J. R. R. Tolkien: The Journey Begins

The Lord of the Rings (Collector’s Edition), by J. R. R. Tolkien.

If I’m reading it right, this is from the 10^th printing of this edition. The fabled “Red Lord of the Rings” of my longing, there was one in the first bookstore in Seguin, over in Plaza Del Rey, the first strip mall in Seguin. I remember gazing over at the mall from Mrs. Betty Jean Jones’ class (there was nothing between Seguin High and Plaza Del Rey in those days) and dreaming that this book was over there. I think that store was gone by the time I got this copy. How did I get it? Was it a present? Did I provide the money, and somebody buy it for me? I don’t remember buying it directly. It is one of those events the emotional magnitude of which erases the memory of circumstances surrounding it. It was the outward and visible sign of the size of my devotion to Tolkien’s work, prized far beyond any other copy I ever actually read from, and a milestone and marker solidifying my devotion. As such I treat it as something of a holy icon; kept my ‘last wills’ in it, and occasionally swore on it to show my seriousness. Even so, the gilding on the spine is dulled from handling. It is a one-volume, slip-covered, marbled end-papered, faux-red leather binding book; its gilding mimics the book-clasps and jewels of medieval Books of Hours. It is, as it were, a physical embodiment of ‘The Red Book of Westmarch’. More revered as an artifact than read as a book.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Fantasy. Novel. Hardback.

The Hobbit, by J. R. R. Tolkien. (Deluxe Edition).

There was “The Red Lord of the Rings”; this is the “Green Hobbit”. “Forest green simulated leather boards with red and gold gilt runic inscription around the periphery in front and a stylized road-going-into-forest-in-front-of-mountains illustration in gold gilt a little above center. Matching slipcase in simulated leather with the same cover illustration on a paste-down in green, black, and yellow. Printed on heavy paper. All original illustrations from HM1938 restored, including color plates. Black-and-white illustrations printed as black-and-green, maps in black and green, and each page neatline is in green.” – tolkienlibrary.com.  The Herald to the King of ‘LotR’. A sacred relic.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Fantasy. Novel. Hardback.

The Silmarillion, by J. R. R. Tolkien.

The wait for The Silmarillion seemed to take forever, even though the time from Tolkien’s death in 1973 was only four years, and I only became aware of the possibility of such a work even a shorter time before that. Of course, the span of time was more than a third of my life at that point. Mom bought me this copy soon after it came out, and I even know the date: she wrote my name in it and the date “Nov. 9, 1977”. The book shows the wear of my intense reading; I showed little care for the body of the book as I absorbed its contents. At one point – was I insane? – I even taped the book cover to the wall with – gulp – black electrical tape, to show my enthusiasm. I translated the elf-runes inside, but they never stuck with me like the runes from ‘The Hobbit’. Christopher Tolkien had produced it by editing together various versions that Tolkien had made of the tales of the Elder Days of Middle Earth; I learned later that he had had the help of Guy Gavriel Kay, who later wrote his own fantasy trilogy, ‘The Fionavar Tapestry’, which I used to have.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Fantasy. Hardback.

Unfinished Tales (of Numenor and Middle Earth), by J. R. R. Tolkien.

First American Edition. I wrote my name in it, and the date “November 29, 1980”. Edited with an Introduction, Commentary, Index, and Maps by Christopher Tolkien. “Unfinished Tales is, if made up of rough narratives and speculative essays, at least more undoubtedly authentically Tolkien [than The Silmarillion].” - Power of Babel. Most interesting part for me: “The Istari”, about the wizards and their history, purpose, and origin. And that, I imagined, was that, as far as ‘new’ books from Tolkien went.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Fantasy. Literary History. Hardback.

The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, Selected and Edited by Humphrey Carpenter, with the Assistance of Christopher Tolkien. (1981)

This book has, unfortunately, one of those rather frail paper book jackets, and it certainly shows its age. Carpenter was, of course, Tolkien’s official biographer. “The selection contains 354 letters, dating between October 1914, when Tolkien was an undergraduate at Oxford, and 29 August 1973, four days before his death. The letters can be roughly divided in four categories:

1. Personal letters to Tolkien's wife Edith, to his son Christopher Tolkien and his other children,
2. Letters about Tolkien's career as a professor of Anglo-Saxon
3. Letters to his publishers at Allen & Unwin explaining his failing to meet the deadline and related topics
4. Letters about Middle-earth

The last category is especially of interest to Tolkien fans, as it provides a lot of information about Middle-earth which cannot be found anywhere in the works published by Tolkien himself.” – Wikipedia.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Letters. Biography. Hardback.

The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays, by J. R. R. Tolkien. Edited by Christopher Tolkien.

