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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. This is really a duplication of The Silmarillion, with commentary by Christopher Tolkien. A must for anyone obsessed with the history of Middle-Earth. ( )The first in the Histories of Middle Earth series by JRR Tolkien edited by his son Christopher Tokien. This is a collection of Tolkien's early drafts of stories that make up The Silmarillion. It follows Eriol (a wandering mariner) as he is told stories of the Valar, Valinor and the coming of the Eldar (Elves) and Man. The tales cover the very early mythology behind Middle Earth with extra information not in The Silmarillion to expand on the knowledge found there. Each tale contains notes and a commentary by Christopher as well as notes as to the notebook it was found in, how it was written and extra parts added or subtracted. It also contains exra poems by JRR Tolkien connected to the main tale, lore and alternative drafts for the readers consideration and explains the finer points and how it all links together. It is also interesting to see how the names develop and change throughout the drafts as well as some of Tolkien's languages. This was a great start to the series and part two promises to have more interesting stories. I loved reading more about the gold and silver Trees in Valinor as well as the Silmarils and it was an excellent glimpse into Tolkien's writing style and thought processes. It's fantastic to see how Middle Earth began and I am very much looking forward to reading more in the series. Read this one for Afrasiab. I don't know if Tolkien deliberately borrowed an incident from the Shahnameh, but I'm willing to bet he would have read it, and I can think of much worse borrowings to make. The Silmarillion in its earliest form. This is the first half, without the charismatic megafauna, but very interesting reading nonetheless. It took me a long while to get through this book, as I had to divide my attention between this book and required texts for school. It does drag at times, but I suppose that is to be expected from a collection of incomplete stories interspersed with commentary. The thing I most enjoyed about this book was seeing the development of the stories as they appear here and later in the Silmarillion. It was also nice to get a glimpse of the Professor's thinking through the course of these emendations. Precursor to "The Silmarillian" and heavily annotated by Christopher Tolkien. You might call this book a "behind the scenes" look at the making of The Silmarillion. The one major gripe I have with BLT (the book, not the burger) is that there are no breaks between the fictional story and the non-fictional annotation. I'm reading along, enjoying the tale, and before I know it, I find myself reading some bunch of words that somehow don't seem to fit in with the plot. Then I have to dig through pages of minuscule text to find where the annotation ends and the story continues. At least, that's the experience I had while reading my particular edition. no reviews | add a review
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(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:23 -0400)
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