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Does anyone else read these? (We're talking the Book of Lost Tales, Unfinished Tales, Lay of Beleriand, etc.) The writing style is difficult to get used to, but I think these books are the deepest glimpses we can get into Tolkien's creations. Anyone else with me on this?

oh hey! i've been trying to finish the silmarillion for about a year, i just need to sit down and read one day.... all day.

i have the book of lost tales part one... i think... yeah, i started reading it as well, i found it sooo interesting, but then i got distracted with finals and all that.. i have yet to finish that one as well. i'm terrible at starting books and forgetting about them. even if i'm enjoying them. i did find that they weren't as 'easy' to read as a typical novel, but if you're interested, it's definetely worth it.

but yeah, i'm all for the history of middle earth books... yay for tolkien!!! woo!

I really do need to get the other history books. For now though, I just have the Silmarillion which I adore as well as a Atlas of Middle Earth which goes from the starting of the First Age until a few years after King Elessar's reign in the 4th Age.

Ive read the Simarillion, the Unfinished Tales and the Lost Tales. put me to sleep...except for the ones with the more "interesting" elves (Feanor the fire elf, and Eol the Dark Elf, who worked with the dwarves and much later went mad, tried to kill his son and was executed...I'm quite twisted).

I also enjoyed reading about Turin's plights in the Second age. Very depressing stuff, but I kind of like the Shakespearean tragedy-esque sort of things.

I'm a big fan of Beren and Luthein myself as well as Two Trees of Valinor.

Silmarillion is great, Unfinished Tales had interesting parts and the Lost Tales almost bored me to tears. Haven't read any others - too complex for me.

I've read Silmarillion, and own the Unfinished Tales (as well as the Hobbit and LOTR)

i've read the Silmarilion, Unfinishaed tales, the Return of the Shadow & The Treason of Isenguard. I thought the last 2 were really good, showing how the whole story evolved through tolkiens creative processes, and how he built up the story for Lord of the Rings from what was originally going to be a short sequel of the Hobbit (in a similar style) to the epic it is today. Lol, stuff like when Aragorn was supposed to be a hobbit - Trotter (who wore wooden shoes, lol)

Yeah, i've read Sil, unfinished, lost tales 1&2 and am hoping the rest of the history comes out. lost tales was pretty tough reading[very history like, sigh], but the others i really enjoyed....

I've read The Silmarillion also and The Adventures of Tom Bombadil which is really an anthology of poems some of which appear in either the trilogy or the Hobbit.
I perfer TAOTB as it is lighter for the most part and the title poem involves one of the more interesting characters in the series.
Btw:I read some of The Letters Of J.R.R.Tolkien and he doesn't come across as interesting as C.S.Lewis in his letters.

*can't remember them all* I've read the Silmarillion (The only reason I got through it was because my older brother said I couldn't), Lost Tales, Unfinished Tales, the Adventures of Tom Bombadil, The Lays of Beleriand *liked it muchly*, and *thinks* Tales from the Perilous Realms? Was that one? *doesn't remember* I think I've read most (all?) of them, but I get their names confused. *lol* Lays was my favorite of all of them. ^_^

I read them, and i would say the style is different, but once you get it, the books have so much to offer to see Toliens amazing work. I have finished the Silmarillion, and working (slowly between school and other hobbies) on the eventually getting through all his writings. Oh yeah and i read the Tolien reader, but i don't know if that one counts, its not like the other (as i call them "history of middle earth") books, but its one that doesn't get as much recognition or reading, but probably more than lost tales and the others. And my dad has read them all more times than i can count (he was a founder of a tolkien club at his school). Well i made this WAY too long so i'll shut up now. Wait oh yeah *someone slugs Sparrowhawk from behind and sits at keyboard* sorry you all had to listen to all his jabbering. goodbye

I think that The Silmarillion and Lost Tales are good for the background of
LOTR and TH,but in style they're inferior.

I own LOTR, The Silmarillion, and Unfinished Tales. I've read HoME (History of Middle Earth) IV, and I'm now working on I and V. They're a bit dry, but not horrible, though I did skip the earliest Silmarillion in IV. The Silmarillion (published) is awesome, as is Unifnished Tales. I want to read the other HoME books, especially VI on, as they look more interesting.

You gravedigger, you!

I'm impressed that you've read that much. Did you actually enjoy Silmarillion or were you just trudging through it?

