From: elyse Newsgroups: rec.arts.books.tolkien Subject: Question on the HOME series Date: Sun, 26 Sep 1999 14:26:39 GMT Organization: Deja.com - Before you buy. Lines: 18 Message-ID: <7slaen$lhj$1@nnrp1.deja.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: 205.151.225.202 X-Article-Creation-Date: Sun Sep 26 14:26:39 1999 GMT X-Http-User-Agent: Mozilla/2.0 (compatible; MSIE 3.02; Windows 95) X-Http-Proxy: 1.0 x25.deja.com:80 (Squid/1.1.22) for client 205.151.225.202 X-MyDeja-Info: XMYDJUIDelyse1999 Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news.belnet.be!skynet.be!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!nntp2.deja.com!nnrp1.deja.com!not-for-mail I'd like to have a little guidance as to which of this series I should read. I have already read BOLT 1 and 2 and The Lays of Beleriand, at least in part. I also have The Return of the Shadow. However, I find I have to take these books in small doses. All the variant texts, while interesting, become dry and pedantic to me after a while. I have trouble getting into them. What I would be interested in reading are some essays on the day to day life type of thing, something along the lines of the essay on the marriage customs mentioned in another thread. This is in Morgoth's Ring. Does the rest of this volume contain similar info? What other volumes have essays like this? Do I have to read the whole series to understand all this, or does each volume stand more or less on its own? Thanks! -- Eruve Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Before you buy. ###### From: "Conrad Dunkerson" Newsgroups: rec.arts.books.tolkien Subject: Re: Question on the HOME series Date: Sun, 26 Sep 1999 13:27:01 -0400 Organization: AT&T WorldNet Services Lines: 31 Message-ID: <7sllif$417$1@bgtnsc01.worldnet.att.net> References: <7slaen$lhj$1@nnrp1.deja.com> Reply-To: "Conrad Dunkerson" NNTP-Posting-Host: 12.75.64.84 X-Trace: bgtnsc01.worldnet.att.net 938367375 4135 12.75.64.84 (26 Sep 1999 17:36:15 GMT) X-Complaints-To: abuse@worldnet.att.net NNTP-Posting-Date: 26 Sep 1999 17:36:15 GMT X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2314.1300 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2314.1300 Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news.belnet.be!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!wn4feed!worldnet.att.net!wnmaster2!not-for-mail elyse wrote in message news:7slaen$lhj$1@nnrp1.deja.com... > What I would be interested in reading are some essays on > the day to day life type of thing, something along the > lines of the essay on the marriage customs mentioned in > another thread. This is in Morgoth's Ring. Does the rest > of this volume contain similar info? What other volumes > have essays like this? I'd say that the best books for this sort of information are the last three; Morgoth's Ring, War of the Jewels, and Peoples of Middle Earth. Unfinished Tales has quite a bit of this sort of info too and I'd suggest reading that if you haven't yet. I generally suggest skipping the books 6 - 9 unless you are interested in earlier drafts of LotR. Shaping of Middle Earth and Lost Road probably won't be of much interest unless you want to look into early versions of Silmarillion stories or the linguistic history and roots (get Lost Road for that). > Do I have to read the whole series to understand all > this, or does each volume stand more or less on its own? Most can be taken entirely on their own. The four dealing with the drafts of LotR have alot of interdependencies and are really 'separate from the rest of the HoME material in many ways. ###### Message-ID: <37EE5B0B.3E195E3E@wizard.net> From: "James Kuyper Jr." Organization: Not Enough X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.61 [en] (WinNT; I) X-Accept-Language: en,de,es,ru MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: rec.arts.books.tolkien Subject: Re: Question on the HOME series References: <7slaen$lhj$1@nnrp1.deja.