History of Middle-earth -- 50 pages per month during 2014

[Extollager]

I have owned the twelve volumes of The History of Middle-earth for years, and have read some of the parts (e.g. The Notion Club Papers) more than once, but much has remained unread.

I intend to read at least 50 pages each month during 2014, and to comment here.

Where to dive in? I'll begin with The Gest of Beren and Lúthien as found in Vol. 3 The Lays of Beleriand. It appears to be about a dozen cantos, and was perhaps Tolkien's friend C. S. Lewis's first exposure to Tolkien's legendarium. It seems to date from 1925-1931 (Lays, p. 150). If I'm not mistaken, it would thus be the major Middle-earth composition that Tolkien was working on just before he began to write The Hobbit.* (That was in about 1930, wasn't it?)

I might spend some time on The History of The Hobbit during this time as well as on HoME.

Does anyone else feel inclined to take up a plan like this? I hope so. It would be good to see comments.

*Hmm -- I see it would probably be better to say that the Quenta (in Vol. 4 of HoME, The Shaping of Middle-earth) was the major work on which Tolkien was working in 1930, and thus probably around the time that The Hobbit began to be written "in the early 1930s" (cf J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia, p. 278).

 

[SevenStars]

I have access to the same volumes as you own and, as Tolkien has often proved challenging to me, I would rather enjoy matching your fifty pages per month with commentary in order to gain further insight and understanding. Do you propose to comment at the end of each month or as you go along?

My normal modus operandi would have me begin with The Book of Lost Tales Part One and then working through the twelve volumes chronologically as I am not familiar with them. I was interested to see that you suggest an alternative starting point. May I ask for your advice on this as I am undertaking this project with a lesser knowledge and awareness of Tolkien than yourself?

 

[Corbier]

I have read (and possess) the first five volumes and would like to join in the conversation.

 

[j d worthington]

I would like to, but am not sure I'll be able to, given time constraints. My own tendency would be, again, to begin with the first Book of Lost Tales, as these were the earliest writings, dating back to the Great War and even earlier. However, I'd like to see a list of the order in which you would suggest, Dale, as that might make a difference....

 

[Pyan]

I've eight of the twelve (short of 3, 5, 10 and 11), but I'd be happy to join in for the ones I have.

 

[Extollager]

It's good to see these expressions of interest!

I was figuring I'd just follow my nose and write about my browsings here throughout the year, as I've been doing with my notes on the Groff Conklin anthologies thread. I hoped that other Chronsfolk would like to read around in Conklin's anthologies too and report their own notes.

As for where to start on HoME --

I decided fairly spontaneously to begin with the fourteen cantos of the Gest of Beren and Lúthien without thinking a lot about it. I did start reading HoME a while ago with the first pages of the first volume (The Book of Lost Tales, Vol. 1), as J. D. suggests. However, I confess I didn't persevere.

This leads me to think that a case for starting well into Vol. 3,* as I am doing, would be that it finds Tolkien on the threshold of his "canonical" Middle-earth writings, the things that he released for publication in his lifetime. He evidently did not know yet that The Hobbit was in fact set in the same world as the story of Beren and Lúthien as narrated in the 14-canto poem; but it was. By this time, Tolkien's conception of the Elves and of Men is that which he would use in The Lord of the Rings, which he would begin in Dec. 1937.

Conversely, from what I have read of The Book of Lost Tales, at that early stage of his imaginative work he was farther away from the view of Middle-earth and its "Ages" that he eventually settled on. He is still somewhat attracted to somewhat derivative notions of diminutive Elvish beauty, of dreams as access to Faerie, etc.

I'm suggesting that, as one ventures into the earlier phases of Tolkien's imaginative activity, then, there's a case to be made for starting with the relatively close and familiar, and working outward from there. If I follow through on this, then I would only approach the first two volumes of HoME after I had spent a lot of time with other portions.

