Księga zaginionych opowieści. Część 1 J.R.R. Tolkiena, wraz z cudownymi komentarzami syna autora Christophera, spowodowała iż Śródziemie na nowo zawładnęło moim sercem. Dlatego z radością przywitałam w moich rękach Księgę zaginionych opowieści. Część 2 wraz z którą mogłam odkrywać ponownie historię Berena i Lúthien (Tinúviel).

Sześć opowieści wraz z komentarzami.
Standardowo nie będę Wam streszczać opowiadań, ale pozostawię tu tylko ich tytuły.

Opowieść o Tinúviel;
Turambar i Foalókë
Upadek Gondolinu;
Nauglafring;
Opowieść o Eärendelu;
Historia Eriola albo Ælfwine’a i koniec opowieści.
Znane z Silmarilionu historie plus notatki.
Pozwolę pokusić się o stwierdzenie, że Księga zaginionych opowieści. Część 2 spodobała mi się bardziej niż Część 1. ;)

Jest to oczywiście zasługa dłuższych historii, które już w Silmarilionie, czy Niedokończonych opowieściach robiły na mnie wrażenie.

Teraz dodatkowo opowiadania o Berena i Lúthien (Tinúviel) czy Dzieciach Húrina (Turambar i Foalókë) nabierają dodatkowego smaku dzięki wspaniałym komentarzom Christophera Tolkiena.

Ten odkrywa przed miłośnikami Śródziemia świat, który pokochali we Władcy Pierścieni i pokazuje jakimi ścieżkami mogły podążać myśli jego ojca, który wielkim perfekcjonistą i detalistą był. :D

Oczywiście, tak jak w przypadku Części 1 Księgi mogą pojawić się głosy, że jest ona trudna w odbiorze, że język momentami może być nieco archaiczny. Wydaje mi się, że fanom Tolkiena, ten detal nie będzie przeszkadzał, bo wiedzą, w których latach pisane były poszczególne opowieści, a rozmach całego przedsięwzięcia pozwoli tylko docenić wysyłek autora w stworzenie tak pięknego uniwersum.

Dlatego sięgajcie i czytajcie po Księga zaginionych opowieści. Część 2 J.R.R. Tolkiena, by docenić kunszt autora i nacieszyć oczy wspaniałym wydaniem, które dostarczyło nam Wydawnictwo Zysk i S-ka.

Polecam bardzo! :D

https://unserious.pl/2023/04/ksiega-z...

Właściwie nie muszę wiele pisać o tej książce, ponieważ to TOLKIEN, a dla mnie, to całkowicie wystarcza. Mimo to jednak coś tam napiszę. KSIĘGA ZAGINIONYCH OPOWIEŚCI CZĘŚĆ 2, jest tak samo genialna, jak CZĘŚĆ 1. Mało?
Zaczynając od początku, są to teksty mistrza opatrzone wybitnym komentarzem jego syna Christophera Tolkiena. Komentarz jest naprawdę świetny, odsłania bowiem historię ukrytą za każdą opowieścią. W pewnym sensie możemy podziwiać i poznawać proces twórczy J.R.R. TOLKIENA, a to szalenie cenna rzecz.
W tej części mamy np. opowieść o Berenie i Luthien, czyli tekstu chyba najważniejszego dla samego autora. Jest w nim niegasnące piękno, które trudno odnaleźć wokół siebie. Powodem może być natłok dzikich informacji, które atakują nasz mózg z każdej strony. TOLKIEN w tej i innych historiach daje nam odetchnąć i uwierzyć, na chwilę, w lepsze jutro.
Kocham każdą książkę mistrza, ponieważ przenosi mnie w świt, o którym marzę. Tutaj znajduję miłość, przyjaźń, oddanie, honor, nadzieję. Jest w twórczości TOLKIENA poezja (dosłownie i w przenośni), jest stabilność, dokładność i precyzja, co sprawia, że w stworzoną prze niego rzeczywistość łatwo uwierzyć. Po prostu - to ma moc.
Ogromnie się cieszę, że Zysk i S-ka zdecydowało się wydać HISTORIĘ ŚRÓDZIEMIA. To skarby, które poznaję z fascynacją i wielką radością. Do TOLKIENA zawsze wracam, czasem tylko do fragmentów, czasem do całych opowieści. Wiem, że tak samo będzie w przypadku tej książki. Podkreślam jednak, że komentarz Christophera Tolkiena jest bezcenny, jego praca wręcz tytaniczna i tylko dzięki niemu światło dzienne ujrzały niektóre z prezentowanych historii.
Książka jest doskonale wydana. Przepiękna szata graficzna, rewelacyjna ilustracja Michała Krawczyka, klimatyczna i świetnie oddająca prezentowane wydarzenia. Już pod pierwszego wejrzenia czytelnik zakochuje się w książce, a im dalej, tym lepiej. Dla mnie PERŁA!

