If there was a writer capable...

[Firefoot]

I have to place my stake in the same camp as Celuien and Fea on this one. (Exellent post, Fea, by the way; I'd rep you for it but apparently I can't...)

I love both the Hobbit and the Silmarillion. Many of the most fascinating characters (to me) come from the Sil (Feanor, Turin, Maedhros, Fingolfin...), but at its heart the Sil is not so much a story about characters but the epic story of an age. It does not strike the same chords with me as LotR does. It isn't quite as personal. It takes certain aspects of LotR and expands those but neglects the rest.

TH is a delightful book. It makes you laugh, maybe makes you cry, but it lacks the grand scale and epic quality of LotR and the Sil.

But LotR takes all those elements and throws them into one. It's epic and historical but still story-like, humorous and light-hearted in parts, dark and serious in others, and still poignantly moving. And even though I love the characters in the Sil and TH, it's with the characters in LotR that I identify most. I see many aspects of myself in Frodo, admire Sam, love and sympathize with Merry and Pippin, and Aragorn is certainly a favorite. And as the story grows, it doesn't drag on or get out of proportion, but does just that: grows into something large and magnificent and beautiful but still with its humble roots in the Shire. It's a book that you can repeatedly open up and read favorite passages and they never seem to get old. As far as qualities I look for in a book, LotR is about as close to there as I get.

This caught my eye:

your self-sacrificing (um... everyone, pretty much)

Cross-posting with Bb.

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

And lo! The brave knight Elempi did stand up to the Dark Lord Fordhim; and he said 'You shall control us no more!'

*ahem*

No other book ever written has had quite the same effect on me as The Silmarillion has. The Lord of the Rings may be the most beautiful book in the world, but The Sil goes above and beyond the world. That's the book I want to write. That is the book which stuns you into silence. It's the epic for me.

[Farael]

Well, to me is a no-brainer. Or sort of. While it would be amazing to hear some more about the dwarves in The Hobbit, or perhaps learn about other stories in LoTR.... there is one book by Tolkien that was never finished.

The Silmarillion was not "Done" and odds are, it would have never been. Yet it would be nice, should someone have the skill, imagination and sheer overall talent of Tolkien, to have a finished version of The Sil. No, not the cobbled together, full of sidenotes version that C. Tolkien has given us, I mean a work that stands by itself, with no appendixes or side-notes because everything is properly explained in the text.

Sure, it'd probably be twenty volumes a gazillion pages long each.... but even if it took a lifetime to read it, it would be definitely worth the ride.

[littlemanpoet]

I started reading Bêthberry's post and had to stop to answer a point she made, so I haven't read all the responses yet.

Fea pegged me. Spot on, deary.

I know that I have the capability to write a mythic epic. Or an elegy. Maybe even a Farmer Giles of Ham type book (Gob and Twiddle, anyone?). The reason I said Tolkienian is because no matter what I write, it's going to have the spirit of Tolkien at the back of it. That's simply part of who I am. Am I going to force such a thing? Not on your life. I agree that anybody who would have to force it, shouldn't be writing it. Which is why I said "a writer capable of it". That means someone who would not be forcing it. I hope that clears that up.

Originally Posted by Bêthberry

Perhaps our intrepid threader lmp merely wants to know which of Tolkien's books we want more of? Now, that is a different kettle of story.

Precisely.

Now back to your regularly scheduled polling.....