To date, I've read The Notion Club Papers multiple times. I've read the superb late composition "Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth" -- which I would not be greatly surprised to see become a standard portion of the appendices to The Return of the King someday; it seems to me worthy of placement there. I've read his post-LOTR musings on the origins of Orcs, etc. I've browsed Christopher's tour of drafts of LOTR. I've read the fragment of "The Lost Road" (I use quotation marks here rather than italics to differentiate the fragmentary novel from the HoME volume of that title) and would expect to get back to it again.

I would expect, in the months immediately ahead, to read the alliterative poem about Túrin in Vol. 3 and the Quenta in Vol. 4, but to defer engagement with The Book of Lost Tales till I have really settled into quite a bit of the other material. However, I don't have a "program" necessarily in mind.

I like my present plan. I'm finding The Gest easy to read -- familiar iambic tetrameter, octosyllabic couplet versification, familiar story. I'm not reading Christopher's annotations, not yet anyway. So this is readable stuff. A way to ease into the riches of HoME, which has daunted me in the past.

One other thing that appeals to me about the Gest is that it was apparently the first substantial, at least, encounter of C. S. Lewis with his friend Tolkien's world. It made a big impression on him and his enthusiasm meant something to JRRT. As is well known, Tolkien credited Lewis with encouragement that helped him to see LOTR through to completion (a 12-year effort). But I am seeing that Lewis's interest went back long before then. That may have been a real stimulus to Tolkien the storyteller. No doubt he'd have kept on working on his imaginary languages if no one had expressed interest! Vol. 3 of HoME includes a "scholarly commentary" by Lewis, presented as by learned professors examining an ancient text, that was both fun and instructive for Tolkien....

The above is by way of a long answer to a short question from SevenStars.

*This also happens to be the volume of the 12 that I have owned the longest. : ) And another irrelevant factor -- I have resumed reading the Chronology volume of Scull and Hammond's 2-volume J. R. R. Tolkien Companion and Guide after a hiatus, resuming at 1930. The Gest seems to have been one of the things he was working on around then.

 

[j d worthington]

I'm not sure I'll follow that suggestion, as to me the earlier works present Tolkien's first conceptions of things he would later include in the "canonical" writings; things that continue to inform what came later in very important ways (and which are interesting to contrast with those later writings as well). As I recall (and it has been almost ten years since I read the set) Christopher Tolkien's commentary also adds a great deal of context to these writings and the linkages between them, all of which comes in handy with the later volumes, adding depth and appreciation for aspects which might very well overlooked otherwise.

 

[Grimward]

Count me in, too, as I also not made as much progress thru HoME as I'd have liked.

 

[Corbier]

Perhaps we can make it a "reading group" and say something like: "Let us read so and so of book so and so before the end of the month?

 

[Extollager]

I'm not sure I'll follow that suggestion, as to me the earlier works present Tolkien's first conceptions of things he would later include in the "canonical" writings; things that continue to inform what came later in very important ways (and which are interesting to contrast with those later writings as well)....

Of course! There are real advantages to taking the approach that you suggest. And I tried it. Maybe with the support of a reading group such as Corbier suggests I would have stuck with it, too.

However, for my part I'm going to go ahead with my planless plan described above. Like Tom in "Bombadil Goes Boating," "I've caught a happy year blown me by the breezes. / Why wait till morrow-year? I'll take it when me pleases."

I aim to shoot for a hundred pages or more a month, but will reproach myself only if I fall below 50 pages in a month during 2014. I'll regard reading, or reading in, The History of The Hobbit as okay too. If I read in Unfinished Tales (as I mean to do; I should know that volume better), I won't count that towards the 50 pages/month minimum.

 

[Extollager]

....I'd like to see a list of the order in which you would suggest, Dale, as that might make a difference....

At this point, I think I'll read most of Vols. 3, 4, and 5 in the weeks and months ahead. Having done that, I might turn to The History of The Hobbit, although I doubt I would read the two volumes thereof word for word; or I might feel ready to turn to Vols. 1 and 2 (The Book of Lost Tales); or -- ? But I'm pretty keen to work my way through most of JRRT's material in Vols. 3-5 at least.

I wouldn't want anyone to think I am unappreciative of Christopher Tolkien's editorial work; but I'm not sure I want to slow my getting a better acquaintance with this posthumous JRRT material by reading CJRT word for word this time around.

