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/lit/ - Literature

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2356398 No.2356398 [Reply] [Original]

>> No.2356402

I want to read all the Tolkien's work, which book should i read first?

>> No.2356403

Read them in the order he wrote them

>> No.2356405

>>2356402
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

>> No.2356424

>>2356402
Hobbit, LOTR, Silmarillion, other shit if you want who cares

>> No.2356430

>>2356424

Thank you.

>> No.2356435

>>2356402
you could read them in the order he wrote them, or...
read them in the order the lore goes
>silmarillion
>children of hurin
>hobbit
>lotr

>> No.2356442

>>2356435
I'd recommend against that. The charm of Tolkien is supposed to be in the sense of adventure and ~WONDERMENT~. Reading Silmarillion before the Hobbit is just going to make you too hung up on "HAHA I KNOW WHAT THAT RANDOM MONSTER IS, IT'S AN ASS SPIRIT FROM THE SEVENTH PLANE OF ERU ILUVATAR" instead of "hey a giant bear, cool, I hope it doesn't eat Bilbo and is friendly".

You read his shit for feelings of adventure, come to love the setting, want to learn more about it, and then read all the juicy details about cosmology and genealogy to sate your curiosity about all those loose threads. Not the other way around.

But to each their own.

>> No.2356446

>>2356442
>>2356442
Yea, I agree. I figured I'd just suggest it though. I had a friend who read them that way and loved them immensely. I read LOTR, Hobbit, Hurin, then Silmarillion. So kind of backwards. But I loved it all the same.

>> No.2356449

Start with Redwall, but don't become too attached to certain aspects of it (e.g., horses, references to Christian mythos), as not all of them don't carry over into his subsequent installments.

>> No.2356453

>>2356449
you so crazy

>> No.2356457

Definitely pick up 'The Atlas of Middle-Earth' and a good Sindarin-English dictionary, and read them before touching any of the novels.

>> No.2356477

>>2356457
I think The Lord of the Rings should be read with no prior knowledge of Middle-Earth. One of the best parts about the book is how the setting is so well-developed and has such an extensive history, but you're not told all the details so it seems very mystical and adds to the adventure.

>> No.2356488

>>2356477
"The great modern fantasies were written out of religious, philosophical and psychological landscapes. They were sermons. They were metaphors. They were rhetoric. They were books, which means that the one thing they actually weren’t was countries with people in them" - M. John Harrison

LotR is a great work of fiction, an incredible accomplishment, not because of the supposed realism of its world-building but because of the incredible imaginative power of Tolkien's creation, because of the enduring images he created and the story he told. We don't, or we oughtn't, read Lord of the Rings to learn more about the details of the world; we read it for the story and the image and the artistic creation. Yes, there is adventure in LotR and it is very enjoyable, but if that's all you want, read the Hobbit. Yes, there is an interesting created mythology in LotR, but if that's all you want, read the Silmarillion. The fact that it is more than either of those is why LotR is far and away Tolkien's greatest work, and it is the same reason you should read it without knowing the genealogy of the gods or any of that nonsense.

>> No.2356506

>>2356488
I don't see why you replied to me with that

>> No.2356513

>>2356477
hah, good point. yeah, i loved looking at the little fold-out map glued inside the back cover of my book, and looking at the names & locales of places that don't even factor into the story, just imagining what might be out there.

>> No.2356515

>>2356506
ahhhhh, i don't know, i guess i was agreeing with you more than most people in the thread

just cheeses me off when people like lord of the rings because "the world is so detailed and realistic!!!!" or "it's so thrilling!" well, i mean, enjoy what you want to enjoy, but that's a very limited appreciation of the thing... i mean, yes, i want to chill with hobbits in the shire, and yes, i do enjoy the sense of adventure, but come on

>> No.2356524
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2356524

>>2356435
That's a horrible idea.

Seriously OP, start with the only two book on Middle-earth that he ever actually published, The Hobbit and then LotR.

Everything else is made from scraps of his unpublished writings collected by his son Christopher after his death.

Except for The Silmarillion, I think, which was mostly complete.

