Hello fellow Tolkien fans!
I've been continuing on in reading through parts of the Legendarium. After having finished The Silmarillion a couple month ago, I've been jumping around a bit in the reading, and the planned reading, before I continue on into the Second Age. The material I've chosen as "bridging" material are the essays and story fragments I've come across that are myths and legends about the origin and awakening of The Elves, Dwarves and Men, their cultures in primordial form. The idea is to revisit material covered in The Silmarillion that didn't get included in my read through because I was learning about The History of Middle Earth while making my way through The Silmarillion, and l only discovered stuff I would have included when I was much further along.
The essay Of Dwarves and Men is a work that transitions from the origins into writings that are much more broadstrokes in terms of time frame, material that spans all the ages in some cases: Of Dwarves and Men, Galadriel and Celeborn, The Shibboleth of Fëanor, ect. Of Dwarves and Men also circles around to The Druedain, something I had intended to read at first around the time of the people of Haleth, when Turin and Hurin came to their dwellings. That placement was based on a recommendation that I came across, but it didn't work to try and fit them in during or even after the stories of Turin and Hurin.
Anyway, I've been reading through Of Dwarves and Men, and trying to get a feel for where The Druedain writings connect up with it. A couple days ago I reached the connection point, and came away with the impression that The Druedain is actually an excerpt from Of Dwarves and Men. This is another one of those moments for me where the mixed feelings I have about Christopher Tolkien's chosen method of presenting the materials. It also makes it seem like there's good reason for books like The Children of Hurin and The Fall of Numenor And Other Tales from the Second Age; even though there is material repeated from The Histories, there are ways where the material has been put together on the same pages, in a single book. I've paused my reading in Of Dwarves and Men, with the intention of re-starting by shifting to The Druedain in The Unfinished Tales, and then transitioning back to the rest of the essay in The Peoples of Middle-earth.
I'm getting the hang of this, and sometimes I'm insufferably pleased with myself about my comfort level that I'm navigating the Histories and the Legendarium to a satisfying level.
And I've seen plenty of jokes and disparaging comments about "A new four-line poem by JRR Tolkien has been found on the back of a napkin, meaning a whole new 200-300 paged book can be commissioned by the Tolkien estate" or "A new book has been released, with mostly material already released, except for three paragraph's worth of material that has now been restored" and ect. Despite all that, I kind of feel like, now that the Legendarium has been presented in roughly JRR Tolkien's composition order, I feel like there's value in re-presenting the extended material in story order.
Anyway, my thoughts are a little scattered, and maybe this isn't focused enough on the essay Of Dwarves and Men itself.
Perhaps one question I would ask fellow fans is, where would I post my ongoing reading? I was using The Silmarillion, but I did branch out to other sections when appropriate, in areas specific to The Histories, or The Unfinished Tales. But I've been wanting to just have my reading journey comments in a single place. It's become an ecclectic read through of the Legendarium, and maybe not going to be a complete one. But my intention is to make my way through the Second Age, and then the Third Age, finishing off with a returning re-read through The Hobbit and TLotR and even beyond to the story of Eriol/Aelfwine, and then farther along to the modern day people whose lives intersect with the drowning of Numenor (but that is all far in the future).
To comment on the actual essay, I guess I would say that I am frustrated that Christopher Tolkien never presented Of Dwarves and Men in it's complete form, in a single place. That it's left up to us or the next wave of Tolkien scholars to assemble the works into a "readable" presentation. The History of Middle-earth is readable...yet the more I read of it, and take into consideration the assembly of The Children of Hurin, I wonder about the hesitation and trepidation. Wouldn't it be nice to have a chronological assembly of the extra material that expands The Silmarillion, and the events of the Second and Third Ages? There are several works that cover all or most of what we know of Greek mythology, that also help readers understand the variations and alternative versions of the myth, some are more scholarly, some are more conversational, storyteller re-tellings.
I've been continuing on in reading through parts of the Legendarium. After having finished The Silmarillion a couple month ago, I've been jumping around a bit in the reading, and the planned reading, before I continue on into the Second Age. The material I've chosen as "bridging" material are the essays and story fragments I've come across that are myths and legends about the origin and awakening of The Elves, Dwarves and Men, their cultures in primordial form. The idea is to revisit material covered in The Silmarillion that didn't get included in my read through because I was learning about The History of Middle Earth while making my way through The Silmarillion, and l only discovered stuff I would have included when I was much further along.
The essay Of Dwarves and Men is a work that transitions from the origins into writings that are much more broadstrokes in terms of time frame, material that spans all the ages in some cases: Of Dwarves and Men, Galadriel and Celeborn, The Shibboleth of Fëanor, ect. Of Dwarves and Men also circles around to The Druedain, something I had intended to read at first around the time of the people of Haleth, when Turin and Hurin came to their dwellings. That placement was based on a recommendation that I came across, but it didn't work to try and fit them in during or even after the stories of Turin and Hurin.
Anyway, I've been reading through Of Dwarves and Men, and trying to get a feel for where The Druedain writings connect up with it. A couple days ago I reached the connection point, and came away with the impression that The Druedain is actually an excerpt from Of Dwarves and Men. This is another one of those moments for me where the mixed feelings I have about Christopher Tolkien's chosen method of presenting the materials. It also makes it seem like there's good reason for books like The Children of Hurin and The Fall of Numenor And Other Tales from the Second Age; even though there is material repeated from The Histories, there are ways where the material has been put together on the same pages, in a single book. I've paused my reading in Of Dwarves and Men, with the intention of re-starting by shifting to The Druedain in The Unfinished Tales, and then transitioning back to the rest of the essay in The Peoples of Middle-earth.
I'm getting the hang of this, and sometimes I'm insufferably pleased with myself about my comfort level that I'm navigating the Histories and the Legendarium to a satisfying level.
And I've seen plenty of jokes and disparaging comments about "A new four-line poem by JRR Tolkien has been found on the back of a napkin, meaning a whole new 200-300 paged book can be commissioned by the Tolkien estate" or "A new book has been released, with mostly material already released, except for three paragraph's worth of material that has now been restored" and ect. Despite all that, I kind of feel like, now that the Legendarium has been presented in roughly JRR Tolkien's composition order, I feel like there's value in re-presenting the extended material in story order.
Anyway, my thoughts are a little scattered, and maybe this isn't focused enough on the essay Of Dwarves and Men itself.
Perhaps one question I would ask fellow fans is, where would I post my ongoing reading? I was using The Silmarillion, but I did branch out to other sections when appropriate, in areas specific to The Histories, or The Unfinished Tales. But I've been wanting to just have my reading journey comments in a single place. It's become an ecclectic read through of the Legendarium, and maybe not going to be a complete one. But my intention is to make my way through the Second Age, and then the Third Age, finishing off with a returning re-read through The Hobbit and TLotR and even beyond to the story of Eriol/Aelfwine, and then farther along to the modern day people whose lives intersect with the drowning of Numenor (but that is all far in the future).
To comment on the actual essay, I guess I would say that I am frustrated that Christopher Tolkien never presented Of Dwarves and Men in it's complete form, in a single place. That it's left up to us or the next wave of Tolkien scholars to assemble the works into a "readable" presentation. The History of Middle-earth is readable...yet the more I read of it, and take into consideration the assembly of The Children of Hurin, I wonder about the hesitation and trepidation. Wouldn't it be nice to have a chronological assembly of the extra material that expands The Silmarillion, and the events of the Second and Third Ages? There are several works that cover all or most of what we know of Greek mythology, that also help readers understand the variations and alternative versions of the myth, some are more scholarly, some are more conversational, storyteller re-tellings.
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