The 1984 Houghton Mifflin Company edition. I got this second-hand copy sometime later, however, being unaware of its publication at the time. The first page seems to be pasted to the book jacket. “The Monsters and the Critics, and Other Essays is a collection of J. R. R. Tolkien's scholarly linguistic essays edited by his son Christopher and published posthumously in 1983. All of them were initially delivered as lectures to academics, with the exception of "On Translating Beowulf", which Christopher Tolkien notes in his foreword is not addressed to an academic audience. The essays are:

• "Beowulf: the Monsters and the Critics" looks at the critics' understanding of Beowulf, and proposes instead a fresh take on the poem.
• "On Translating Beowulf" looks at the difficulties in translating the poem from its Anglo-Saxon.
• "On Fairy-Stories," the 1939 Andrew Lang lecture at St Andrew's University, is a defence of the fantasy genre.
• "A Secret Vice" talks about creating imaginary languages, giving background to Tolkien's Quenya and Sindarin.
• "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" is a study of the medieval poem of the same name.
• "English and Welsh," the inaugural O'Donnell Memorial Lecture (1955), is a survey of the historical relationship between the two tongues, including an analysis of the word Welsh.
• "Valedictory Address to the University of Oxford", given upon his retirement in 1959.” – Wikipedia.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Essays. Hardback.

The Book of Lost Tales: Part One; and The Book of Lost Tales: Part Two; by J. R. R. Tolkien. (1983, 1984)

And here began the series known as “The History of Middle-Earth”, Presented and Edited by Christopher Tolkien. I don’t know if he knew then that it would stretch out to be twelve volumes; I only know that I didn’t. “The Book of Lost Tales is a collection of early stories by English writer J. R. R. Tolkien, published as the first two volumes of Christopher Tolkien's 12-volume series The History of Middle-earth, in which he presents and analyzes the manuscripts of those stories, which were the earliest form of the complex fictional myths that would eventually comprise The Silmarillion. Each of the Tales is followed by notes and a detailed commentary by Christopher Tolkien. For publication the book was split into two volumes: The Book of Lost Tales 1 (1983) and The Book of Lost Tales 2 (1984), but this is simply an editorial division. Both volumes are separated into several "Lost Tales". Though they cover a broadly similar history, the Tales are very different from The Silmarillion. The Tales are more complex and detailed than The Silmarillion: they are written in a less formal but more archaic style and include many obsolete words and phrases. In the frame story of the book, a mortal Man visits the Elvish Isle of Tol Eressëa where he learns the history of its inhabitants. In the earlier versions this man is named Eriol and is of some vague north European origin. In later versions he becomes Ælfwine, an Englishman of the Middle-ages. There are more changes visible within the book, and it is not internally consistent, partially because even while still writing it Tolkien began rewriting earlier parts as his ideas about the world changed. The Tales were eventually abandoned, but they were resurrected in part as the "Sketch of the Mythology" which would become the Silmarillion.” – Wikipedia. As one might surmise from the condition of Part Two, it was then I started to become very careful about my handling of these books.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Fantasy. Literary History. Hardbacks.

The Lays of Beleriand [The History of Middle-Earth, Volume III], by J. R. R. Tolkien. (1985) Edited by Christopher Tolkien.

“The book contains the long heroic lays or lyric poetry Tolkien wrote: these are The Lay of the Children of Húrin about the saga of Túrin Turambar, and The Lay of Leithian (also called Release from Bondage) about Beren and Lúthien. Although Tolkien abandoned them before their respective ends, they are both long enough to occupy many stanzas, each of which can last for over ten pages. The first poem is in alliterative verse, and the second is in rhyming couplets. Both exist in two versions. In addition to these two poems, the book also gives three short, soon-abandoned alliterative poems, which are The Flight of the Noldoli from Valinor, The Lay of Eärendel, and The Lay of the Fall of Gondolin.” – Wikipedia. “In The Lays of Beleriand we not only get to see the longest examples of Tolkien's poetry and the most in-depth telling of the stories of Beren and Luthien (the tale closest to his heart) and the Children of Hurin, but we also get to hear the voice of his old friend, C. S. Lewis, writing notes on what he's read in mock-scholarly style, and even offering his own (mostly inferior, in my opinion--and I love Lewis dearly) re-writing of some of the poetry in his own style. It is Lewis and Tolkien at the height of their friendship, and a fascinating glimpse of a time for anyone who is interested in the Inklings, as I am.” – Power of Babel.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Fantasy. Literary History. Hardback.

The Shaping of Middle-Earth: The Quenta, The Ambarkanta and The Annals, by J. R. R. Tolkien. [The History of Middle-Earth Volume IV, Edited by Christopher Tolkien] (1986)

“The Shaping of Middle-Earth contains The Quenta Silmarillion, which is in effect the first version of The Silmarillion, and is, as it were, the steppingstone between the Lost Tales and The Silmarillion as it is published. There is also the Ambarkanta, in which the shape and nature of the world of the stories is discussed and outlined (including the question of its flatness or rotundity); and the Annals of Beleriand, an early timeline of Elvish history (some of it in Anglo-Saxon). It can be a little dry, but it is intriguing for the scholar of Tolkien, and filled with little grace-notes like: "West, North, and South they spread and wandered, and their joy was the joy of the morning before the dew is dry, when every leaf is green." – Power of Babel. By this time college had spit me out ungraduated; it was my own fault and fear that held me back and I wonder at it now, how I could have been so obtuse and frail. But I still managed to follow the series; it remained a lifeline at a very shaky time in my life.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Fantasy. Literature. Hardback.

