Tolkien
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URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=33176
Printed Date: February 08 2025 at 16:54
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Topic: Tolkien
Posted By: progismylife
Subject: Tolkien
Date Posted: January 13 2007 at 14:42
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The Lord of the Rings is one book that the publisher thought would be better as 3 books. I put other because J.R.R. Tolkien's son, Christopher Tolkien, has been going through his father's collection of writings and releasing them as books. Ghost Rider, do you think you could add anything? |
Replies:
Posted By: Raff
Date Posted: January 13 2007 at 14:51
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I could add tons of things if I were not so tired.... Seriously, I can tell you that Tolkien hated to see "The Lord of the Rings" referred to as a trilogy - it was a book divided in three parts, not a series as far too many people seem to think! I'm in two minds as concerns Christopher T.'s work. Some of what he did has been very useful indeed to Tolkien scholars, but there is too much that just smacks of an easy way to make money out of his father's name and reputation. Actually, of all the books he edited after JRRT's death, my favourite is probably "Unfinished Tales" - "The Silmarillion" should've probably looked like that, if Chris hadn't intervened quite heavily in order to string the various parts together. I love both LotR and "The Hobbit", which is a masterpiece in its own right. Tolkien's shorter fiction is also quite interesting (I'll be writing something on the subject in the next few months). However, the best piece of work by Tolkien besides LotR and TH is the essay "On Fairy-Stories" - probably the best defense of non-realistic literature ever written. |
Posted By: progismylife
Date Posted: January 13 2007 at 14:53
Thanks Ghost Rider.  I'm glad we have a Tolkien expert. |
Posted By: N Ellingworth
Date Posted: January 13 2007 at 14:54
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Personally my favourite is the Lord of the Rings but The Silmarillion and The Hobbit are also great, I've not got round to reading anything else by either JRR Tolkien or Christopher Tolkien but I intend to. I do make a point of reading the Lord of the Rings at least once a year. |
Posted By: progismylife
Date Posted: January 13 2007 at 14:55
I try to read the Lord of the RIngs once a year but sometimes I am too busy  |
N Ellingworth wrote:Posted By: N Ellingworth
Date Posted: January 13 2007 at 14:57
| I always ensure I have time to read a good book. |
Posted By: progismylife
Date Posted: January 13 2007 at 14:59
| The Tolkien books I have but not fully finished are Unfinished Tales and The Book of Lost Tales 1 & 2. I would have to say that The Hobbit is my favorite read because it has a great story line and wonderful writing. |
Posted By: Bern
Date Posted: January 13 2007 at 15:00
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I've read most of Tolkien's work and my favorite remains the classic and epic The Lord of the Rings. The Hobbit is also a masterpiece in his own right as Raffaella pointed out. I often see it as Book 1 of the Lord of the Rings. I personnally always read it before I move on to the LotR. I also really liked the Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-Earth. This is probably my favorite short book by Tolkien. Anyways, clappies to a master fantasy writer. -------------  
RIP in bossa nova heaven. |
Posted By: progismylife
Date Posted: January 13 2007 at 15:00
I usually make sure I have time to read it but 2006 was stressful and a bad year for me and I moved so I couldn't get a hold of my copies of it. |
Posted By: Evans
Date Posted: January 13 2007 at 15:01
Back on topic, though.. i can't vote, as i haven't read silmarillion, but LOTR is one of those books i like to read once every other year or so, and as i don't really read very much, it probably makes a good third of my usual book-diet. (i should probably read more..) ------------- 
'Let's give it another fifteen seconds..' |
Posted By: Trickster F.
Date Posted: January 13 2007 at 15:01
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TLOTR has quite an atmosphere, The Hobbit was nice, Silmarillion I found boring and never finished, but overall as a reader I've grown out of the first two and I doubt I may be giving them another read anywhere in my life. ------------- sig |
Posted By: Philéas
Date Posted: January 13 2007 at 15:03
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Silmarillion! Read it two times. I like it so much more than LOtR or
The Hobbit. I can't explain why though, but I really recommend anyone
who hasn't read it to do so! |
Posted By: The T
Date Posted: January 13 2007 at 15:04
The answer is The Lord of The Rings, and the reason is far more logical than any: because I haven't read the others.  ------------- 
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Posted By: Tristan Mulders
Date Posted: January 13 2007 at 16:41
Silmarillion... why? don't know! Tried a couple of times to start one the LOTR trilogy but never managed to get passed the first few pages.. there's something about Fellowship of the Ring that does not encourage me to read along  . I've read The Hobbit as well and quite liked it (although that was a few years ago when I was still in secondary school)------------- Interested in my reviews? You can find them http://www.progarchives.com/Collaborators.asp?id=784 - HERE "...He will search until He's found a Way to take the Days..." |
Posted By: Scapler
Date Posted: January 13 2007 at 17:17
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Lord of the Rings of course.
