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jpbradt's review against another edition
fallingletters's review against another edition
5.0
neilrcoulter's review against another edition
4.0
In my review of the previous volume in [a:Christopher Tolkien|9533|Christopher Tolkien|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1235772383p2/9533.jpg]'s [b:History Of Middle-Earth|214175|The Complete History Of Middle-Earth (Middle-Earth Universe)|Christopher Tolkien|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1334597698s/214175.jpg|18608966], I said that it was a quicker, easier read than some of the earlier books in the series. One of the main reasons for this is that the four books that make up [b:The History of the Lord of the Rings|2329|The History of the Lord of the Rings (The History of Middle-earth #6-9)|J.R.R. Tolkien|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1322037593s/2329.jpg|6340]--the series-within-a-series--lead to an actual published endpoint. There is a final, definitive [b:Lord of the Rings|33|The Lord of the Rings (The Lord of the Rings, #1-3)|J.R.R. Tolkien|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1388181159s/33.jpg|3462456], and so it's enjoyable to see the early ideas and drafts heading toward the familiar story.
The second volume of The History of the Lord of the Rings, [b:The Treason of Isengard|77682|The Treason of Isengard The History of The Lord of the Rings, Part Two (The History of Middle-earth, #7)|J.R.R. Tolkien|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1386924599s/77682.jpg|2963999], is, however, a slightly more tedious read than [b:The Return of the Shadow|15351|The Return of the Shadow The History of The Lord of the Rings, Part One (The History of Middle-Earth, #6)|J.R.R. Tolkien|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1348021528s/15351.jpg|2963703]. One reason is that the first 189 pages are rewrites of material that was covered in The Return of the Shadow. The developments and changes are more slight--as of course they must be when it's existing material being revised, rather than new writing coming out of nothing. But once the drafts push on beyond the end of [b:The Fellowship of the Ring|34|The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, #1)|J.R.R. Tolkien|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1298411339s/34.jpg|3204327], it is remarkable how quickly many of the major elements in the final story fall into place. I was especially interested to learn in what order [a:Tolkien|656983|J.R.R. Tolkien|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1383526938p2/656983.jpg] wrote the story once the Fellowship breaks apart.
Throughout the drafting of what would become [b:The Two Towers|15241|The Two Towers (The Lord of the Rings, #2)|J.R.R. Tolkien|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1298415523s/15241.jpg|2963845], as well as some parts of [b:The Return of the King|18512|The Return of the King (The Lord of the Rings, #3)|J.R.R. Tolkien|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1382151152s/18512.jpg|2964424], the names continue to evolve, though most are well set by this point in the writing. Details are reimagined or reconfigured. And some major elements--such as Arwen--are yet to be devised. It was Tolkien's perspective that he was recording history "as it actually happened," and many times he saw many things fully formed in the initial drafts.
Christopher Tolkien is highly intrigued by a couple of areas that don't engage my interest very much, and both areas appear repeatedly in The Treason of Isengard. The first is an interest in the minute details of timing and chronology. Christopher spends a great deal of endnote discussion time figuring out the precise details of which days the events took place. I just don't really care about those details. The other area that Christopher often writes about in the History series is geography. It wasn't a big part of The Return of the Shadow, but in The Treason of Isengard there is an entire chapter on the early maps of Middle-Earth; and though I am interested in Middle-Earth maps, I found myself skimming this chapter and not gleaning much from it.
None of this is a problem with the book; just a difference in what fascinates me. The book continues to be an amazing tour of the creation of The Lord of the Rings, and I look forward to getting into the next volume.
My reviews of the other volumes in The History of the Lord of the Rings series:
ehays84's review against another edition
4.0
dorynickel's review against another edition
1.0
regitzexenia's review against another edition
4.0
warriorcattrash's review against another edition
5.0
nwhyte's review against another edition
5.0
The most interesting point for me was that Frodo and Sam's path to Mordor, and even back to the Shire, emerged in Tolkien's thinking much earlier than the story of the others after the death of Boromir. He seems to almost make up the tale of Gimli, Legolas and Aragorn as he goes along, and I must admit it's not the most satisfying part of the book (and was the most messed around with by Peter Jackson for the film). In the middle of this, however, the Treebeard chapter stands out as a coming together of long-simmering ideas for Tolkien, who was fascinated by trees and forests and had been dropping foreshadowing references to Treebeard into his drafts without really thinking them through.
Tolkien took great care over names. It's a bit jarring to read "Trotter" instead of "Strider", "Ingolf" instead of "Aragorn" and "Ondor" instead of "Gondor", but I think it's not just familiarity with the final product - the eventually chosen names are genuinely better. There are a very few exceptions - Tolkien was not happy with "Osgiliath", and I think rightly so, but didn't find a good alternative. Irish readers find it amusing that one of Treebeard's fellow elder Ents is named Finglas; this name is there in the very first draft.
I noted with interest that all the early examples of runes - basically Gandalf's messages left at Bree and scrawled at Weathertop - use the good old-fashioned futhark, rather than what we came to know as the Cirth. The switch was made while composing the inscription on Balin's tomb in Moria, and implemented consistently after that. The development of the runes shows off Tolkien's deep knowledge of phonetics; you would expect him to have some familiarity with the subject as a philologist, but clearly it was a profound fascination. (Do you pronounce the 'o's differently in 'Lord' and 'Moria'? I don't, but Tolkien evidently did, going by his first drafts.)
Anyway, much enjoying this reconstruction of how the classic came to be.