>> No.2356530

>>2356524
er, not OP, this guy >>2356402

if he isn't OP that is

why am I even bothering to type this?

>> No.2356535

>>2356524
The Silmarillion was almost complete but Christopher had to fill in some gaps and it's ambiguous as to how much of it is his

Apparently Tolkien had originally planned to publish The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion in a two-volume set. It's a shame that didn't happen

>> No.2356538

Drinking game: read The Hobbit and take a shot every time you spot a Beowulf reference

>> No.2356537

Christopher Tolkien seems like a total douche

>> No.2356541
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2356541

>>2356535
I heard that The Silmarillion was the first book that Tolkien ever tried to publish.

But Tolkien had changed his legendarium so much from that time, so yeah, Christopher and what's his face had to fill in a lot.

>> No.2356549

>>2356538
Would that lead to fatal alcohol poisoning?

Tolkien loved his Beowulf, after all.

Apparently his essay on Beowulf is the best bit of literary criticism on the poem ever.

>> No.2356552

>>2356549
It's pretty fucking good. It's also somewhat applicable to his own work, I'd argue.

>> No.2356553

>>2356535
>>2356537
>>2356541
Sigh...
JRRT started writing early versions of Silm in his 20s. By the time he finished LOTR, he had a lot of it in the form it was eventually published in. But no one wanted to publish it.
After the success of LOTR, he tried to finish Silm, but by that time he was quite old and didn't seem to have the energy. When he died, it was in a chaotic state, with some parts fully worked out and other very important parts only in outline.
CJRT (Christopher) got to work on it after JRRT died in 1973. Within 4 years he had a good version. He edited some parts lightly and had to expand on some parts himself. Silm was published in that form in 1977.
In the 20 or so years that followed, CJRT published everything from JRRT's original writings with extensive notes, in 13 separate volumes. He made it very clear in these books what parts of Silm were written by him and what parts by JRRT.
CJRT is a great scholar and writer and has given the world a huge gift in his completion and analysis of the writings that made up The Silmarillion.

>> No.2356556

>>2356538
Oh dear. I don't think I have that much alcohol here. Especially when they get to Beorn's house....

>> No.2356559
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2356559

>>2356553
So I was mostly right then.

>> No.2356561

>>2356553
So he's a mincing little faggot who abridges other people's work? Good to know.

>> No.2356570
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2356570

>>2356561
Would you rather have a Silmarillion that's 50% outline?

Also, without his years of hard work none of us would be afforded the chance to take a more intimate look at Middle-earth by reading all of Tolkien's little scraps and notes.

>> No.2356574
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2356574

I took this summer course on Tolkien from philologist who tried to translate LotR into Latin when he was 18.

It was so awesome.

>> No.2356581
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2356581

>>2356561
Says a mincing little faggot.

>> No.2356585

>>2356561
>>2356581
hey guys! can we please stop using that word? just a polite request for you to choose not to use a word that's a slur... think about using language that isn't bigoted. thanks so much

>> No.2356588
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2356588

>>2356585
Please anon, can you refrain from using such gender-specific terms as 'guys'. There are members of both sexes on this board, and I'm sure they don't want you making such ignorant assumptions, no offense intended.

sage for non-lit! :)

>> No.2356589

>>2356581
>guy calls Cocksucker Tolkien a faggot for good reason
>call guy a faggot for no reason

Damn son you're cool now

>> No.2356591

>>2356588
hi there! i meant 'guys' in a gender-neutral sense and i sincerely apologize for any offense i've caused! i admit that i did assume that both posters involved were male, and i'll try to watch those kinds of assumptions in the future. thanks so much for your great post!

>> No.2356592

>>2356589
>>2356561
>>2356537

samefaggin'

>> No.2356593

>>2356588
>>2356591
STOP IT

STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT

>> No.2356595

>>2356592
Everyone is a samefag when you're angry on the Internet.

>> No.2356614

Is Children of Hurin worth reading?

>> No.2356622

>>2356614
If you've read The Silmarillion, then you have read material that overlaps Children of Hurin by about 90%. Most of the differences are minor.