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Lines: 24 NNTP-Posting-Host: 209.8.153.26 X-Trace: typ12.nn.bcandid.com 938367202 209.8.153.26 (Sun, 26 Sep 1999 13:33:22 EDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 26 Sep 1999 13:33:22 EDT Date: Sun, 26 Sep 1999 13:42:35 -0400 Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!isdnet!netnews.com!news-feed.fnsi.net!nntp.msen.com!206.132.58.120.MISMATCH!gw22.nn.bcandid.com!gate.bCandid.com!typ12.nn.bcandid.com.POSTED!not-for-mail elyse wrote: > > I'd like to have a little guidance as to which of this series I should read. > I have already read BOLT 1 and 2 and The Lays of Beleriand, at least in part. > I also have The Return of the Shadow. However, I find I have to take these > books in small doses. All the variant texts, while interesting, become dry > and pedantic to me after a while. I have trouble getting into them. What I > would be interested in reading are some essays on the day to day life type of > thing, something along the lines of the essay on the marriage customs > mentioned in another thread. This is in Morgoth's Ring. Does the rest of > this volume contain similar info? What other volumes have essays like this? > Do I have to read the whole series to understand all this, or does each > volume stand more or less on its own? Thanks! They do tend to stand together, but I think you've read everything you need to, in order to appreciate "Morgoth's Ring". It's got many fascinating essays, more so than most of the other volumes. One unfortunate way in which the series ties together is the corrections. Each volume contains incidental references to things that were incorrect in previous volumes. Someday I'm going to go through the whole series in order, and mark the older books with cross-references to the corrections in the later ones. It would have been a lot easier if the corrections had been collected into an errata section. Someday ... ###### Newsgroups: rec.arts.books.tolkien Subject: Re: Question on the HOME series References: <7slaen$lhj$1@nnrp1.deja.com> X-Newsreader: trn 4.0-test70 (17 January 1999) From: sbjensen@midway.uchicago.edu (Steuard Jensen) Lines: 19 Message-ID: Date: Sun, 26 Sep 1999 18:02:31 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 128.135.12.7 X-Trace: uchinews 938368951 128.135.12.7 (Sun, 26 Sep 1999 13:02:31 CDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 26 Sep 1999 13:02:31 CDT Organization: The University of Chicago Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!enews.sgi.com!paloalto-snf1.gtei.net!news.gtei.net!newsfeed.stanford.edu!uchinews!not-for-mail Quoth elyse : > I'd like to have a little guidance as to which of this series I > should read. I have already read BOLT 1 and 2 and The Lays of > Beleriand, at least in part. I've put together a "Tolkien Booklist", which lists Tolkien's books on Middle-earth in my own recommended reading order. It sounds like your tastes are reasonably similar to mine, so it should prove useful. As an added bonus, the list also includes my thoughts on which books are more "canonical" than others. The list is on the web at http://home.uchicago.edu/~sbjensen/Tolkien/BookList.html Incidentally, just about every HoMe book has dry, pedantic variant texts in it. While they're probably worth reading eventually (at least some of them), feel free to skip to finished essays and stories where available. I hope this is helpful! Steuard Jensen ###### From: oscwr@emory.edu (Cal Rice) Newsgroups: rec.arts.books.tolkien Subject: Re: Question on the HOME series Date: 28 Sep 1999 10:18:05 -0400 Organization: Emory University Lines: 6 Message-ID: <7sqimt$447$1@jet.cc.emory.edu> References: <7slaen$lhj$1@nnrp1.deja.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: jet.cc.emory.edu X-Trace: lendl.cc.emory.edu 938528287 19653 170.140.1.27 (28 Sep 1999 14:18:07 GMT) X-Complaints-To: abuse@emory.edu NNTP-Posting-Date: 28 Sep 1999 14:18:07 GMT X-Newsreader: TIN [UNIX 1.3 950824BETA PL0] Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newshunter!cosy.sbg.ac.at!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.new-york.net!uunet!ffx.uu.net!finch!lendl.cc.emory.edu!emory.edu!not-for-mail What do you need guidance for? Just thumb through the HoME books and read what looks interesting. Duh. -cr -- ###### Newsgroups: rec.arts.books.tolkien Subject: Re: Question on the HOME series References: <7slaen$lhj$1@nnrp1.deja.com> <7sqimt$447$1@jet.cc.emory.edu> X-Newsreader: trn 4.0-test70 (17 January 1999) From: sbjensen@midway.uchicago.edu (Steuard Jensen) Lines: 18 Message-ID: Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1999 21:01:13 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 128.135.12.7 X-Trace: uchinews 938552473 128.135.12.7 (Tue, 28 Sep 1999 16:01:13 CDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1999 16:01:13 CDT Organization: The University of Chicago Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!newscore.univie.ac.at!howland.erols.net!newsswitch.lcs.mit.edu!uchinews!not-for-mail Quoth oscwr@emory.edu (Cal Rice): > What do you need guidance for? Just thumb through the HoME books > and read what looks interesting. Duh. 1) Not everyone has the money to buy all the books before knowing which they will enjoy. Also, not everyone has a convenient library that has all the books in HoMe. (Or, for that matter, a bookstore that would tolerate them digging through all the books on the shelves looking for interesting bits.) 2) Even if all the books _are_ all available for skimming, that's an awful lot of material to dig through. Some of the good bits are concealed quite well in the midst of dry analysis of textual histories. That seems like two perfectly good reasons to me. Steuard Jensen ###### From: baronessbettina@webtv.net (Rick Walters) Newsgroups: rec.arts.books.tolkien Subject: Re: Question on the HOME series Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1999 21:46:14 -0400 (EDT) Organization: WebTV Subscriber Lines: 6 Message-ID: <15761-37F16F66-106@newsd-292.iap.bryant.webtv.net> References: NNTP-Posting-Host: localhost.webtv.net Mime-Version: 1.0 (WebTV) Content-Type: Text/Plain; Charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7Bit X-WebTV-Signature: 1 ETAuAhUAhJwhur+ijlVubyZL1D36iw7lwIcCFQCgk3Lmt/LSint2mNOVZzZ7y7AuUQ== Content-Disposition: Inline Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!newscore.univie.ac.at!howland.erols.net!news-out-b.news.pipex.net.MISMATCH!tank.news.pipex.net!pipex!uunet!ams.uu.net!ffx.uu.net!webtv.net!not-for-mail A good way to reference the HoME books to see what is in the books and a complete table of contents with descriptions for all 12 books is http://www.algonet.se/~arador/md_hm.html I found this to be very useful myself. ###### From: elyse Newsgroups: rec.arts.books.tolkien Subject: Re: Question on the HOME series Date: Wed, 29 Sep 1999 14:15:08 GMT Organization: Deja.com - Before you buy. Lines: 26 Message-ID: <7st6sv$3mr$1@nnrp1.deja.com> References: <7slaen$lhj$1@nnrp1.deja.com> <7sqimt$447$1@jet.cc.emory.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: 205.151.225.202 X-Article-Creation-Date: Wed Sep 29 14:15:08 1999 GMT X-Http-User-Agent: Mozilla/2.0 (compatible; MSIE 3.02; Windows 95) X-Http-Proxy: 1.0 x40.deja.com:80 (Squid/1.1.22) for client 205.151.225.202 X-MyDeja-Info: XMYDJUIDelyse1999 Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news.belnet.be!colt.net!news-x.support.nl!newsfeed.tli.de!newsfeed.enteract.com!newspeer.monmouth.com!nntp2.deja.com!nnrp1.deja.com!not-for-mail In article , sbjensen@midway.uchicago.edu (Steuard Jensen) wrote: h. > > 1) Not everyone has the money to buy all the books before knowing > which they will enjoy. Also, not everyone has a convenient library > that has all the books in HoMe. (Or, for that matter, a bookstore > that would tolerate them digging through all the books on the > shelves looking for interesting bits.) > > 2) Even if all the books _are_ all available for skimming, that's an > awful lot of material to dig through. Some of the good bits are > concealed quite well in the midst of dry analysis of textual > histories. > > That seems like two perfectly good reasons to me. > > Steuard Jensen > Thank you Steuard! Those were my very reasons for asking the question! -- Eruve Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Before you buy. ###### From: elyse Newsgroups: rec.arts.books.tolkien Subject: Re: Question on the HOME series Date: Wed, 29 Sep 1999 14:42:57 GMT Organization: Deja.com - Before you buy. Lines: 16 Message-ID: <7st8he$51j$1@nnrp1.deja.com> References: <15761-37F16F66-106@newsd-292.iap.bryant.webtv.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: 205.151.225.202 X-Article-Creation-Date: Wed Sep 29 14:42:57 1999 GMT X-Http-User-Agent: Mozilla/2.0 (compatible; MSIE 3.02; Windows 95) X-Http-Proxy: 1.0 x29.deja.com:80 (Squid/1.1.22) for client 205.151.225.202 X-MyDeja-Info: XMYDJUIDelyse1999 Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!netnews.com!newspeer.monmouth.com!nntp2.deja.com!nnrp1.deja.com!not-for-mail In article <15761-37F16F66-106@newsd-292.iap.bryant.webtv.net>, baronessbettina@webtv.net (Rick Walters) wrote: > A good way to reference the HoME books to see what is in the books and a > complete table > of contents with descriptions for all 12 books is > http://www.algonet.se/~arador/md_hm.html > I found this to be very useful myself. > > Thanks so much for the link. It was exactly what I was looking for! -- Eruve Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Before you buy.