Vote: 3,50
Class: P-A3 (FP)

(first volume, out of twelve!, of the History of Middle-Earth)

I'm a Tolkien fan since I was a boy and I've put off reading this for many years, well knowing that this is not something like the Lord of the Rings or the Silmarillion even.
Maybe we could say that this (this book at least) is not a work of fiction... Well, by J.R.R.T. this was meant to be a work of fiction like, let us say, Omero's Iliad or the Aeneid... mixed with Boccaccio's Decameron... But he couldn't finish his work and his dream to give to the Anglo-Saxon world its own mythological literature was never really acknowledged.

What we have here is many interesting pieces of this dream, and I liked them a lot.
Likewise I liked to understand better the beginning of the building of Middle-Earth, its people, its languages...

However I didn't much care for the way this pieces were pieced together by his son Christopher, even if I know that I can't begin to understand how difficult it could be to publish J.R.R.T.'s notes and tales in any intelligibile way...

I'll go on with the next eleven volumes.

This book drove me crazy. I started it/restarted it/restarted it many times over several years, and recently determined to finish what was a very difficult, unwieldy and in some ways unpalatable chore. This is the edited recounting, by J.R.R.'s son, Christopher Tolkien of his father's notebooks, printed first in rough hand in pencil then laboriously erased and copied over in pen, with additions sent to his wife from trenches of France during WWI. This is the history of how J.R.R. invented a creation story for England, devised a British mythology to rival Greek and Norse legend, and how he made up a vocabulary with thousands of roots to build upon to make up a language whereon to build a world called middle earth. This is the story of how, over many decades J.R.R. built a lexicon history rising out of the mist, complete with a panoply of gods and heroes, traitorous villains and devils, working their effects upon elves, dwarves, goblins, and finally men. All together these "lost tales" recount the preparation required by J.R.R. to pen the final edition, called the Silmarillion, the account of how this world came to be, the foundation for the world of the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings.

Not me pausing reading this for two years

I must say this book was both interesting and challenging to read. The myriad of elegant names led me to do a lot of page turning and going back a couple of chapters to remind myself of figures I'd already forgotten. This first book of the Middle Earth history series is a comprehensive volume. Each chapter/story has a commentary and notes by JRR Tolkien's son, Christopher Tolkien. It’s fascinating to read the author’s notes surrounding the original versions and various revisions of Tolkien’s tales. Tolkien’s verses, such as Kortirion among the trees also give the book that poetic lustre that Tolkien is known for. A charming book overall. I look forward to reading more books in the series.

Dnf 41%
To jest dobra książka(dlatego jednak daje te 3 gwiazdki) , ale chyba nie dla mnie:((
Z żalem ale jednak, muszę oznaczyć to jako dnf, mam nadzieję że kiedyś do tego wrócę

Before Dave Maddock yells at me, let me clarify that I do find the Tales charming, even if they were obviously much improved in revision, both in content and style. Most fun are the goofy bits that got cut and pared back over time — the Man in the Moon, the Rainbow Bridge, the Cottage of Lost Play. However, the real value of this volume is not in the quality of the Tales themselves but in posterity. What really deserves 5 stars is Christopher’s incomparable editing prowess (in sorting through this mess and making it presentable) and in the retroactive value of watching Tolkien’s thought evolve over time. The History of Middle-earth is a historical document, and from that perspective, gets all the stars from me.

and I thought The Silmarillion was dense

Christopher Tolkien realizza un puntuale lavoro filologico sulle carte del padre, alla ricerca di un fil rouge che conduca al Silmarillion. È difficile per chi abbia una conoscenza già strutturata dell'universo tolkieniano abituarsi a tutte le differenze presenti in questa fase iniziale del disegno di Arda. Da leggere due volte: prima andando direttamente alle storie, accompagnate da un' affascinante cornice; poi approfondendo con il commento di Christopher ad ogni capitolo.

My goal this year is to read all 12 volumes of the history of middle earth. Also, like, other stuff. It's ALSO fascinating to me to see both JRRT's evolution in thought and Christopher's work to mediate and manage his father's ideas and legacy.
It's jsut super interesting. I'm not sure it's super interesting to people who are not very Tolkien-y but also seeing the ways that it *feels* more like mythology in these earlier stories is so cool. I'm not entirely sure how to describe it, but the way that he tells stories of tragedy and lament and...i don't know what it IS about this mode that grabs me but, well, if you're the kind of kid who read mythology anthologies cover to cover, do I have a book for you.

Bless Christopher (and Edith) because I would have gone crazy

It's difficult to decide how to look at this book. First, this is a book which only a true Tolkienphile should read. There's no real narrative, as these are early drafts of "Silmarillion" as well as story fragments which didn't make the cut. As such, you need to go in expecting to read stories which Tolkien himself didn't think were good enough or, at the very least, not ready. It's also the difference between reading "The Odyssey" and a book chronicling various stories from Greek mythology.

The annotations by his son run long and become self-indulgent at times and, frankly, it is that which allows me to critique the book with a clear conscience. Comparing the early drafts and ideas to their later forms or even reading the bits which Tolkien decided to scrap or change has value to those who love his writing. While brief notes from his son explaining the timeline or pointing out other further revisions would also hold interest, page after page of supposition and exposition brings the narrative to multiple grinding halts.

While the casual fan, picking up this book because they liked the Hobbit movies will never make it through this book, ttue Tolkien lovers - those who speak Sindarin and can quote from all his books - will absolutely find interest here. That said, even for that niche audience, the execution could have been much less halting and better paced.

I'm still reading this book. In some ways, I like it much better than the 3 star rating would indicate. Still, the book has a lot of 1st draft qualities, and feels artificial, especially compared with LOTR, and even the Silmarillion.

What makes it fascinating is to see the textual variants, and the way that Tolkien was constructing his languages and names even as he wrote his books.

It's work keeping track of the names, some change between the Lost Tales and the Silmarillion, and there are also narrative changes, too.

The stories are good, and it is fascinating to see an author at work, progressing, changing and having variant texts. I admire the job his son did with faded pencil manuscripts.