zgłębiając świat mistrza
HISTORIA ŚRÓDZIEMIA
część 2
Wydawnictwo Zysk i S-ka
egzemplarz recenzencki

This is the second volume in The History of Middle-earth, covering the same type of Lost Tales as the first volume but at a later stage in the chronology. I found the stories to be more interesting than in the first volume because they included more elves and dwarves and other created characters, rather than just Valar and Ainur.

I would give the same recommendation as the first book. Read the big three (Silmarillion, Hobbit, LOTR), and if you enjoyed all of them, try out the stand-alone volumes for each of the Great Tales of Middle-earth. If you enjoy those, you might enjoy this.

I don't know when I will get on to reading The Lays of Beleriand. I am also interested in reading The History of the Hobbit, maybe right before I get to the LOTR volumes of HOME for chronological purposes.

3 stars [Fantasy]
(W 3.13, U 2.49, T 2.59, P 3.56, O 3.73)
Exact rating: 3.1

Individual Sections:
The Tale of Tinúviel: 3.77 (W 3.75, P 3.81, O 3.75), 39 pgs.
notes 1 (W 2.75, U 2.5, T 2.57), 28 pgs.
Turambar and the Foalókë: 3.28 (W: 3.77, P: 3.06, O 3), 48 pgs.
notes 2 (W 2.82, U 2.75, T 2.62), 28 pgs.
notes 3 (W 2.5, U 2.5, T 2.57), 29 pgs.
The Fall of Gondolin [1st writing only]: 4.63 (W 4.13, P 4.75, O 5), 49 pgs.
The Nauglafring: 2.57 (W: 2.62, P: 2.33, O: 2.75), 22 pgs.
notes 4 (W 2.5, U 2.62, T 2.57), 10 pgs.
The Tale of Eärendel (W: 2.5, U 2.67, T 2.5), 16 pgs.
Eärendel poems (W 2.57, P 2.57, O 3.33), 11 pgs.
The History of Eriol or Aelfwine and the End of the Tales (W 2.5, U 2.25, T 2.62), 47 pgs.
Ælfwine of England: 3.08 (W: 2.75, P: 3, O: 3.5), 11 pgs.

The story of Lúthien Tinúviel and Beren is probably one of my favourite of Tolkien's stories. And for that reason alone, I love this book. It presents several version of the story, esentially the same but with important and characteristic differences. And a different version still it the one found in The Silmarillion, but more on that book.

I think, on the whole, I like the stories in this book better than the stories in part I. But they're all connected and I think it is an important strength to this entire story of characters telling each other important myths and tales from their Peoples. You really can't read part II, without having read part I, I believe. At least you get a very different persepctive on the tales of part II, if you haven't read part I.

I think the most interesting stories in part II is the ones that aren't written. The last two tales that is, they're mostly notes and outlines and plans of Tolkien's for stories he wanted to write. Some exist in the form of poems, some don't. But really, they're ridiculously interesting. And if I remember correctly, feature in The Silmarillion, but as it has been years, I can't say for sure.

