'she' in the English text, where the original clearly indicates the masculine name and gender." ("Caught Between Worlds: Gendering the Maiden Warrior in Old Norse" in: Women and the Medieval Epic. Gender, Genre and the Limits of Epic Masculinity. Ed. Sara S. Poor and Jana K. Schulman, Palgrave McMillan 2007, pp. 183-208; p. 207, note 29).
Hi Robin, are you're going to deal with, among other things, Christopher Tolkien's "erasure" of female characters from the 1977 Silmarillion (something Doug Kane also touched on in "Arda Reconstructed")? Then I may have a tidbit for you that has nothing to do with J.R.R. Tolkien's Legendarium, but a lot with Christopher's approach as an editor.
In his work on the Heidrek's saga, Christopher actually erases a gender change in the text. As William Layher comments: "... I differ with Christopher Tolkien, who gives a false impression of the shift from male to female in the Icelandic text by translating 'Hervarr' and 'he' as 'Hervör' and 'she' in the English text, where the original clearly indicates the masculine name and gender." ("Caught Between Worlds: Gendering the Maiden Warrior in Old Norse" in: Women and the Medieval Epic. Gender, Genre and the Limits of Epic Masculinity. Ed. Sara S. Poor and Jana K. Schulman, Palgrave McMillan 2007, pp. 183-208; p. 207, note 29).
Thought you might want to know this!
Renée Vink