2020 Books: 6-13

[the_siobhan]

I used to love Lord of the Rings when I was a teenager and I must have read it a dozen times. My interest in it kind of subsided over the years but when I hooked up with Darrell, he was a major fan. The movies were part of his comfort watching when he got really sick.

The books I read this month were a combination of his and mine.



    

The Silmarillion by JRR Tolkien I had always been under the impression that The Silmarillion was written before LoTR, but apparently it was published posthumously. It's the history of the word of Eä, which includes Middle Earth where LoTR takes place. And I do mean history, it starts with the creating of the universe. The world was first populated by the Valar and Maiar, who were major and minor demi-Gods who formed the world. Then came the elves and dwarves, and finally man. The book traces the history and origins of the various people up to the beginning of the Third Age and the events that led to LoTR. In terms of readability, The Silmarillion is to LoTRwhat LoTRis to The Hobbit - it's written in the style of a an epic, and of course all the characters have a different name in each language. Each of which he also invented. I can't even believe this guy's mind.

The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King by JRR Tolkien

The classic work. I think I bought this bundled set back in the 70's.

This is my first time re-reading since I watched the movies, and I'm struck by the differences that were made for dramatic effect. The lighting of the bonfires to call for help, for example, is only a small note in the books but it's used to great dramatic effect in the movie.

(Speaking of which, this cartoon by Will McPhail made me cackle when I first came across it.)



    

The Book of Lost Tales by JRR Tolkien Christopher Tolkien compiled these manuscripts along with his own notes and commentary. In it, a man visits an island inhabited by elves who tell him the stories of their history. These stories are the early versions of what would eventually become The Simarillion.

    

Unfinished Tales by JRR Tolkien Another booked compiled from early drafts, containing more detailed background information on many of the characters and events from LoTRalong with notes by his son. In particular it goes into the history of the relationship between Gondor and Rohan and there are some segments about the search for the ring by Sauron's servents.

    

A Tolkien Bestiary by David Day A coffee-table book. This is an alphabetical list of every race, animal and plant mentioned in LoTR and The Simarillion. This was published in 1979, long before the movies came out so all the illustrations are drawings. Some of them are quite gorgeous.

    

The Lord of the Rings Weapons and Warfare: An Illustrated Guide to the Battles, Armies and Armour of Middle Earth by Chris Smith Another coffee-table book full of photographs, diagrams and illustrations. It covers all the races as well as the major characters and describes their garb and favourite weapons. It draws mostly from the movies, so there is a lot more detail than is found in the books. There is a forward by the late Christopher Lee.

I plan to put these out in the library unless anybody wants them.

Comments

[greylock]

I almost can't believe you didn't read The Hobbit... just for completeness.
It took me the better part of a decade (I started when I was 14, finished when I was about 25) to read LOTR the first time. I never got passed Tom Bombadill.

Once I did finally finish, I successfully tackled The Silmarillion for the first time.

I've attempted to read (or have read) Lost Tales 1, and started Unfinished Tales... but even at the peak of Tolkienmania, there was overload.

I thought I had The Tolkien Bestiary, but I went to my Tolkien section (I have acquired a bunch of the History of Middle Earth I expect I will never read) and I have what I guess is a companion paperback, A Guide to Tolkien by David Day, which seems to include snippets from a bunch of Tolkien books Day wrote.

Apparently he's a Canadian.

[dark_phoenix54]

Like you, I reread the LOTR obsessively as a teen. I have not read them again since. I loved Fellowship, but found Two Towers rough going. Return of the King was better than TT, but not as good as Fellowship. I could never make it through Silmarillon. I want a book that tells us what happened to Aragorn and his family after LOTR.

Love the cartoon!

[the_siobhan]

Will McPhail is great in general.

[lil_m_moses]

If you're willing to ship the Bestiary (for $, of course), I'd love to gift it to my husband, who's a giant Tolkien fan.

[the_siobhan]

I'll happily send it to you, but I should warn you it's not in pristine condition. I wrote my name on the inside cover back when I first got it, and some of the pages are a bit stained. (Nothing major, just a few smears.)

If you're OK with that just send me your mailing address. siobhan at virulent dot org.

[ironed_orchid]

My LotR phase happened when I was about 10-12, but I used to re-read The Hobbit and the trilogy every few years. My dad read me The Hobbit when I was smol, and I read it on my own at a fairly young age.

I remember having The Tolkien Bestiary and loving it as a preteen. I have no idea where it ended up.

I also had some Middle Earth calendars with art by Alan Lee, who was the conceptual artist on the films, so some things, including Gollum, were very much seeing stuff from my childhood come to life.