Foreword，Editorial Practices

# Foreword
前言主要解释了编辑这本书的动机，书中收录材料的来源，以及材料覆盖的主题。概括一下，就是：语言方面的文章常常说着说着就转到历史、文化、神话乃至形而上学去了，但这其实不能算跑题，因为语言本来就跟这些有不可分割的联系。在见识了一大堆时间、精和类精人类的成长历程、灵魂与肉体的关系、自由意志、精神交流、风土人情、动植物、食物以及发型、胡子之类的杂学之后，编者忽然悟了：这完全可以编成一本书啊，主题就是“自然哲学”——
I quickly chose to call this projected book The Nature of Middle-earth, as succinctly unifying these materials under the two main senses of the word "nature": both the visible and sensible phenomena of the physical world, including its lands, flora, and fauna; and the metaphysical, innate, and essential qualities and character of the world and its inhabitants.
有几篇文章已经在其他托尔金研究刊物发表过了，比较长的包括"Ósanwe-kenta"，"Notes on Óre"，"The Rivers and Beacon-hills of Gondor"（就是UT里频繁提到的那篇《刚多的河流与烽火丘》，小托本来想包括在HoMe12中，然而因为篇幅关系删了orz），"Eldarin Hands, Fingers, and Numerals"。
Despite this technical and undeniably dry accounting...
哈哈哈哈哈
These materials as a whole also exemplify not only Tolkien's unsuspected (at least by me) mathematical skills and precision (in a time well before electronic calculators became affordable), but also his great concern for coherence and verisimilitude, as seen throughout his later writings.
不，我觉得这里的不是数学而是算术😂 计算精度就不强求了，然而精灵各代人数那里完全可以写递推公式啊，精和努国人年龄换算什么的也都可以写公式的！
I had the great good fortune to count him as a friend, and I dedicate this book to his memory.
😭
# Editorial Practices
Where it is necessary to provide editorial end-notes to these footnotes (which my text editor does not permit)...
哈哈哈哈这让我立刻想起了当年翻译UT时的灵魂拷问：“我为什么要给一本有着正文、附录、脚注、尾注，附录本身还有脚注和尾注的书写译注”……