Hi,

This might be slightly off topic from cubicle 7's game but I believe that there are some people on these forums who have read these books themselves, so I'll ask.

The last time I read the Silmarillion my attention was often drawn to references to other stories or songs either not explored or glossed over.

I was looking at several reviews of "The Histories of Middle Earth" (in particular volumes 1-5) and what the contents of these books are is still not completely clear to me.

I understand it's point of view is from the real world and the writing of middle earth, not from the point of view of being "in" middle earth. Still I also wonder if there is any material in it, stories, poems, songs, that may not have been in the Silmarillion, unfinished tales etc.... Anything I wouldn't have been exposed to or that was glossed over in previous publishing and is further expanded?

Is it purely an academic read, or does it expand on the legends and body of folk lore surrounding middle earth?

Hi Cynan,
the answer is somewhat complex. The History of Middle-earth series (short: HoMe) is the majority of Tolkien's unpublished writings on Middle-earth. It contains both older versions and developmental stages (e.g. the developmental process of the the Silmarillion - which remained unfinished as the published Sil77 is an "artificial" compilation made by Christopher Tolkien and Guy Gavriel Kay) of known stories as well as new and original material. Christopher Tolkien organized his fathers writings and here published them systematically with a lot of editorial notes so that the reader gets a comprehensive image of his fathers development of Middle-earth.
In short, Vol. 1 and 2 contains the oldest (and later abandoned) Sil stages, Vol. 5 sees the second start of this theme and the most recent Sil chapters are to be found in Vol. 10 and 11. Vol. 6 to 9 contain the development of the LotR (i.e. pre-final versions). Amongst all this, you also find a lot of "independent" stories and essays (most of them unfinished) that shed much light on many aspects of Middle-earth. Especially Vol. 10 and 12 are extremely valuable in this respect.
Vol. 12 for example contains the "full" Appendices of the LotR, as Tolkien had to abridge them for his publisher.

Thus the series has both academic value (foremost, since this was Christophers intent), but also a lot of invaluable information and lore not found anywhere else.

Cheers
Tolwen

Having read only the I - III volumes (many years ago), i still remember the detailed and colorful Fall of Gondolin (i think he wrote it during the WW I) (HoME II) and the beautiful poems of Beren and Luthien and Turin (HoME III).

Thank you very much Tolwen for your reply.

And Gweinel, your mention of the full versions of some of the most interesting parts of the story are very tantalizing.

I think I need to read this.

I've been chanting the Lay of Leithian (vol. 3) to my 10-week old daughter. I love it. She tolerates it most of the time.

I think you can easily pull a lot of the poetry and song out in tidbits to pepper in adventures with Elves. Plus, the language is wonderful. Reading a few pages can help click on your Tolkien vocabulary.