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chiara_calime's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Non do le 5 stelline piene solo perché non sono una fan delle etimologia, ma in questo volume, oltre alla comparsa del primo Quenta Silmarillion, quello che Tolkien invi con scarso successo ai suoi editori sperando di pubblicarlo e che gli fu rimandato indietro con la richiesta di una "nuova storia sugli hobbit"(e sappiamo come è andata dopo), c'è anche il meta voglioso saggio sulle lingue Lhammas e, soprattutto per quanto mi riguarda, alcuni splendidi capitoli di quello che doveva essere un romanzo sui viaggi nel tempo fra tempo presente e Caduta di Numenor. Lo avrei proprio voluto leggere.
dorynickel's review against another edition
2.0
Loved reading The Lost Road story, very interesting to see Tolkien tackle a peripherally-Middle Earth story. The other writings are also interesting but by the time you've reached this point in the series they're just so repetitive.
sararene's review against another edition
2.0
I may have hit the end of my reading of the History of Middle Earth series for a while. I found it quite enjoyable through the lost tales... but since then much has been repetitious and therefore quite dull. I love the exploration of the lore, but I don't need so much all of the commentary on the minute changes.
This gets two stars for the interesting bits that are The Lost Road.
I would still like to complete this series, but for now I will place it aside.
This gets two stars for the interesting bits that are The Lost Road.
I would still like to complete this series, but for now I will place it aside.
nonabgo's review against another edition
4.0
"The Lost Road" - the 5th volume of Tolkien's "History of Middle-Earth" - is in fact a collection of writings and re-writings of previous works, so in reality it doesn't bring a lot of new material. It feels like you're reading the same stories over and over again, but in reality it's another step forward in the development of the mythology towards the final(-ish) version that is "The Silmarillion". It's also the last book of the 12-volume history that deals with Middle-Earth before the final defeat of Morgoth.
I feel like the book should have been structured differently. It starts with "The Fall of Numenor", but reverts back to the annals (a later version than the one in volume 4) and the Silmarillion, but I guess Christopher Tolkien wanted to present his father's writings in the order they were written and not in the actual chronological order of the events.
What this volume brings new is the aforementioned "Fall of Numenor" and "The Lost Road", which was Tolkien's attempt at writing a time travelling story with reincarnation elements (he has a bet with C.S. Lewis about each of them attempting a type of travelling, and while Lewis chose space travelling - and, subsequently, wrote "Alice in Wonderland", Tolkien started working on "The Lost Road", but unfortunately never finished it). Other new elements are "The Lhammas" (account of the tongues) and "The Etymologies", which is basically elvish vocabulary.
This volume, I believe, a lot more than the others, is intended only for the most hard-core Tolkien fans, those who really want to dive in and see how his mind worked and how his mythology evolved. Otherwise, it will feel repetitive and the reader might get bored of reading for the nth time about Hurin and Turin and the history of the silmarils.
I feel like the book should have been structured differently. It starts with "The Fall of Numenor", but reverts back to the annals (a later version than the one in volume 4) and the Silmarillion, but I guess Christopher Tolkien wanted to present his father's writings in the order they were written and not in the actual chronological order of the events.
What this volume brings new is the aforementioned "Fall of Numenor" and "The Lost Road", which was Tolkien's attempt at writing a time travelling story with reincarnation elements (he has a bet with C.S. Lewis about each of them attempting a type of travelling, and while Lewis chose space travelling - and, subsequently, wrote "Alice in Wonderland", Tolkien started working on "The Lost Road", but unfortunately never finished it). Other new elements are "The Lhammas" (account of the tongues) and "The Etymologies", which is basically elvish vocabulary.
This volume, I believe, a lot more than the others, is intended only for the most hard-core Tolkien fans, those who really want to dive in and see how his mind worked and how his mythology evolved. Otherwise, it will feel repetitive and the reader might get bored of reading for the nth time about Hurin and Turin and the history of the silmarils.
tobiasj's review against another edition
5.0
Don't stop with The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, read the histories, read everything by Tolkien!
spicynigel's review against another edition
4.0
3.75 stars.
The rereading of the same stories from The Silmarillion from the last two volumes with no real new additions and an etymology section that goes on for a bit too long for the casual reader make this book a bit tedious out of the whole series, although the brief references to Irish myths like Tír na nÓg and Tolkien's attenpt at a time travel story are fun.