Christopher Tolkien does a marvelous job of stitching the tales together from various manuscripts of his father's, J . R. R. Tolkien, and with the help of a well-structured note section following each tale, as well as a commentary manages to bring back a large portion of the stories that J. R. R. Tolkien wrote in the trenches of WWI. And which was, many many years later, to become The Silmarillion, simplified: the origin on Middle-earth as we know it from LotR and the history of the elves. And thus, reading these books has made me want to reread The Silmarillion, but that probably is a way off.

NB: when I simply write "Tolkien", I of course refer to J. R. R. Tolkien.

For more thoughts on Lost Tales, see my review of Part I here.
Also reviewed together on my blog Bookish Love Affair.

the one where sauron is a furry and the noldor are consistently referred to as gnomes

It has been quite an odyssey reading Tolkien's Lost Tales, considering I start reading Part One all the way back in 2004! That eighteen-year stretch has certainly added to the sense of deep time periods covered in these tales.

It's been fascinating reading the early versions of Tolkien's great tales that would eventually make up The Silmarillion. It's even more fascinating having Christopher Tolkien place all the tales in context with one another; together with what period of Tolkien's life they were written in and how Tolkien re-vised and further developed them.

For me, the most interesting element of the lost tales, and one that Tolkien later abandoned, was the framing device of Ælfwine or Eriol. Ælfwine bookends the lost tales (across Parts One and Two) and it is through Ælfwine that we are told all the great tales.

Ælfwine is also the reason we know about the great tales of Middle Earth in our world today, because Ælfwine is Tolkien's device for linking his legendarium to our real-world history. Depending on which version you're reading, Ælfwine is either a Danish man or an Anglo Saxon who sails to the forbidden isle of the elves and discovers the true history of our world.

It is through Ælfwine that we learn the true significance of the British Isles in Tolkien's legendarium and how Tolkien's great tales serve as a mythological history for Britain.

Tolkien always bemoaned Britain's lack of any distinct national mythology. Most of Britain's so-called myths and tales are assimilated from those of other cultures that invaded the British Isles over the centuries. One of Tolkien's incentives behind creating his legendarium was to create a vast mythology for Britain.

I've always loved the idea that Tolkien invented his imaginary world as a pre-history to our own world and I think it's a terrible shame that he abandoned the Ælfwine concept. I would have loved to have seen him incorporate Ælfwine back into his final version of the Silmarillion and used Ælfwine as the framing device not just for the Silmarillion tales, but for the tales of the Second and Third Ages of Middle Earth. Thereby showing in a definite sense how all of Tolkien's Middle Earth works serve as a pre-history to our world and how they cross-over into our early European history through Ælfwine's personal history.

Despite having its origin in the same writing project as the first part, this is a fairly separate section and the break helps emphasize that.

In-fiction, the bulk of the stories here all intertwine even more than the first part. Out-fiction this is the part where the Tolkien's writing project came apart, and for the most part we get drafts from separate (but related) notebooks, and papers inserted into the manuscripts. Part six is a delve into the overall scheme for the stories both before and after The Book of Lost Tales (not that this isn't gone into elsewhere).

We get glimpses of Tolkien's original thoughts that link elves to fairies, with elves fading, becoming smaller, and less substantial as the power of Men waxes. At various points Eriol, or Ælfwine (elf-friend) as he is later named, is hooked into actual history, early on before the Dark Ages, and later in the Eleventh Century.

All of this disappears later on, after further revisions take him further into his own lore, and away from a mythology that might have historically grown up on its own. This is for the best on many levels. The world and its stories are allowed to grow organically as they must, but there is also a racial snobbery lurking in these early versions where only the English have any true knowledge of the fay folk. The growth of the world also broadened its outlook. (If not as much as some may wish, it's still a long step up from the Edwardian provincialism it started with.)

Similarly, Eärendil reveals the early roots of the stories. He comes up earlier, but part five is the forever unfinished (in any form) "Tale of Eärendil" which has its earliest seeds, with Eärendil being a Quenya name, but deriving from the Anglo-Saxon éarendil, and his story is decidedly a mythological-mode explanation of the evening star.

All this makes the later parts of the book scholastically interesting, though much of it is so fragmented between various drafts and outlines that pulling anything else out is challenging. Thankfully, Christopher Tolkien is a valuable docent, and guides us through these parts, helping us understand the ideas behind the later First Age.

