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Old 08-29-2007, 10:28 AM   #1
Mithadan
Spirit of Mist
 
Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: Tol Eressea
Posts: 3,310
Mithadan is a guest at the Prancing Pony.Mithadan is a guest at the Prancing Pony.
Tolkien Evolution of a Reader

The publication of the seventh Harry Potter book has left a number of that series' readers in tears. Not because of the sadness of the ending, but rather because there will, apparently, be no more such books. I have heard laments from younger readers to the effect of "I grew up with Harry..."

I have read most of the Potter books more than once and have enjoyed them. But they have not "gripped" me like Tolkien has. No doubt I will read them again someday, but I know that I will never be fascinated by them as Middle Earth has fascinated me. Nonetheless, I have a great deal of sympathy for the grieving Potter readers and would like to explain why.

I first read The Hobbit in 1971. I was in 5th grade at the time and it was required reading in the other 5th grade class, but not in mine. I had heard of the book and borrowed it from the other class. I read it twice during that school year. However, I was unaware at the time that there was a "sequel". I think I discovered LoTR in 1972. Again, I read it twice that year and once more in 1973. Later that year, my father showed me Tolkien's obituary. From the obituary, I learned that he died at age 81. I knew that The Hobbit had been published in the 1930s and that LoTR had come out in the 1950s. I assumed that Tolkien, like other writers I enjoyed, had been relatively prolific and that there were more Middle Earth books out there.

Several trips to local bookstores were unsuccessful. There was the Tolkien Reader which had the Bombadil poems. The was Farmer Giles and the Smith of Wooten Major. Otherwise, there was just analysis, the guide and not much more. I read LoTR again and wrote down the "works" that were referred to in the books, such as the Tale of Beren and Luthien, the Tale of Aragorn and Arwen and something called the Silmarillion. Then I returned to the bookstores and sat with a clerk and a copy of Books in Print and discovered... nothing. None of these tales or books existed. Other than what I had already found and read, Tolkien had published only Sir Gawain, the Road Goes Ever On (out of print at the time if I recall) and some scholarly works. The sadness of the Potter fans is an echo of my own at that time.

Later, I read Carpenter's biography of Tolkien and learned that in fact most of the works described in LoTR had been begun by Tolkien and never finished. This was a bitter pill. I had to be satisfied with The Hobbit and Lord of The Rings. At least for a few years when it was announced that Christopher was preparing The Silmarillion for publication. I bought it the day it came out. Initially, it was disappointing. The style was very different and it read more like a history book than a novel. It was only later that I more fully appreciated it. And there was the tantalizing reference in the introduction to "a wealth of unpublished material..."

The Silmarillion was followed a few years later by Unfinished Tales. While appreciative of the expanded treatment of the tales presented (and the new material), it was nonetheless frustrating to, for example, journey with Tuor through the gates of Gondolin only to glimpse the fabled city and go no farther.

There was little by way of a Tolkien fan's grapevine at that time. So the publication of Lost Tales caught me by surprise. I bought it and began reading it greedily only to be (at that time) sorely disappointed. The material was primitive in style compared to LoTR and included much that had been rejected. I had hoped for fuller treatment of other stories from the Silmarillion as had been presented in Unfinished Tales and instead got Middle Earth's prehistory. It seemed to be over. There would be no more. At that time I put down Tolkien's works in the hope of finding some other author, preferably living and more prolific, that could inspire me. I did not return for many years. I ignored the other History of Middle Earth books that followed.

In the mid-1990s I picked up a paperback copy of the Lays of Beleriand at an airport. Much older at that time, I quickly began to appreciate the effort and determination that Tolkien had in preparing his tales. I began to develop a more scholarly appreciation of his writings. I purchased other HoME volumes and mixed reading them with rereadings of the "primary works". The internet come about and I discovered Tolkien sites. There were others like me out there! Then, Morgoth's Ring and The Peoples of Middle Earth came out. This was more like it! But then that was all. Finally, there would be no more. I felt the old familiar disappointment again. This may, in fact, have contributed to my "sabbatical" from this site.

I took 2 years off from reading Tolien. I'm back now, and am reading LoTR again, with a pen in my hand taking notes on interesting little bits that I don't recall coming across before. There is still material to discuss and the stories are still there. I will always love them. And maybe there will be more. The Children of Hurin was a reasonably good read. I had no expectations in approaching it so I was not disappointed. Maybe there will be a Silmarillion "trilogy" someday of the great mannish stories from the First Age, Beren, Turin and Tuor. Or maybe not. That's a matter to discuss another day.

So all you Potter fans, I feel your grief. I have experienced it. The stories remain and can be read again.
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