The rereading of the same stories from The Silmarillion from the last two volumes with no real new additions and an etymology section that goes on for a bit too long for the casual reader make this book a bit tedious out of the whole series, although the brief references to Irish myths like Tír na nÓg and Tolkien's attenpt at a time travel story are fun.
nwhyte's review against another edition
3.0
https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1785921.html
Getting to the end of the books about how the Silmarillion was (and wasn't) written now, this volume includes several interesting insights into how Tolkien's works reached us. At the core is the rather slim pickings of The Lost Road, the time travel novel which Tolkien began at around the same time C.S. Lewis began his Ransome trilogy. Tolkien abandoned it, and it wasn't really going in the right direction; what we have here is too episodic to be coherent, and in particular, the framing narrative has a set of slightly odd father-son dynamics going on - Tolkien's own parents were absent, largely through being dead, and the same is true of most of his more successful characters (Bilbo's parents are never heard of, he in turn abandons Frodo in the first chapter of LotR, Húrin is a distant captive while his son and daughter fall in love with each other) though there are exceptions (mostly father-figures who are over-controlling - Théoden, Denethor, Thingol).
The importance of father-son dynamics extends also to the making of this book, and I was particularly interested in a passage on page 302 where Christopher Tolkien expresses his regrets that the Silmarillion as originally published was not better; he reflects on the role played by Guy Gavriel Kay in assembling the texts but in the end takes full responsibility for it himself. I was not surprised to read that the story he feels was worst served is the tale of Beren and Lúthien.
There's also a lot of meaty material on the languages - an essay called the Lhammas and a set of Elvish etymologies, which brought home to me that for Tolkien his invented structure was much more than just Quenya and Sindarin, it also included half a dozen other languages spoken by different branches of the Elves, barely mentioned in the stories. I have dabbled enough in philology to sense the uniqueness of this achievement - very few sf or fantasy writers come anywhere near Tolkien's level of detail in his invented names and words, and some (eg Robert Jordan) are so bad at it that it's painful.
Apart from that, we have the Fall of Númenor, and yet another rehash of the main text of the Silmarillion. I am looking forward to the next volume which is about the early versions of LotR.
Getting to the end of the books about how the Silmarillion was (and wasn't) written now, this volume includes several interesting insights into how Tolkien's works reached us. At the core is the rather slim pickings of The Lost Road, the time travel novel which Tolkien began at around the same time C.S. Lewis began his Ransome trilogy. Tolkien abandoned it, and it wasn't really going in the right direction; what we have here is too episodic to be coherent, and in particular, the framing narrative has a set of slightly odd father-son dynamics going on - Tolkien's own parents were absent, largely through being dead, and the same is true of most of his more successful characters (Bilbo's parents are never heard of, he in turn abandons Frodo in the first chapter of LotR, Húrin is a distant captive while his son and daughter fall in love with each other) though there are exceptions (mostly father-figures who are over-controlling - Théoden, Denethor, Thingol).
The importance of father-son dynamics extends also to the making of this book, and I was particularly interested in a passage on page 302 where Christopher Tolkien expresses his regrets that the Silmarillion as originally published was not better; he reflects on the role played by Guy Gavriel Kay in assembling the texts but in the end takes full responsibility for it himself. I was not surprised to read that the story he feels was worst served is the tale of Beren and Lúthien.
There's also a lot of meaty material on the languages - an essay called the Lhammas and a set of Elvish etymologies, which brought home to me that for Tolkien his invented structure was much more than just Quenya and Sindarin, it also included half a dozen other languages spoken by different branches of the Elves, barely mentioned in the stories. I have dabbled enough in philology to sense the uniqueness of this achievement - very few sf or fantasy writers come anywhere near Tolkien's level of detail in his invented names and words, and some (eg Robert Jordan) are so bad at it that it's painful.
Apart from that, we have the Fall of Númenor, and yet another rehash of the main text of the Silmarillion. I am looking forward to the next volume which is about the early versions of LotR.
annarien's review against another edition
4.0
So much good stuff in this book. And so many reasons to bite my nails in frustration because Tolkien began so many amazing things which were later abandoned. The Lost Road and his notion of time travel back to Numenor would have been an amazing novel. I have not much love for the mortals of this universe and their fates, but even for me, the fascination of Numenor is there and I wish we had gotten to spend much more time there.
