A view into Tolkien's Writing Chamber

Here is an article, coming from the 'Mainpost', a newspaper in Würzburg/Germany I would like to share with you. It is a very interesting project about Goethe and his 'Faust'.
What do you think about an adaptation of such a project to Tolkien? It would be fantastic to scroll though his own handwritten sheets, don't you think? Who do you think would be able to realize such a task - the Tolkien Estate or the Bodlian?

For those with no knowledge in German here is a translation of the article, made by my beloved wife Marion (she is so much faster and better than me in doing this):



Alice Natter, author of the article
Main Post ,Würzburg
17.November 2018

A view into Goethe‘s Writing Chamber
Faust digitally
It took almost ten years of work for this project: the complete „Faust„ edited digitally.
Now anybody ist able to look at 2000 Pages handwritten and 1500 other tetstemonia. Fotis Jannidis the Computer-philologist in Würzburg hat the leading part.

It simply was about time for this central oevre of german literature. How did the Germanist Albrecht Schöne in 1994 say in the introduction of his Goethe-Edition? That it was an „ national disgrace“, that there existed no modern historic-critical Edition of a Poetry of worlhistoric meaning as „ Faust“ was.
Fotis Jannidis and Anne Bohnenkamp-Renken who did their doctorate on Goethe thougt the same way. At least they condidered it a painfull gap. The Computer-philologist had worked on Goethe‘s concept of education and Anne Bohnenkamp-Renken used the litte Collection of handwritings with drafts, passages and other texts about Faust that Goethe did not finally put into his work.
Goethe had worked about 60 years on his Faust, he hat times of intense writing alterning with periods of years when he completely paused on it. In 1772 being in his younger years of 23, he started the first draft of the „Ur-Faust“. He finished on „ Faust.A Fragment“ in 1788 and two centuries later „ Faust. A Tragedy“ was released. The work on the Tragedy the powerful second part was finished 24 years later in the year he died, 1832.
A Process, a life task that left a huge amount of handwritings, with about 2000 written pages mostly at the Goethe-Schiller- archives at Weimar. And in addition the prints of Goethe‘s work released in his lifetimes. Plus more than 1500 testimonia about the development of Faust. But there was no historic-critical edition. And no-one could have done ist meanwhile the separation of both Germanies ( until 1989)
But then: „It was past time for that oevre of central meaning“ , Jannidis says about what he and Anne Bohnenkamp-Renken and Silke Henke of the Goethe-Schiller-archives had started in 2009: A new and contemporary edition of „Faust“. Both literary scholars knew right from the start, that it could not be put inbetween two boards. Too opulent the oevre, too huge the literary remains , too manifold the handwritings for this historical-critical workup to be published in classical aka printed way.
The solution was: a “hybrid edition “, printed and digital. A modern edition in a book and a novel “ genetic” apparatus in an electronical medium.
It was perfectly clear: this huge project could not be managed only by germanists, but also computer scientists were needed. In 2009 Fotis Jannidis was appointed to the newly created professorship of Computer-Philology and recent German literary history. The same year the work on the new Faust- edition started. In the meanwhile Anne Bohnenkamp-Renken started directing the “ Freie Deutsche Hochstift”, the “ Goethe- House” in Frankfurt. The very house at the “ Große Hirschgraben” where Goethe started with “Ur-Faust”.
And the also “Klassik Foundation” including the Goethe-Schiller- archives at Weimar took part in this project.
Almost ten years later the www.faustedition.net is freely accessible by anyone. And an opulent facsimile edition was published at the Wallstein publishing house.
Jannidis and his co-worker Thorsten Witt say: “ the project grew even more difficult and complex as expected.”
Computers change the work of literary scholars in a dramatic way.
Over decades and centuries publishers released historical-critical editions in deciding a specific text. They investigated preserved handwritings, trying to understand this text in historical contexts , compared variations, tracing back how the poet approached the issue and how the work came to be. Then they determined the “ valid” version. The earlier editions were put to a collection of versions.
“ in the digital context the reader can decide by clicking his mouse, which version of several variants of the text he wants to see in the first view and which of those are less important to him.” says Fotis Jannidis. The reader can switch between the scanned handwritings and a version in modern typeface back and forth. He is able to get remarks and other varieties of the text on his screen, without beeing forced to work on a complex system of special characters to understand. And if he wants he can retrace the genesis of the text by using a huge net of information, that could never be displayed in two-dimensinal printings on paper. “This visualisation “ Jannidis says “ is one of the immense opportunities of the digital edition “.
