another HoME question...

which order should i read them in?

aryne *

I never gave much thought to that. I just read them as they came out. The Lost Tales are interesting. I`d probably start there. They deal with subject matter from the Silmarillion. Or perhaps the Shaping of Middle Earth (vol. 4) which has to do with the Quenta, Ambarkanta, and The Annals. Morgoth`s Ring and The War of the Jewels (vols. 10 and 11 respectively) deal with the Later Silmarillion. Have you read Silmarillion? I believe The Lays of Beleriand (vol. 3) also deal with Tales from the Silmarillion. The Lost Road and Other Writings (vol. 5) deals with the Language and Legend before "The Lord of the Rings" and deals with the Fall of Numenor. Vol. 6 through 9 (The Return of the Shadow, The Treason of Isengard, The War of the Ring, and Sauron Defeated) have to do with the LotR trilogy, of course. As I said, I just read them in the order they came out. Anyone have any special order in which they suggest reading them? I`m assuming you haven`t read ANY of the HOME series yet, Aryne?

I haven't read them in order. In fact, I've haven't even read them all yet. There is a lot of cross referenceing between the volumes, especially the later ones, but I don't think this means you absolutely have to read them in order. I believe the volumes about the writing of LoTR (VI-IX) can be read independently of the others.

I would for all it's small and large quirks say The Silmarillion [keeping in mind it is not canon like the LotR] should be read first if you have not already done that as it gives the best currently available read through of the stories. Then possibly UT .

One can read them chronologically [more or less] or ;
One could work backward towards the more primitive versions which would look like10>11>5>4>3>1>2.

Some people are put off by the style of the Lost Tales which are Tolkien's earliest writings in ME and as HoME shows his powers grew substantially. I think the post LotR writings in UT, 10 and 11 are the hieght of his abilities, surpassing the LotR in many places.

One must also decide [or not] how much of the footnotes and commentary to let in at any given reading, they mightily disrupt the flow of the stories {which is why I recommend the Silm first} but if one is trying to reconstruct a final or unofficial 'canon' or just plain tinkering w/ different versions all that cumbersome annotating and footnoting becomes as gold. There are also a few alternate versions and interesting asides buried in all the small print which are worth searching out during later reads if one passes over them the first time.

My own reading experience has been chaotic. I was pretty familiar w/ Silm and UT when Lost Tales came out, but I didnot read much of the later volumes till I began seriously considering the idea of a new version of the Silmarillion, which could incorporate the longer versions and fragments from UT [Narn i chin Hurin and Tuor 's coming to Gondolin] the final versions and additional stories and material in Morgoth's Ring and War of the Jewels and Peoples of ME, and the non-conflicting details that abound from Lost tales [such as the Fall of Gondolin, the Darkening of Valinor] so I use 1-5 and 10-12 alot now but pretty much following one story through it's byzantine labyrinth of versions and changes. Not much fun I'll admit - but I hope to be able to sit down w/ mt daughter's one day and have 3 [privately bound I expect] large green volumes entitled Translations from the Elvish with all the non-conflicting stories and details possible.

[jammi567]

i think that although the first couple of books are hard, they are Tolkin's beginnings and he was just starting out. as you go along, it gets way more intesting, so if you just enjoy the beginnings of the greatest author ever, then you'll be ok.

[tolkienfan]

I read The Hobbit first, then LotR, then the Sil, then UT, then Lost Tales Vol. 1. I'm planning to read all of the HoME books, probably in order? I was wondering if I should read The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien and when.

[Rían]

Letters is a great read, and can be read any time, in little bits here and there. It's a great bathroom book or something to keep in the car/backpack for when you have a few spare minutes.

The order of the HoME books doesn't really matter. I'm more into Sil than LoTR stuff, so I've read the first several and last several, and skipped the middle ones where all the LoTR details are.

[Gwaimir Windgem]

Read the Lays of Beleriand! Read it NOW!

[tolkienfan]

Okay, thanks RÃ*an!

[Rían]

You're welcome

And I echo what Gwai said, btw - the Lays of Beleriand are great!

My other favorite HoME books are Morgoth's Ring, the Peoples of Middle Earth, and The War of the Jewels, and the Book of Lost Tales II, because of the beautiful "Fall of Gondolin". I wasn't wild about Lost Tales I, but a lot of people really like it.