On the other hand, the umpteenth iteration of the Silmarillion that we get in this volume has some absolutely brilliant parts that were later compressed in the published Silmarillion. And it is fascinating to follow Christopher Tolkien's explanations about what he chose and where from, as he put together the Elven Holy Bible. At least it is fascinating if you are an utter nerd like me. :)
On the other hand, the umpteenth iteration of the Silmarillion that we get in this volume has some absolutely brilliant parts that were later compressed in the published Silmarillion. And it is fascinating to follow Christopher Tolkien's explanations about what he chose and where from, as he put together the Elven Holy Bible. At least it is fascinating if you are an utter nerd like me. :)
octavia_cade's review against another edition
2.0
Okay, let me start with something good, before I get onto the rant. The first hundred odd pages are genuinely likeable. There's a brief sketch of "The Fall of Númenor", but the real item of interest is the unfinished "The Lost Road", which Tolkien started to write as part of a bet with C.S. Lewis that made him take a shot at a time travel story. Basically a father and son leapfrog back in time, to various historical and mythical (and Middle-earth) father-son relationships, and it's well-written and affecting and I haven't been presented with it ten thousand times before. Alright, that's a slight exaggeration. I'm getting there. My point is if the book had stopped here it would have earned three stars from me.
Following this is a lengthy piece on the development of the Middle-earth languages, to which I am utterly indifferent. Genuine dislike, however, doesn't start to sink in until we get to another fucking version of The Silmarillion. Yes, another 150 pages of this crap. In fairness, it's not Tolkien senior who is responsible for said crap. He surely didn't know that his son and publisher would beat hell out of the thing while he was too dead to prevent it, because, more recent excursions aside, at time of publishing this was the sixth version of this bloody story put out. Yes, the SIXTH. First there was The Silmarillion itself, which once upon a time I actually liked. Then there were Books 1 and 2 of The Lost Tales, giving the background to The Silmarillion, and yes, it was less interesting but still a bit. Then the Lays of Beleriand went over it again. Then The Shaping of Middle-earth. Now it's #6, The Lost Road, and I'd call it barrel-scraping except the barrel doesn't exist any more, because when the bottom of said barrel's been this whittled away it's no longer a barrel, it's a fucking cylinder, and all the interest has leaked out. If it weren't for "The Lost Road" story, this book would get one star and that is being generous.
I've been a fan of Middle-earth since I was a kid. Reading the Histories has been on my reading bucket list for literally decades, yet you know what? I'm going to stop reading it, at least for a long time, and go onto something less irritatingly exploitative. Because as boring and insulting as I find this continual repetition of the same goddamn material, that's nothing compared to the fact that I'm actually starting to genuinely loathe The Silmarillion.
Critical context should not do that, ever.
Following this is a lengthy piece on the development of the Middle-earth languages, to which I am utterly indifferent. Genuine dislike, however, doesn't start to sink in until we get to another fucking version of The Silmarillion. Yes, another 150 pages of this crap. In fairness, it's not Tolkien senior who is responsible for said crap. He surely didn't know that his son and publisher would beat hell out of the thing while he was too dead to prevent it, because, more recent excursions aside, at time of publishing this was the sixth version of this bloody story put out. Yes, the SIXTH. First there was The Silmarillion itself, which once upon a time I actually liked. Then there were Books 1 and 2 of The Lost Tales, giving the background to The Silmarillion, and yes, it was less interesting but still a bit. Then the Lays of Beleriand went over it again. Then The Shaping of Middle-earth. Now it's #6, The Lost Road, and I'd call it barrel-scraping except the barrel doesn't exist any more, because when the bottom of said barrel's been this whittled away it's no longer a barrel, it's a fucking cylinder, and all the interest has leaked out. If it weren't for "The Lost Road" story, this book would get one star and that is being generous.
I've been a fan of Middle-earth since I was a kid. Reading the Histories has been on my reading bucket list for literally decades, yet you know what? I'm going to stop reading it, at least for a long time, and go onto something less irritatingly exploitative. Because as boring and insulting as I find this continual repetition of the same goddamn material, that's nothing compared to the fact that I'm actually starting to genuinely loathe The Silmarillion.
Critical context should not do that, ever.