The earlier parts of the book are far more complete, and would reappear later, and later versions are generally in the eventual Silmarillion. On their own, I found "The Nauglafring" also close its sources, echoing ideas of the Nibelungenlied. Personally, I found "Turambar and the Foalókë" very rough going, and "The Fall of Gondolin" only somewhat better, leaving "The Tale of Tinuviel" as one of the more engaging parts, which makes sense; there's a lot of The Silmarillion that does not stick in my brain, but parts of the equivalent section do, so it's a tale that certainly appeals to me more.

Another fascinating glimpse into the evolution of Middle-Earth. Seeing an earlier, darker version of the dwarves was both intriguing and somewhat disturbing.

This is much of the same sort of experience...extant mythology with bookended in-depth analysis from Christopher Tolkien. If you are a hardcore fan of The Silmarillion, then this material will be fascinating to you. It's all about the minute narrative differences between Tolkien's early 20th century groundwork and the later Silmarillion. Christopher kind of likes to hear himself talk, and if I got a quarter for every time he describes a passage from his father as "remarkable" I could buy 3 full collections of the LOTR Extended Edition Blu Rays. On a more bad-ass note, the chapter on the Fall of Gondolin is so chockful of epic, cinematic moments that I couldn't stop reading.

Useful for those needing to know the deep background of Middle Earth but I found little interest in most of the stories.

The book really reflects on the creative detail of Tolkien’s work. An entire world with its history was constructed over the course of Tolkien’s life. Which came first in Tolkien’s writing, LOTR or the various ages and background of Middle Earth? How many fantasy authors go to such lengths as Tolkien? None, I’d venture to say.

That said, this and the Book of Lost Tales, Part 1 left me more blah than wowed. I thought I needed them to delve into The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power but, alas, not really. So, thankfully I put these books aside and moved on.

I won't lie. Christopher Tolkien's literary analysis of the background notes for his father's legendary works is not an easy or quick read. While the actual tales themselves are enjoyable fantasies from out of faerie land, innumerable end notes and discussion of fine points (such as the state of the hand written notebooks from which the current work is sourced, or his father's biography at the time he wrote in the aforementioned notebooks) is nothing less than a slog.

That having been said; Tolkien, to my mind at least, is one of the reigning champions of successful world-building. I know I may be in the minority with that opinion, but my subsequent re-reads of the Lord of the Rings emphasized to me that there was less of the drier material than I remembered as a child (though it was present in parts). More importantly, Tolkien was a professor of the English language and his knowledge of both Old English and the history and of Northern Europe, including his beloved Isles, infused his writing with an authenticity that is, in my opinion, sadly lacking from much of the epic fantasy that has been written since then.

So why read it, if it only rates two stars? Well, as a fan of his other writings (LOTR, The Hobbit, The Silmarillion) I thought it was worth the time to try and understand the amount of work that went into developing this master-craft exemplar of world building. The most critical lession that I think an aspiring writer can gain from these is that in the preparation of a novel (or any material you want to publish), more is written, edited, modified, discarded, and re-written than is ever seen by the public. Look at the long years that went into developing a coherent series of myths, just to form the background for later stories to look back to. And these were written and re-written two to three times each, and by hand. Don't expect it to happen overnight.

Like him or hate him, every aspiring and successful writer of epic fantasy has been informed by J.R.R. Tolkien. But perhaps fewer have had the in-depth grounding that allowed a fantasy world to not only live vividly in our imaginations, but to haunt our hearts with echoes of our own real world. His syntax, place names, songs, and poems drip with it, offering honey to the soul of the reader. Do you need to read the History of Middle-Earth to enjoy Middle-Earth? Not in the slightest. But if you have the time and patience, you will find jewels here and there to pique your interest. And if you are either a serious fan (devotee?) of Tolkien's world, or in learning more about the process of developing epic fantasy and world building, then you might consider perusing these notes. Tolkien was after all the grand-daddy of epic fantasy architects.