The Lost Road and Other Writings, by J. R. R. Tolkien. [The History of Middle-Earth Volume V, Edited by Christopher Tolkien] (1987)

“The Lost Road is titled after the oddest work in the series. This book contains the workings on the story of Numenor, Middle-Earth's Atlantis; more annals of Valinor and Beleriand, etymologies and discussions of the languages of Middle-Earth, and The Ainulindale, a new development in his concept of the Creation of the World. But The Lost Road arose out of a conversation Tolkien and Lewis had, where they expressed the feeling that there weren't enough stories of the kind they liked, and that therefore they should write some. Lewis chose space travel, and so his famous Space Trilogy began. Tolkien took time travel and started this tale that was never completed. In it the hero is born back in time, it seems by language and hereditary memory, from contemporary to Anglo-Saxon England and back to Numenor. What is peculiar about it is that it is Tolkien writing in a serious mood a story that begins in modern times, albeit with unusual people.” – Power of Babel.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Fantasy. Literary History. Hardback.

The Return of the Shadow: The History of The Lord of the Rings Part One [The History of Middle-Earth Volume VI] (1988); The Treason of Isengard: The History of The Lord of the Rings Part Two [The History of Middle-Earth Volume VII] (1989); The War of the Ring: The History of The Lord of the Rings Part Three [The History of Middle-Earth Volume VIII] (1990); Sauron Defeated, Including The History of The Lord of the Rings Part Four [The History of Middle-Earth Volume IX] {1992), by J. R. R. Tolkien, Edited by Christopher Tolkien.

“Here we can see Tolkien trying to figure out what "really" happened to Bilbo after The Hobbit, how Bingo (first Bilbo's son, then nephew, and ultimately to be re-named Frodo) came to have the Ring and start his adventure, meeting Trotter (at first a hobbit, then a human ranger, and then re-named Strider), and being menaced by "giant Treebeard," conceived as a villain at the time. From at first being thought of as "the new Hobbit" and a fairly short adventure, the tale "grows in the telling" under Tolkien's increasingly steady grip, needing fewer and less drastic re-writes. The last volume, Sauron Defeated, includes not only the last part of The Return of the King, but also the story of The Notion Club Papers, the story of a fictional group based on the Inklings but set in the (then) future of 1980-1990, but found in 2012, and another look at the story of Numenor.” – Power of Babel. These books differ from the others in the series as they have covers by Alan Lee. Wonder what caused that pause during 1991?

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Fantasy. Literary History. Hardback.

Morgoth’s Ring: The Later Silmarillion Part One [The History of Middle-Earth Volume X] (1993); The War of the Jewels: The Later Silmarillion Part Two [The History of Middle-Earth Volume XI] (1994), by J. R. R. Tolkien. Edited by Christopher Tolkien.

“The next two volumes, Morgoth's Ring and The War of the Jewels, cover new re-writings of the Silmarillion material, worked over in the wake of the completion of LOTR. Morgoth's Ring is interesting for me particularly because it contains contemplations on Elvish marriage and naming traditions, and a story dealing with the differences between Elvish and human points of view on death and immortality. The War of the Jewels contains one of the longest prose tellings of the story of Turin, material that was later worked into The Children of Hurin.” – Power of Babel.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Fantasy. Literary History. Hardback.

The Peoples of Middle-Earth [The History of Middle-Earth Volume XII] (1996), by J. R. R. Tolkien. Edited by Christopher Tolkien.

Produced after another skipped year, I see. “The Peoples of Middle-Earth covers the composition of the Prologue and Appendices, and as such contains some lore and information that never made it to the final edit (including the fact that dwarf women do have beards – in the extended section ‘Of Dwarves and Men’). There are more essays on language and lembas. The final part of the book is The New Shadow, a story set in Gondor about 100 years after the Downfall of Sauron, in which the youth of Gondor, growing weary of peace, begin affecting orc-culture (not unlike some youth in Great Britain did with the Nazis), and a look at the coming of the men of Numenor to Middle-Earth from the point of view of the other men who had remained there.” – Power of Babel. And with the completion of the ‘History’ I could, in a certain sense, relax. Through those crazy, uncertain years of the mid-80’s through mid-90’s I had, by hook or by crook, made sure I got each volume as it came out. There was more to come from Christopher Tolkien, of course, but I had made it to the end of the series, and what a ride it was. From the enchantments of ‘Lost Tales’ through the technicalities of ‘The Shaping’ and right into the Fourth Age with ‘Peoples’ I had taken a fourteen-year trip through Middle-Earth, touring many dead-ends and side-roads along the way. And now … “Well, I’m home.”

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Fantasy. Literary History. Hardback.