Get On, Clip In, Fall Off

Kicking the Tolkien hobbit

Like a lot of people you'll find on the Internet, I'm a big fan of Tolkien, at least in a kind of low-level "I reread The Lord of the Rings regularly" kind of way rather than a scarily obsessive "I have detailed discussions with people about the finer points of Elvish grammar" kind of way.

In the past, I've twice tried to broaden my Tolkien reading base by reading the Silmarillion. Having given up in confused despair both times (I came to the conclusion that the only people who can read it all the way through rather than in tiny bits at once are probably the same people who have detailed discussions about Elvish grammar) I was kind of stalled in my efforts to learn more about the background to JRRT's work, and was quite happy just to reread TLOTR every so often because it's a jolly good read.

A couple of days ago, though, I casually leafed through the volumes of the huge and posthumous The History Of Middle Earth that detail the creation of TLOTR in the bookshop and found myself pleasantly surprised. It's top-notch stuff and fascinating for any fan of the books, and as long as you start with the stuff that relates to TLOTR the entry fee in mental anguish is pretty low. The writing is scholarly but not excessively so, and there are plenty of footnotes and explanations of the less obvious points.

I haven't got far in my studies, but it's already been interesting to see how the core characters chopped and changed around as the story evolves, and even slightly frightening to think that Frodo came within a couple of rewrites of being called Bingo, the poor lad. Being able to read the original draft of the first chapter brings it home how strange it was that what Tolkien originally intended as a simple sequel to The Hobbit became something else entirely.

If this stuff works out, I might be able to move on to the other volumes, and might even eventually be able to understand what in heaven's name is going on in the Silmarillion. If I start having long conversations about Elvish grammar, though, please tell me to stop. Posted by mpk at February 14, 2004 7:06 PM | TrackBack