Tolkien's other books

Now that I've made a large dent into The Lord of the Rings, I've become enchanted by "Middle Earth". I've discovered that there are many other books by Tolkien on the subject. My question is, should I bother reading those as well?

The only "Middle-earth books" Tolkien wrote aside from LotR are, afaik, The Hobbit and the Silmarillion. The whole Unfinished Tales collections were compiled after his death by his son. "The History of the Lord of the Ring" (12 books, iirc) was written by Christopher Tolkien.

[Chris B]

as far as i have heard the Silmarillion was written by christopher too. it was based on notes of his father that go back till 1918something.

it's well worth reading´, if you like bible-style writing.

"And then Feanor went there, there he slaughterd him, then he went here and there...."

it's very good however to know what happend in the past. much easier to understand what's going on in the present times of sauron, peasent of Melkor aka Morgoth Bauglir

I bought the A-Z guide to Middle Earth to help me retain some of the history of Middle Earth. I use it to look up names I run across in the Fellowship. It makes for a slow going, but I figure I should take my time to retain a detailed knowledge of the whole story. I'm affraid the Simarillon might be just too much to retain, perhaps an audiobook might help .

[Chris B]

that's true allright...the silmarillion has a whole numbe of names to teach to you.

and a was son of b, who was daughter of c who is the grandson of d, who has been to place a in time g :O

Sounds about right

I loved The Silmarillion! It did read like a history book, but I like history books...

My schedule is impossible now. I'll be lucky to squeeze in the last 50 pages of The Fellowship.