The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum - View Single Post

Aiwendil · 05-26-2015, 08:22 PM

I'm more or less of the same mind as Morthoron. While I respect the attitude that Inziladun has expressed, and that I think many people would agree with, about 'not seeing how the sausage is made', I must say that to me that is a wholly alien way of thinking. I find that when I like a piece of art, learning more about it can only lead to my liking it more, never less.

For me, the kind of study that HoMe allows only enriches and deepens my appreciation of Tolkien's work. Now, part of that may just be that I like studying things; and undoubtedly part of my enjoyment of HoMe is a kind of academic enjoyment of having a large body of interrelated texts laid out in a clear and scholarly manner. And then there's the (related) enjoyment of studying it as a history - one which has the unusual property of existing in two dimensions of time (i.e. the internal chronology of Middle-earth and the external chronology of Tolkien's life and writing).

But as much as I love it for those reasons, I think the main thing that I prize about HoMe is simply its literary value - or rather, the literary value of many of the texts it contains. Simply put, it contains a lot of great writing: a lot of great characters, vivid scenes, compelling stories, and beautiful turns of phrase. I can see that if one were not interested in it from the academic side, one might find Christopher Tolkien's (excellent) commentaries difficult to get through, but I think that even in that case, there's enough literary value there that it's worth 'picking out the berries', as Galadriel puts it.

Some of my favourite berries:

- The later 'Tuor' and 'Turin' (UT)
- Aldarion and Erendis (UT)
- The vivid descriptions of the Valar and the 'mythological' portions of the Legendarium in the Book of Lost Tales (HoMe I)
- The Lay of Leithien (HoMe III)
- The little poem 'Winter Comes to Nargothrond', which for all its brevity is one of my favourite pieces of verse, ever (HoMe III)
- The Notion Club Papers (HoMe IX)
- The Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth (HoMe X)
- 'The Wanderings of Hurin' (HoMe XI)

05-26-2015, 08:22 PM	#10
Aiwendil Late Istar Join Date: Mar 2001 Posts: 2,224	I'm more or less of the same mind as Morthoron. While I respect the attitude that Inziladun has expressed, and that I think many people would agree with, about 'not seeing how the sausage is made', I must say that to me that is a wholly alien way of thinking. I find that when I like a piece of art, learning more about it can only lead to my liking it more, never less. For me, the kind of study that HoMe allows only enriches and deepens my appreciation of Tolkien's work. Now, part of that may just be that I like studying things; and undoubtedly part of my enjoyment of HoMe is a kind of academic enjoyment of having a large body of interrelated texts laid out in a clear and scholarly manner. And then there's the (related) enjoyment of studying it as a history - one which has the unusual property of existing in two dimensions of time (i.e. the internal chronology of Middle-earth and the external chronology of Tolkien's life and writing). But as much as I love it for those reasons, I think the main thing that I prize about HoMe is simply its literary value - or rather, the literary value of many of the texts it contains. Simply put, it contains a lot of great writing: a lot of great characters, vivid scenes, compelling stories, and beautiful turns of phrase. I can see that if one were not interested in it from the academic side, one might find Christopher Tolkien's (excellent) commentaries difficult to get through, but I think that even in that case, there's enough literary value there that it's worth 'picking out the berries', as Galadriel puts it. Some of my favourite berries: - The later 'Tuor' and 'Turin' (UT) - Aldarion and Erendis (UT) - The vivid descriptions of the Valar and the 'mythological' portions of the Legendarium in the Book of Lost Tales (HoMe I) - The Lay of Leithien (HoMe III) - The little poem 'Winter Comes to Nargothrond', which for all its brevity is one of my favourite pieces of verse, ever (HoMe III) - The Notion Club Papers (HoMe IX) - The Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth (HoMe X) - 'The Wanderings of Hurin' (HoMe XI) Last edited by Aiwendil; 05-26-2015 at 08:28 PM.