I have read the more famous one Lord Of The Rings & The Hobbit and was just wondering wether the above was worth it?
Is there any other good books by Tolkien?
2006-07-11 15:05:14 · 15 answers · asked by Anonymous in Arts & Humanities ➔ Books & Authors
If you are a eally big Tolkien fan and don't mind something about Middle Earth that deviates from his normal style, then yes.
The Book of Lost Tales I and II are good, so are his Unfinished Tales. I have never read anything by Tolkien I didn't like.
There is a book called A Tolkien Bestiary which is a collection of artwork by European artists of his people, creatures, and places. Unfortunatley, I can't remember who compiled it.
2006-07-11 15:45:30 · answer #1 · answered by rebekkah hot as the sun 7 · 10⤊ 1⤋
The Silmarillion is an interesting book. While I can see why some people would not find it worth their time and effort...I was overwhelmed with its beauty. It is different from The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Those were fairly straightforward. They gave you a clear easy-to-understand adventure/quest plot to follow. The Silmarillion is unlike any other novel I've ever read.
Yes, it has difficult names. Yes, it has difficult countries to keep up with. But it is the WHY behind it all. If you can imagine it is even more philosophical than the LOTR ever dreamed of being...it is written like its sacred history. It's incredible. You're reading it, and you know it's all make-believe...but for some reason it works. It's beautiful. You want all these epic tales of elves to be true.
All that being said, I enjoyed The Silmarillion more than LOTR and the Hobbit. However, I realize that everyone's tastes are different. I do think that you should give it a try though. Read the first few chapters, and you'll either be bored to death and never want to pick it up again...or you'll be spellbound. (Although, one answerer was correct in saying that not all chapters or divisions are equally wonderful. Some tales are better than others.)
2006-07-11 23:49:13 · answer #2 · answered by laney_po 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
The other answers show how differently we all read. To me the Silmarillion read like a collection of pieces, some finished and some not, some wonderful (Farmer Giles of Ham) and some plodding, As someone else noted, they were gathered together and to some extent edited after JRRT's death.
Being a JRRT junkie I also read his edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, where his role is that of scholar and explicator. Nothing to do with his fantasies that I can see, but a good read.
My own suggestion for further reading is a 19th century collection of medieval Welsh manuscripts translated into English as The Mabinogion. Its (lack of) structure resembles that of the Silmarillion, some of the stories are wonderful, and it's full of names we've run across over the years and never knew where they came from (Branwen, Enid and Geraint,...). Some good King Arthur stuff too, but that isn't what's the most fun.
Wikipedia has a good intro at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mabinogion
2006-07-11 23:17:50 · answer #3 · answered by bfalls 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you enjoy Tolkien, may I recommend you try some of the writings by his friend C.S.Lewis. The two, with Charles Williams, had a weekly writer's group that each week required each member to present at least three pages of their current work. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia are excellent, with a fantasy feel similar to the Hobbit. Lewis also has a Space Triology which is an interesting read. And of course his classic, The Screwtape Letters, which are a sometimes funny, often thoughful backwards look at life through the series of letters written by a demon.
I am a major fan of both authors
2006-07-11 22:35:02 · answer #4 · answered by dewcoons 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
If you really got into The Lord of the Rings, then The Silmarillion is your next logical step in reading. It gives the history behind the Rings trilogy. It is long, but well worth it.
I once read another Tolkien book that was really good, but I gave it away to my neice and haven't seen it since. It was a Christmas book called "The Father Christmas Letters". He wrote and illustrated it himself, as letters he sent to his children at Christmas time from Father Christmas (Santa Claus).
2006-07-11 22:11:28 · answer #5 · answered by Terisu 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The Similaron is only worth reading if you feel a strong desire to understand the histry of Middle Earth leading up to the Hoobbit.
The Similaron was actually written by Christopher Tolkien, based on his fater's notes and was, thus, credited to J,R.R. Tolkien. Chris is nowhere near the writer that his dad was. It's pretty hard to read and get interested in.
2006-07-12 16:06:53 · answer #6 · answered by scoop_returns 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋
You have to be really into Middle Earth and all that. If you're just a casual fan, you'll probably find it really dull. And read it all at once. If you start it and then set it down for a while (a week or so) and come back to it, you'll get totally lost. I did that the first time I read it and was really confused.
2006-07-12 01:28:38 · answer #7 · answered by Quiet Amusement 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
It is very different from the other works. In fact, he was writing it when he passed and it was finished by someone else.
If you are a Lord of the Rings aficionado, you might like it, otherwise its a hard read.
2006-07-11 22:10:46 · answer #8 · answered by Mike M 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It's very different from either of the other books, but yes, it is interesting, if you are interested in the Elves and how things came to be on Middle Earth
2006-07-11 22:07:41 · answer #9 · answered by P. M 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
anything by tolkien is worth reading
2006-07-12 13:51:31 · answer #10 · answered by Megan 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