So HOME is not part of the main story but is "side story" of some legends who belong to the main story?
Very generally speaking, HOME traces
Tolkien's work relating to what became "
Middle-earth" --
from the
tales and poetry of his youth -- to very late texts, notes, and so on, before his passing.
Thus these
books reveal the evolution of his legends into the early Silmarillion (and related writings), and his attempts to finish/update/expand Middle-earth, including after
The Lord of the Rings became a part of the imaginary world.
And again, there's a chunk of HOME that delves into the draft writing of
The Lord of the Rings, so we can see, in part, how this story evolved over the years.
JRRT's ideas kept growing and changing over time. For brief example, there were no Second or Third
Ages when Tolkien began writing tales about "gods" and
Elves and
Men.
And FOG and B&L, should I read it after
the children of hurin and silmarillion or before?
I can't say "should" in any case. I'm just one panther with one opinion
But I can try to impress that
these books (FOG and B&L) are basically mini-versions of HOME
with respect to these stories. Thus, various versions written over decades, including parts of versions.
And so they are not like
The Children of Hurin book -- which again is a "one story" version for readers, constructed by Christopher Tolkien.
Christopher Tolkien felt he had enough "late" (or "late-ish") material to construct a one story version for the Children of Hurin (COH), but not enough "late" (or "late-ish") material to do this for FOG and B&L.
I bought this FOG but I haven't read it yet because I've already read HOME. That said, I feel it's good, in any case, to have books that single out these tales from HOME, with less editorial commentary.
Plus they have paintings by Alan Lee
Which COH also has -- and my copy is signed by Christopher Tolkien and Alan Lee.
And yes, I just had to crow about that again!
