the HoM-E/UT Society ~ following the Legendarium from c.1915 - 1972

[lindil]

I have been pondering starting HoM-E from the begining to the end, as per Aiwendil's highest recommendation (among other reasons). I have read alot in the final three books and in a very haphazard manner in the others.

Anyone else interested in joining in and commenting on what we find as we journey from the Cottage of Lost Play to Tal-Elmar?

Since the first 5 books of the History of Middle-Earth are available in mass mkt paperback pretty much anyone who wants to should be able to start and go quite a ways before the have to worry about any book that will cost more than $6.99 (in America at least).

OF course there is no time table to complete this, and no says you can not read anything else along the way. So don't be intimidated! [Well OK you can be intimidated by the footnote if you have seen them already [img]smilies/eek.gif[/img]] but from the pov of my partial exsposure I guarantee you it is worth it.

btw, if you have not already browsed HoME abit this may not be the ideal introduction, though I think Aiwendil woudl strongly disagree.
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I will start off [since I began the Cottage of Lost Play a couple of days ago] with the intersting note that a poem 'The Trees' was nearly included in The Adventures of Tom Bombadil. It was a revision of one of his earliest poems 'Kortirion among the Trees' which went through several other revisions including one during the changeover from the Quenta Silmarillion work to the LotR in 1937 [that one is included], but anyway this final version (c. 1962).

I would love to see where the whole lost tales/Eriol/England idea had gone to by that time. Has anyone heard of a publishing of this poem?

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Another fascinating point is JRRT's early conceptions of the diminutive/fading Elves and that he still kept certain aspects of this as the concept of the Elves matured.

They continue to fade due to the fire of their spirit slowly consuming theor bodies, so they become more and more fea and less and less hroa.

[ April 10, 2003: Message edited by: lindil ]