The History Of Middle-Earth series.

[Flexor the Mighty!]

How much different are these than the Silmarillion? I have the Book of Lost Tales that starts the whole series off, but how do the later books compare? Are they mostly unfinished works that CRRT has compiled and put annotations with? Are there expanded and completed tales on the characters features in the Sil? How dry are they to read? Do you need to read them all to follow the books?

This may have been discussed before but I can't search so I'm asking for a bit o' help.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

It's been a while since I read these... They are mostly early, sometimes unfinished versions of tales. Sometimes they are earlier versions of things from LoTR or The Silmarrilion, but not always. CRRT's annotations are broken out from the JRRT writings rather than blending like in The Silmarrillion.

They are dry, but not a whole lot more so than The Silmarrillion. I don't think you need to reead all of them, most of them have stories grouped together that are inter-related.

 

[Desdichado]

How much different are these than the Silmarillion?

Much more fragmentary and "scholarly" in nature. Often they are just little pieces of stuff here and there. I think a better comparison is more like Lost Tales or Unfinished Tales in format. There's also all kinds of different things in there, from essays and stories that have never seen the light of day to early extant drafts of most of the Lord of the Rings itself.

I have the Book of Lost Tales that starts the whole series off, but how do the later books compare?

They're similar, but Lost Tales are such early versions of the stories and myths that they are very unlike later versions. As the books progress, they will (mostly) get more recognizable.

Are they mostly unfinished works that CRRT has compiled and put annotations with?

Yes, although maybe not unfinished. Unpolished, perhaps. Un-vetted, if you will. Mostly the works are actually finished, though. But there are many examples of unfinished things in there.

Are there expanded and completed tales on the characters features in the Sil?

Some of them, yes. Others of them are more like tracts on elvish linguistics, or history, or whatnot. There's really all kinds of stuff included there.

How dry are they to read?

On average, very. Recommended for hardcore Tolkien fans only.

Do you need to read them all to follow the books?

Nope.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

On average, very. Recommended for hardcore Tolkien fans only.

Nope.

Thanks, I was kind of thinking that. I think I'll just stick to the Silmarillion for my M.E. mythology then.

 

[Orius]

The HoME is pretty much there for those who are curious about the development of Tolkien's writings. The first 5 books are his earliest writing on the First and Second Ages, all stuff that predated the writing of the Lord of the Rings. Some of this stuff doesn't really work withing the context of post LotR writings, however, it's important because it contains the only complete versions of the fall of Doriath, and the fall of Gondolin, IIRC.

Books 6-9 are the early drafts of the LotR. They can probably be skipped unless you want to see how the story changed over the years while Tolkien wrote it.

The last three books are probably the most important. They're all post LotR. Morgoth's Ring and War of the Jewels contain the texts used to construct much of the published Silmarillion. It also shows who some of Tolkien's ideas about the background mythology changed in the later years of his life, which is probably the reason he never finished the Silmarillion. People of Middle Earth contains a lot of information about the various cultures of Middle-earth.