By the way -- on another matter -- I mentioned the Scull & Hammond Chronology. There I saw that, in the 1930s, Tolkien supervised B. Litt. students at Oxford who wrote about George MacDonald's fairy tales and William Morris. These two authors are important for Tolkien, though he did not write scholarly things about them; but he was nevertheless involved in scholarly effort on the two authors.

 

[SevenStars]

I like my present plan. I'm finding The Gest easy to read -- familiar iambic tetrameter, octosyllabic couplet versification, familiar story. I'm not reading Christopher's annotations, not yet anyway. So this is readable stuff. A way to ease into the riches of HoME, which has daunted me in the past.
.

Thank you, this sounds like an eminently sensible way for me to step into Tolkien.

Corbier's idea of a reading group also appeals to me very much, are we going to do this too?

 

[Extollager]

Would anyone liked to go with this idea: January for Vol. 3 The Lays of Beleriand, February for Vol. 4 The Shaping of Middle-earth, March for Vol. 5 The Lost Road? People should feel free to read as much or as little of each as they wish. My own plan would be to read all of the major JRRT items, but not necessarily to read all of CJRT's commentary (much as I value it) or certain JRRT items (e.g. some things devoted to his invented languages -- the study of which I salute as worthy of attention by the many appreciative readers who do study them).

It was just my intention to read around in HoME this year and to post notes here at Chrons, as I've been doing in Groff Conklin's sf anthologies, but if people would like a reading group, that could be a good thing.

But if JD were able to commit to a reading group, but wanted to start with The Book of Lost Tales, I'd be very willing to consider that, too -- January for Vol. 1 and Feb. for Vol. 2 or something like that? And then, SevenStars, we'd go on with the 3rd-5th books as I was thinking?

I guess one plan would be to spend a month on each of the 12 volumes. I'm not sure that would be my first choice, but it certainly has an elegance to it...

 

[Grimward]

I'm okay with Jan. for Vol. 3, etc. I like the fact that it somewhat blends the approaches by working your target Gest of Beren and Luthien in with the completion of the entire 3rd Volume. I'd have to be more organized than I am to hop around and just read parts of the books.

 

[j d worthington]

But if JD were able to commit to a reading group, but wanted to start with The Book of Lost Tales, I'd be very willing to consider that, too -- January for Vol. 1 and Feb. for Vol. 2 or something like that? And then, SevenStars, we'd go on with the 3rd-5th books as I was thinking?

Much as I appreciate the compliment, I'm not entirely sure I can commit, given my other, er, commitments. However, I may also be able to at least visit some of the writings being discussed and post my thoughts... that should work out.

But I fear a volume a month is something I simply wouldn't be able to do at this time, as I've already got a backbreaking amount of reading material to cram in on various fronts related to my writing. *sigh* There are times I really do miss the days of reading just whatever took my fancy, reading just for pleasure, and the discussions that ensued. Some day....

 

[Corbier]

I think a complete volume per month is a bit on the heavy side, to be honest. I like the idea of just read a part of one of the books and comment about it. In that way we can set smaller (perhaps weekly) targets too.

 

[SevenStars]

I think a complete volume per month is a bit on the heavy side, to be honest. I like the idea of just read a part of one of the books and comment about it. In that way we can set smaller (perhaps weekly) targets too.

Me too, this would allow me enough free time to do work related reading too.

 

[Corbier]

I am also reading Tom Shippey's The Road to Middle-earth at the moment and would like to divide my Tolkien time a little. I am in the process of writing a paper on Tolkien translation as well...

Tomorrow (Wednesday), I have access to my copies of HoMe and can think about some kind of "syllabus" and reading schedule perhaps.

 

[SevenStars]

That's super. I shall wait for your reading schedule and then begin to read, study and evaluate.

The Tolkien translation sounds interesting Corbier, is it a response to a call for papers or more writing from personal interest?

 

[Corbier]

Personal interest foremost. When a celebrated philologist writes a novel: translators beware!

Though, I might add that my Master Thesis was on Tolkien as well...