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Nar · 04-05-2002, 02:29 PM

I scanned the book in the bookstore and thought 'Thank God, thank God he changed the name to Strider.' Trotter the Ranger Hobbit! Just reading it makes me smile.

I think Trotter and an all-Hobbit story belongs to the simpler children's novel, the sequel to the Hobbit that Tolkien originally conceived.

Something similar happens as the story of Beren and Luthien evolves. Originally it's about a ragged gnome and a lovely elf who get drawn into an epic battle between giant evil cats, let by the wicked Prince of Cats who would become Sauron, and a great heroic hound, Huorn. It's a great children's story, and the most well written and satisfying version of their love story that Tolkien managed to write. It's in The Book of Lost Tales 2, Ballantine. The History of Middle Earth has the same material in a classier binding, but I don't know the volume numbers.

Then, the story of Beren and Luthien became grander and inter-racial. It is summarized in The Silmarillion, but the unfinished poem is a much better version-- you have to be able to tolerate verse, though. I'll take fully fleshed out verse over bone-dry summary any day. It's in a Ballantine paperback, The Lays of Beleriand, and some early volume, my guess would be 3, of the History of Middle Earth Series.

04-05-2002, 02:29 PM	#13
Nar Wight Join Date: Apr 2002 Posts: 228	I scanned the book in the bookstore and thought 'Thank God, thank God he changed the name to Strider.' Trotter the Ranger Hobbit! Just reading it makes me smile. I think Trotter and an all-Hobbit story belongs to the simpler children's novel, the sequel to the Hobbit that Tolkien originally conceived. Something similar happens as the story of Beren and Luthien evolves. Originally it's about a ragged gnome and a lovely elf who get drawn into an epic battle between giant evil cats, let by the wicked Prince of Cats who would become Sauron, and a great heroic hound, Huorn. It's a great children's story, and the most well written and satisfying version of their love story that Tolkien managed to write. It's in The Book of Lost Tales 2, Ballantine. The History of Middle Earth has the same material in a classier binding, but I don't know the volume numbers. Then, the story of Beren and Luthien became grander and inter-racial. It is summarized in The Silmarillion, but the unfinished poem is a much better version-- you have to be able to tolerate verse, though. I'll take fully fleshed out verse over bone-dry summary any day. It's in a Ballantine paperback, The Lays of Beleriand, and some early volume, my guess would be 3, of the History of Middle Earth Series.