How to increase your knowledge of Tolkien Lore

[Opoopo]

Again thanks all of you. I really liked the webpage, When I read The one ring Material and there is references to Angmar or whatever, it`s nice to be able to look it up quickly. I guess canon isn`t that important to me, or it is but if it differs slightly it doesn`t matter. The most important thing is to create a good story. But that`s of topic! I think I will start with reading the lord of the rings once again, with the appendixes of course. And I will use the website to look up things I`m unsure about. Then I will see what happens. Thanks again everyone and keep the discussion going

[Rich H]

Double-posted this from another thread because it's relevant to this one...

I have the following which I'd recommend to people (in no particular order):

A Tolkien Bestiary by David Day

A Guide to Tolkien by David Day

The Complete Guide to Middle Earth by Robert Foster

The Atlas of Middle Earth by Karen Wynn Fonstad

Journeys of Frodo by Barbara Strachey

The Origins of Tolkien's Middle Earth for Dummies by Greg Harvey

... People my sneer at this last one as it presents information in the same way as other "Dummies..." books but I've found it to be a pretty good resource when I've used it.

Hope that helps.

[Otaku-sempai]

If you just want some quick background and inspiration for the RPG the Peter Jackson movies are also a fun way to brush up.

The real problem with Tolkien Lore is that neither of the two main novels, The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings, were originally intended by Tolkien to be part of Middle Earth. He made constant revisions to the text of both novels after publication to bring them more closely in line with his developing Middle Earth mythology.

Prof. Tolkien may not originally have been certain of the exact place of The Hobbit in his legendaruim, but to baldly state that The Lord of the Rings was never intended to be part of Middle-earth seems grossly misinformed and flat-out wrong. The simple fact is that Tolkien was constantly tinkering with the details of his mythology, when he wasn't completely re-writing entire sections of it. LotR was the story of the end of the Third Age--no more and no less.

[Eluadin]

If you want to stay grounded in TOR's licensed bounds (or so I imagine them to be) and more so Tolkien, then I recommend Michael Stanton's Hobbits, Elves, and Wizards.

Verilyn Flieger's books on Tolkien and his legendarium resound with a clarity and humility that I appreciate. (Most people presume and abuse Tolkien's work to no good end, or so I might say from the comfort of my tea and biscuits.)

I come across more and more players completely unfamiliar with Tolkien's Middle-earth, and more familiar with Peter Jackson's Middle-earth. For them I always suggest, after reading books themselves, Michael Stanton's...it is exceptional.

That said, as all great myths are, Tolkien has left his wrapped in ambiguity and mystery. Open to innumerable interpretations and appropriations, people make of it what they will--hopefully to the delight and wonder of those around!

Regards,
Scott

[Glorelendil]

In the preface to The Children of Hurin, a letter from JRRT is quoted:

once upon a time (my crest has long since fallen) I had a mind to make a body of more or less connected legend, ranging from the large and cosmogonic, to the level of romantic fairy-story - the larger founded on the lesser in contact with the earth, the lesser drawing splendour from the vast backcloths... I would draw some of the great tales in fullness, and leave many only placed in the scheme, and sketched.

[DavetheLost]

Not saying LotR was "never" intended to be part of Middle Earth, but it was always a difficult fit. This is perhaps best illustrated by the change in tone between Book I and the other five. Book I is quite light and Hobbit like but certainly by the time we reach Book III the tone is considerably darker, with the Breaking of the Fellowship and the Departure of Boromir.

But, sadly, the professor was never able to bring the entire corpus of Middle Earth lore into an ultimately satisfactory form, as late as the year of his death he was still revising and rewriting older bits as well as discovering new bits.

[Mim]

Yes, he continually updated & modified his writing.

I note that everyone (seems) to overlook, however, that when Tolkien finally settled on the published versions in the 1950s-60s, he considered Middle-earth to be our own earth of past ages.

Note this passage from the Prologue of the Red Book of Westmarch:

Those days, the Third Age of Middle-earth, are now long past, and the shape of all lands has been changed; but the regions in which Hobbits then lived were doubtless the same as those in which they still linger: the North-West of the Old World, east of the Sea.

[Mim]

PS I'm glad to see Journeys of Frodo on here.

I love that book & it's great inspiration for traveling across Middle-earth.

[Glorelendil]

Not saying LotR was "never" intended to be part of Middle Earth, but it was always a difficult fit. This is perhaps best illustrated by the change in tone between Book I and the other five. Book I is quite light and Hobbit like but certainly by the time we reach Book III the tone is considerably darker, with the Breaking of the Fellowship and the Departure of Boromir.

I've always thought that dichotomy is part of what makes Tolkien a genius, and why these stories count as "Literature" (with a capital "L"). Yes, the Hobbit is a lighthearted story, and even the frightening bits are told in a kind of fairy-tale way, but that's because it's just a heartbeat in a story that spans millennia, a story of sorrow and inevitability, in which the hopes and aspirations of mortal men (and hobbits) are like flaring matches in the night; their light is no match for the encircling darkness. And yet, despite the odds, the mortals succeed but at a sad price: the beauty and magic of the elves is forever diminished and fades away, leaving a world safe from the Enemy but...blander.

The cheerfulness of the Hobbit and some parts of Book 1 is brilliant because it represents the situation: happy, contented hobbits completely unaware that their Shire is a kind of island, both geographically and chronologically, in a sea of darkness and danger.

Like many others, I first read the Hobbit (I think I was 8 or 10), and then a few years later LotR, and then in high school The Silmarillion, and what took my breath away was the realization that the epic story that "started" in the Hobbit and "finished" in the LotR was just the very, very ending...literally the last three pages...of a continuous, tragic story spanning thousands of years.

That's why I loved the quote that I shared a few posts ago. I think the Professor accomplished what he intended.

P.S. For what it's worth, in the Peter Jackson movie when Galadriel refuses the ring ("...I pass the test...I shall remain Galadriel...") I got shivers. I looked around at the uncomprehending faces in the theatre and thought it was sad that they had no idea what that meant...that Galadriel was part of a rebellion thousands of years earlier, over three precious jewels...but also thought it was great that Jackson included that bit, even though it fell on mostly deaf ears. Say what you like about the movies, the inclusion of that moment was a gift to us all.

[Glorelendil]

PS I'm glad to see Journeys of Frodo on here.

I love that book & it's great inspiration for traveling across Middle-earth.

Thanks for the recommendation (and to Rich H.). Just ordered this one from Abe Books as well.