Journal of the Whills/Legends

Journal of the Whills was a legendary record of events in the galaxy. Ostensibly, the Journal was maintained by the Whills, a mysterious group or species of which very little is known.

During the Galactic Civil War, beings wished their efforts be recorded in the Journal of the Whills. This reference provides fertile ground for the assumption that the Journal was not written at a point far in the future, but rather an on-going recording of the history, known to the inhabitants of the galaxy. The recording of their names and efforts in the Journal, signaled their importance to the history, hence honorary.

The inclusion of a brief overview of fall of the Galactic Republic and rise of Palpatine's New Order in the Journal's First Saga, establishes that the Journal's beginning includes at least the Clone Wars era. How far back or forward the first segment covered is unknown.

The style of the Journal was inconsistent. The First Saga was expository, written in the past tense with a third person omniscient perspective, but an excerpt, as follows, is written in a formatted poetic style reminiscent of religious texts.
 * "... And in the time of greatest
 * despair there shall come a savior,
 * and he shall be known as:
 * THE SON OF THE SUNS."
 * Journal of the Whills, 3:127

Note the numeric reference, which may indicate chapter and verse. The style of this excerpt is future tense and prophetic, a clear difference from the larger excerpt from the First Saga.

Behind the Scenes
In his early drafts, George Lucas ostensibly planned to use the Journal of the Whills as a plot device to connect the Star Wars galaxy to our own. In his Annotated Screenplays, Lucas explains his original intent:
 * "Originally, I was trying to have the story be told by somebody else; there was somebody watching this whole story and recording it, somebody probably wiser than the mortal players in the actual events. I eventually dropped this idea, and the concept behind the Whills turned into the Force. But the Whills became part of this massive amount of notes, quotes, background information that I used for the scripts; the stories were actually taken from the 'Journal of the Whills'."

In 2005's The Making of Star Wars Revenge of the Sith, Lucas intimates that he intended the stories told in his films to be relayed to a Shaman of the Whills by R2-D2, who would record them in the Journal.

The Journal, as a plot device, was maybe inspired by Tolkien and his Red Book that is supposedly the ultimate source of Lord of the Rings and his other works. Similar tricks were used by other, earlier sci-fi and fantasy authors.

It should be noted that no reference has been made that clearly state the role of the Journal, Shaman, or the Whills in the Star Wars universe.