Order in which to read Tolkien's works

So,

- The Children of Hurin
- The Silmarillion
- HOME (all 12/13 volumes right?)
- The Hobbit
- The Lord of the Rings
- Unfinished Tales

Am i correct?

Btw, what is the "The Fall of Gondolin" and "Beren and Luthien"? And where are this two in history along with the others above?
(My english can be a bit bad )

Cheers

Apologies. I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "correct" there.

But anyway FOG and B&L are two of what Tolkien called "the Great Tales". The events in them take place in the First Age, and are referred to, if relatively briefly, in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.

Christopher Tolkien did not construct long prose "reader's versions" of these two tales however, as he did with The Children of Hurin.

🐾

With correct i mean "Is the order i posted correct?"

Okay but in what sense?

For example, do you mean the order in which I have/am suggesting you read them?

Elthir said:

For example, do you mean the order in which I have/am suggesting you read them?

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Yes. I just wrote the order in a resumed way to make sure i understood your explanation.

Okay thanks. Here's how I'd order it. Assuming you've already read TH and TLOTR, then in my opinion, I'd recommend:

A) The Children of Hurin -- the constructed book by Christopher Tolkien illustrated by Alan Lee.
A tale from the First Age with some awesome, tragic stuff in it. No Hobbits though -- if you must
have hobbits, that is.

B) The Silmarillion -- the constructed version published in 1977.

Generally speaking the Silmarillion is "different" in style. I don't want to say "different" in what way, but you should be able to check it out a bit before buying it (bookstore, library, or maybe some sections quoted on the web).

And beyond that, all I'm adding is that you might like Unfinished Tales, given that some content
relates to stuff (there's that word again) in The Lord of the Rings.

And who knows if you would like HOME. If you love the Silmarillion and want to see how Tolkien's legends started, and evolved over decades, interspersed with scholarly commentary, then maybe.

So HOME is not part of the main story but is "side story" of some legends who belong to the main story?

And FOG and B&L, should I read it after the children of hurin and silmarillion or before?

I'm sorry, I can be a bit boring sometimes.

maganito said:

So HOME is not part of the main story but is "side story" of some legends who belong to the main story?

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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.

maganito said:

And FOG and B&L, should I read it after the children of hurin and silmarillion or before?

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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!

Children of Hurin before TS why?

I'd say read TS and skip chapter 21: Of Túrin Turambar and chapter 23: Of Tuor and the Fall of Gondolin (actually don't skip them) and then check HOME here and there. Later, read COH and Fall of Gondolin books if wished as you continue to check HOME/Reread TS chapters from time to time.

For someone new to Tolkien, I'd read:
The Hobbit and Lord of the RIngs first (in any order).
Unfinished Tales (as it's more accessible than Silmarillion)
The Silmarillion.
Chidren of Hurin, Fall of Gondolin, Beren & Luthien (in any order) - I'd read the Silmarillion as a complete work first, before I went deeper into these tales.
HoME last of all, and only if you really want to know all the minutiae of how the stories were developed.

Thanks ali for your kind and help. Really appreciated. Have a nice week

Welcome to TTF, maganito -- I hope you'll stick around!

And, as always, you can introduce yourself and your other ME interests on the New Members thread:

Squint-eyed Southerner said:

Welcome to TTF, maganito -- I hope you'll stick around!

And, as always, you can introduce yourself and your other ME interests on the New Members thread:

https://thetolkien.forum/forums/new-members.58/

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Thanks! I will for sure

I am on the 17th chapter of The Silmarillion and haven't read onward yet... I've never read The Hobbit though. I did read parts of LOTR before, and I never finished it. (I might sometime though...)

Strangely, I cannot even recollect how The Silmarillion managed to pop up in my mind for the first time... (I guess it just came to me?)