Enjoy Silmirilon? Do those words belong in the same sentence?

i've read, enjoyably, the silmarillion four times through, unfinished tales thrice all the way through and certan parts more then 10 times. (not to mention i've read lotr 10+ times.) i don't own lost tales, but would like to read it sometime. bwahaha!

TurkishMonky wrote:i've read, enjoyably, the silmarillion four times through, unfinished tales thrice all the way through and certan parts more then 10 times. (not to mention i've read lotr 10+ times.) i don't own lost tales, but would like to read it sometime. bwahaha!

Was it Unfinished or Lost Tales that dealt with his old 1920's stuff like the Magical Whale etc. I remember seeing the ancient roots od Middle Earth in that book.

My favorite non Middle Earth work was Leaf, By Niggle which was a touching allegorical look at the afterlife... I understand it was read at his funeral.

that must have been lost tales, since i don't remember it. as for non-middle earth books, i read one of them, but i don't remember the name, nor the plot (i was 12)...

TurkishMonky wrote:that must have been lost tales, since i don't remember it. as for non-middle earth books, i read one of them, but i don't remember the name, nor the plot (i was 12)...

It may have been "Tolkein Reader."

I've read Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, Unfinished Tales, The Silmarillion and The Book of Lost Tales (1).
Tolkien has many interesting ideas and lots of originality and story but his writing style is so darn dry and boring. Unfinished Tales was a bit of a chore to read (some parts were great) and some parts of The Silmarillion are extremely dry (but there are also excellent parts there too).
I may read The rest of the History books (because they sound very interesting) but it may be awhile...

They're certainly not on the tippy-top of my reading list, especially since I haven't experienced a wave of Tolkein nostalgia in a long while.

I began Silmarilion (then life got in the way) and read the adventures of Tom Bombadil (I managed to read the one poem to my family about five times before they noticed).

I've also read some of the Letters of JRR Tolkien and The Inklings the group
biography of Tolkien,Lewis and Charles Williams.
According to The Inklings the Lewis brothers were apparently mildly anti-Catholic and
apparently they made Catholic jokes behind Tolkien's back.
On the other hand years after Lewis died Tolkien seems to have expressed some
rather bad sentiments about Lewis as well.

(I managed to read the one poem to my family about five times before they noticed).

Nicely done!

Oh wow...it's been a while.

I just got the whole history of middle earth collection. I love it.

A winner is you!

I have a couple of books in my library that are about the influences behind TLOTR
including Master of Middleearth that talks about the Christian influence.
Evidently Aragon is supposed to be a Christ figure.

mitsuki lover wrote:I've also read some of the Letters of JRR Tolkien and The Inklings the group
biography of Tolkien,Lewis and Charles Williams.
According to The Inklings the Lewis brothers were apparently mildly anti-Catholic and
apparently they made Catholic jokes behind Tolkien's back.
On the other hand years after Lewis died Tolkien seems to have expressed some
rather bad sentiments about Lewis as well.

Is "The Inklings" the title? Who's the author? I'd like to read this since it's something never mentioned in other accounts I've read... though I guess in retrospect Sheldon Vanauken may have alluded to it

One story I really enjoyed (and I think it was in the Unfinished Tales) concerning one of Numenoreon Kings who loved the sea and even though he loved this girl, he could not part with his love for the sea [spoiler]so after they got married. He could just not tear himself from sailing so they becam ebitter towards eachother.[/spoiler]. I'll do more research.

Most of my knowledge concerns the Sring of Arda, The First Age, The Second Age which are both the Eldar Days. My cheif study is focused on the Nodoli from thier exile from Valinor to there wars against Morgoth until the War of Wrath. One event I am extremely intrested and curious about is the prophesied battle Dagor Dagorath.

http://www.glyphweb.com/arda/default.asp wrote:The prophesied final battle between the forces of light and darkess, called the Last Battle, in which Morgoth will return and suffer his final and ultimate defeat.

The Dagor Dagorath, the great final battle at which the forces of the brothers Manwë and Melkor will face one another, and Arda will be unmade.

For some odd reason I keep on picturing the ending to Last Exile and Rah Xephon when I picture this battle. I did read snippets and other writings where apparently Manwe's son defeats and destroys Morgoth in a tree after Morgoth casts down Uniein, whom Manwe's son loves. I will try and find that section - it was very intresting.