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Originally Posted by Formendacil
But not have the Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, or the HoME? I'd rather lose the Lord of the Rings than the Silmarillion at this stage in my fandom. That bittersweet feeling of the Fall of Noldor, the endless progression of defeat after defeat until the final and sudden eucatastrope of Eärendil... it comes to mean more to mean than the success of Frodo.
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I can see what you mean. However, much as I love The Sil, it has never touched my heart in the way TH & LotR always have. Its very big & impressive (& I mean that), but just as, with age, Frodo & Sam's story have come to mean more to me than the Three Hunters, Helm's Deep & Pelennor Fields, so, the epic tales of the First & Second Age mean less to me as I grow older. LotR is Tolkien's great work, because of the smallness, the intimacy & humanity, of Frodo & Sam's struggle through Mordor, & of Frodo's last days & departure. If the tales of The Sil have any real meaning & relevance, it is because of the simple humanity given them by the Hobbits. If it wasn't for the existence of Frodo, Sam, Bilbo & all the 'charming, absurd Boffins, Bolgers & Bagginses' I wouldn't care at all for Beren & Luthien, Feanor, Earendel, Turin & the rest. Mr Baggins (as far as I'm concerned) didn't 'stray into
their world', they 'strayed into
his'.
Now, I can see & accept that LotR is properly part of the Legendarium, & that the events of The Sil are what 'explain' LotR, but LotR is what gives The Sil
meaning. As far as I am concerned, there are 'two' works here - The Sil/LotR (excluding TH for reasons of style, depth, characterisation of the Elves & Trolls, etc) - & TH/LotR (only including The Sil peripherally if at all, due to its absence of Hobbits & what they symbolise in the main). Originally I read the 'first', & that was the story I came to love. Later I came to favour the 'second'. Now, for whatever reason (or none at all) I find myself increasingly moving back to my first love. Maybe its a phase I'm going through.