[Historicity]

Today I have finished Tolkien's great literary masterpieces. I have read them in order as follows:

• The Silmarillion
  
• The Hobbit
  
• The Lord of the Rings

I had read "The Silmarillion" in about a year starting at the end of my highschool graduation, and than completing it at the start of summer after my second semester. I had read "The Hobbit" in under a couple of weeks during my third semester whilst taking a "Pre-History of England" course and comparing / contrasting it with Seamus Heaney's "Beowulf". The third semester really opened me up in finishing Tolkien's literary works, in particular "The Lord of the Rings".

"The Lord of the Rings" in itself took me a while to get through. I had read "FOTR" and "TTT" in about a month in a half at the outset of my fourth semester, but was waylaid of completing the trilogy due to an independent study that I had signed up for (and had failed to complete due to professor-based stupidity)... any how... after about a month of loving and hating the independent study I said the heck with it, and dropped the topic. I than picked up where I left off with "The Lord of the Rings" by reading and finishing the saga with "ROTK".

All in all, I must say that I enjoyed Tolkien's works very much, apart from the fact that there were moments in his writing where it seemed very dull and plain. I will nonetheless continue in my studies by reading "The Histories of Middle-earth". With that, I must say the following to the TLA development team:

"The Road goes ever on and on... continue on the work wth TLA m8s!"

[Sukkit]

You may want to re-read The Silmarillion first. It is quite a massive work, with lots of characters, and for the most part you need to be quite familiar with it in order to enjoy the History of Middle-earth series properly.

And once you have re-read it, or instead of re-reading it if that's what you prefer, you should read Unfinished Tales, which is more enjoyable by itself without needing to know The Silmarillion so in-depth.

It's your choice, though. No matter in what order you do it, I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

[NaurwenT]

Before you read HoME you should read Unfinished Tales.
And re-reading The Silmarillion is not a bad idea either.

[egel]

Re-reading any Tolkein book is a good thing.

[TheCobra1]

NaurwenT, on May 28 2007, 06:32 AM, said:

And re-reading The Silmarillion is not a bad idea either.

Haha, the last thing he wants to hear is that it wouldn't be a 'bad idea' if he re-read a book that took him around a year to read.

I believe I read all of the books mentioned above (Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, and The Hobbit) in about 8-9 months. My favorite was Return of the King. Usually, the longer the book is the more you grow attached to the characters. That was something that was wrong with The Bridge to Terebithia. The first half of The Silmarillion was, well, really boring.

Good luck with your reading endeavor, HG!

[Historicity]

Lol -- the reading for "The Silmarillion" wasn't that bad.

It just took me a long time to read because I was in my first and second semester at CCC.

Started to re-read it when ever I made the post, as a matter of fact. Hope to get this book done in a timely manner as I did with "The Lord of the Rings". Not another yearly read...

Thanks!

[Beren IV]

Well, I don't consider the Silmarillion to be one of Tolkien's masterpieces, except as an incompletel and conseuqently flawed masterpiece. I would suggest reading two books out of the History of Middle Earth series, the Book of Lost Tales I and II. These are the "other side" of the Silmarillion, so to speak, the early versions, which are better in a number of respects.

[TheCobra1]

Beren IV, on Jun 1 2007, 04:25 PM, said:

Well, I don't consider the Silmarillion to be one of Tolkien's masterpieces..

Same here. But reading it was totally worth it because it answered a lot of questions I had (Especially the Elves).

[Historicity]

It may be flawed, but in my opinion I would still consider "The Silmarillion" as a masterpiece entirely due to its immense length. And I do plan on reading HoME, and any other works in the near future.

[Beren IV]

Start with the Books of Lost Tales - they provide quite a different take than the Sil does.

I agree that the Silmarillion is a wonderful coloring to Tolkien's legendarium, which is indeed a great masterpiece, but sadly, the version of it that we have presents some serious consistency problems and/or structures that defeat the purpose of most of the stories told within it. These consistency problems do not crop up in either the Lord of the Rings or the Hobbit, which means that their presence in the Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, and elsewhere, is indicative of said works being, well, unfinished, not just incomplete in the narrative process but in the editing and perhaps even the conceptualization process as well. The real Silmarillion, the complete Silmarillion, doesn't exist, or at least it doesn't exist outside of fandom.

The complete Silmarillion would probably be 10,000 pages or so in length, though, since several of its major stories, the Quest of the Silmaril, the story of Tuor, the tragedy of the Seven Sons, or the recently-published Children of Húrin each are stories of a similar scope as LotR itself is, and there is a whole lot of connecting material that goes in-between that bunch!

[Sukkit]

Meh, personally I don't think the Book of Lost Tales I and II are that good on their own. They are just as unfinished and flawed as The Silmarillion, with the difference that the stories and ideas are less mature. They are very interesting if you contrast them with the later "finished" versions of legendarium, though, which is why I suggested re-reading The Silmarillion first.

I mean, Tevildo's got nothing on Sauron

[Historicity]

Hey, here's a good question for you guys (and gals... almost forgot NaurwenT ).

What's your take on the HoME books of "Morgoth's Ring" and "War of the Jewels"? I was tempted to get them but decided against it because I haven't read my "original" HoME collection. I'm on Chapter 10, "Of the Sindar" right now in "The Sil", I'll probably get ahead of some more in the book, after I complete some good ol' American history hw.

[Beren IV]

No arguments there, Sukkit - but, ironically, Tolkien's own convictions lend his more mature ideas to be increasingly in conflict with the main point of the story.

The Silmarillion is a compilation by Christopher Tolkien of his best shot at putting together a coherent version of the legendarium, and it only works so well. C.T.'s source material is now published in HoME, mainly in Morgoth's Ring and The War of the Jewels, although there are a handful of things from earlier versions as well. There are also a couple of essays and discussions in Morgoth's Ring that might provide some insight, and I think that The Peoples of Middle Earth (maybe TWotJ) has an unfinished sequel to LotR in it. The "sequel" in particular offers an interesting glimpse into the evolution of Tolkien's mindset and philosophy, but it fails as a story on several counts even when its unfinished nature is ignored.

[Historicity]

Finished "The Silmarillion" yesterday m8s.

Maybe I should read books when I'm not busy, eh? I'm gonna go back over it... again...

Because I know there was some stuff in there that I didn't remember from the first time...



Morgoth Bauglir baby!

[egel]

Quote

Because I know there was some stuff in there that I didn't remember from the first time...

That's pretty normal.