And yet another change by using the computer: “ finally it transfers the regular hermit into a team player “ Jannidis smiles. You can see this in the amount of participants of this Faust-edition: “ A digital edition is created by an act of combination of most various specialisations, and could never be without that.”
Lots of issues were completely unknown territories to those digital publishers.” Still we discover things and how they can be arranged” the computer- philologst says about electronical publishing.
For this “Faust” new technical standards and means for the coding and machine-readable texts had to be developed.
The captivating in the results: for Goethe-scientists and readers all over the world:
Now this is the first digital archive of all Faust editions including transcriptions. 80 percent of all known handwritings and manuscripts of this gigantic oevre are situated in Weimar, the rest is spread all over the world. “ Now we offer every scientist the opportunity to find it at only one place.” Says Thorsten Witt. On his own computer workplace, on his screen in the office or at home.
“ Not only for scientists, but also for interested laypersons the manuscripts can be put to his screen, see the transcripts and can follow up how Goethe wrote his text and extinguished it again, an he can also see how verses were changed.” A close view right into Goethe’ s wrinting chamber..
Jannidis is called a forerunner in “ Digital Humanities in German Humanities” and he can report a lot about the advantages of computer-aided research:
“ you are able to suddenly discover texts anew, especially other texts you never would have had in view”. But the software recognises similarities between familiar and unknown texts, between texts of your own library and so far inaccessible archives materials somewhere else. And it focusses your view to gaps. “ Lots of things we did not see so far, will now be visible.
Another advantage: there is a “laboratory” in the digital edition. Complicated logical inconsistencies, inaccuracies you find, can quickly be corrected in the electronic version.
The edition is a “work-in -progress” , always open to ideas, leading questions and adjustments.
With this digital edition you can find unter www.faustedition.net, (free accessible) you can examine Goethe’s text from various perspectives. The user is able , referring to his interrest, to use different accesses, changing views and query options: archive , genesis and text.
In the “ archive-area” the complete heritage in depiction, transscipts and witness testimonies can be seen. This is the first time, a completely free accessible, virtual collection of all Faust handwritings and in Goethe’ s lifetime released prints, is offered. All handwritings are visible: coloured and in high-resolution , some of them for the first time ever.
In the “ genesis-area” which ist in many ways connectetd to the archives, your can follow up the process of Goethe writing, by using the transcript versions right from the first words until the final inscription on the sheet.
The comprehensive genesis of the complete work ist displayed and visualised on various tabloids.
In the “ text-area” the user is finally able to directly switch from the text into the edition. At first there is a reading text of Faust 1 and Faust 2 , a register of contents leads the user to the single sections of the work and to those “ Paralipomena”. Even these scripts that Goethe did not use for his final version and that were published posthumous.
“ none of the sustained Faust- versions can be regarded as mandatory or authentic “ the professor of literature says. For that new edition the scientists created a reading-text which , Jannidis says is “ based on exactly examined handwritings and prints” . It comes as close as possible to Goethes wording and use of punctuation, as no edition before did.
This text is part of the new printed publication: “Faust. A Tragedy. Constituted Text”.
As a part of this publication in between two boards comes the volume “ Faust.Part two of the tragedy”.This complete-handwriting comprising almost 400 pages is published as a high-quality and extravagant facsimile. It reproduces the front and rear boards of the book cover and all sheets in folio range.
Completed by 26 sheets and strips displaying handwritten corrections and supplements true to original as gluing-on.
This facsimile is assisted by a transcript, which helps decipher the crabbed letters, true to the original.
“ For the bibliophiles “ says Jannidis with a grin, though serious. And: “ we achieved most of the things we planned ten years ago.”
Is the national disgrace now extinguished? Together with Anne Bohnenkamp-Renken , Jannidis hopes, that the interest in ”Faust” and its 50 Years of genesis “will now lead to new results in research “.
All information and the whole project online: www.faustedition.net