I tried to get through the Silmarillion, but was so bored by it I sadly couldn't
Though it did lead to the name of an excellent band!  ------------- Bassists are deadly 
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Posted By: tardis
Date Posted: January 13 2007 at 17:19
| The Silmarillion, hands down. Epic does not begin to describe his greatest life-long labour of love. |
Posted By: Australian
Date Posted: January 13 2007 at 17:27
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All Great, but as The Lord of the Rings is here counted as one book then there is no other choice.
The best single book/part of the story is The Hobbit. You forgot to include Farmer Giles of Ham and Rover random 
adn Niggle by Leaf ------------- 
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Posted By: tardis
Date Posted: January 13 2007 at 17:30
| Niggle by Leaf is good too |
Posted By: andu
Date Posted: January 13 2007 at 17:47
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i will not read tolkien until he gets translated in my language because i have major problems with the english language when written with artistic intent. however, i would be very interested in reading the essay you mentioned, "On Fairy-Stories", as i assume it's written in "normal" english, not long, and works as an ars poetica - i love to understand the ways of the artist. can i find it somewhere on the internet or is it only available on paper?
------------- "PA's own GI Joe!" 
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Posted By: Trickster F.
Date Posted: January 13 2007 at 17:53
Sure.
http://brainstorm-services.com/wcu-2004/fairystories-tolkien.html - http://brainstorm-services.com/wcu-2004/fairystories-tolkien.html
Scroll down, click the blue link "On Fairy Stories".
(I'm interested in the way he defends himself too, after reading Raffaella's post) ------------- sig |
Posted By: Swanhild
Date Posted: January 13 2007 at 19:40
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Silmarillion ever. In fact to some the book (and, to a lesser extent, LotR also) may at first seem difficult to get into. I could not at first enjoy the reading, but I went ahead nonetheless; luckily I did so, because by the time the story got to the Noldor princes and their conflict, it became truly great and I could no more put it down - to the extent that I managed to read (or rather, decipher) it in English, though I had at the time never seen a text written in that kind of English.
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Posted By: The Miracle
Date Posted: January 13 2007 at 20:12
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I haven't read Semarillion yet. Out of the other two, LotR definitely. ------------- http://www.last.fm/user/ocellatedgod" rel="nofollow - last.fm |
Posted By: bluetailfly
Date Posted: January 13 2007 at 20:27
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You know, the Lord of the Rings trilogy is an amazing work of fantasy, but The Hobbit captivated me more, I don't know why. I found it a bit of a chore to read TLOTR. Probably due to high expectations and all. But there were parts of the Hobbit that just took me completely away. It was like I could spend hours reading it and never realize that time was passing...fantastic experience. ------------- "The red polygon's only desire / is to get to the blue triangle." |
Posted By: sleeper
Date Posted: January 14 2007 at 09:35
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The Silmarillion. Its a stunning piece of wrok and a culmination of Tolkiens work. Its what he started on in the trenches of WWI and what he was working on at the time of his death. I agree with Raffaella that Unfinished Stories has some great parts that could have added to the Silmarillion and fleshed out the tales there with extra infromation and depth but that doesnt detract from it.
------------- Spending more than I should on Prog since 2005 
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Posted By: tuxon
Date Posted: January 14 2007 at 12:02
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I prefer The Lord Of Tbe Rings, loved The Hobbit, and find Silmarillion very intriging.
The most intriging aspect is the fact that The Lord Of the Rings is merely a footnote in the Silmarillion saga. Though I would have loved to see a further worked out tale of the Silmarillion saga (Béren en Luthién if I remember these names correctly) Should have been just as grand a tale as LOTR. ------------- I'm always almost unlucky _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Id5ZcnjXSZaSMFMC Id5LM2q2jfqz3YxT |
Posted By: Swanhild
Date Posted: January 14 2007 at 20:06
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Unfinished Tales has a fine (even if not quite complete) version of "Túrin Turambar", and also a good retelling of the beginning of the tale of Tuor, proceeding from the beginning of the tale through his arriving in Gondolin. There is also a (very worth reading) full version of the Fall of Gondolin in the Book of Lost Tales.
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Posted By: Norbert
Date Posted: January 16 2007 at 08:15
| The Silmarillion. It's sometimes like real mythology from the ancient times, it goes far beyond the borders of usual phantasy literature, far more than LOTR. |