I hardly dare show myself here again, I feel so ashamed that I haven't managed to follow the discussions
Time is always running too fast for me!
Anyhow, I am one who loves the appendices. I already started browsing in them even before I had finished the book!
It is as Davem says
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it does add a sense of depth & of the feeling of a weight of history behind the events of the story.
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I remember though that the beginning "Fëanor was the greates of the Eldar in arts and lore..." etc left me rather puzzled. What were Eldar and Edain? It made me very eager to read the Silmarillion and to learn more about these things!
There are many things in the appendices though that aren't in the Sil, like the story of the hapless Arvedui. And some interesting details about the ring of Barahir, the Palantiri etc.
btw, the new German Translation of the LotR is sold as a box with the 3 volumes in it - without the appendices! You have to buy those separately! I know of people who had no idea that there was such a thing as appendices!! Perhaps they aren't necessary for everyone, but the readers should have at least the choice to read them, or part of them.