All Tolkien's Middle-Earth Books, Ranked by Importance
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ส.ค. 2024
- A couple of viewers asked for a video along the lines of discussing ALL the Middle-earth related books by Tolkien, so here they are, ranked in order of importance (more or less).
My video on The Lost Road story is here: • The Lost Road: Tolkien...
For a book review of Roverandom, go here: • Book Review: Roverandom
My discussion of The Story of Kullervo is here: • The Story of Kullervo
For a review of the entire History of Middle-Earth series, click here: • Overview of "The Histo...
If you're interested in some of the material in "Morgoth's Ring," here's my discussion of the "Athrabeth" section: • The "Athrabeth": Chris...
Check out Marquette's oral history project, where you can volunteer to give a brief interview about what Tolkien means to you, here: www.marquette....
My own interview is now online: cdm16280.conten...
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By the way, being a huge Tolkien geek myself, I have put together a list of all Tolkien (+Christopher and other authors who worked with him at points) ME books, this is my list. I’ve read 98% of them at least once. I’ve also added Roverandom at the end of my list because of the information you provided in this video. Thanks!
1. The Hobbit
2. The History of The Hobbit Part 1: Mr Baggins
3. The History of The Hobbit Part 2: Return to Bag End
4. The Lord of The Rings: Fellowship of The Ring
5. The Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers
6. The Lord of The Rings: Return of The King
7. Bilbo's Last Song
8. The Road Goes Ever On
9. The Adventures of Tom Bombadil
10. The Silmarillion
11. Unfinished Tales
12. Children of Hurin
13. The Story of Kullervo
14. Beren and Lurhien
15. History of Middle Earth Part 1: Book of Lost Tales: Part 1
16. HOME 2: Book of Lost Tales: Part 2
17. HOME 3: Lays of Beleriand
18. HOME 4: The Shaping of Middle-Earth
19. HOME 5: The Lost Road and Other Writings
20. HOME 6: The History of The Lord of The Rings: Part 1: Return of The Shadow
21. HOME 7: THoLoTR 2: The Treason of Isengard
22. HOME 8: THoLoTR 3: The War of The Ring
23. HOME 9: THoLoTR 4: Sauron Defeated
24. HOME 10: Morgoth's Ring
25. HOME 11: The War of The Jewels
26. HOME 12: The Peoples of Middle-Earth
27. HOME: Index
28. Pictures by JRRT
29. JRRT: Artist & Illustrator
30. Letters of JRRT
31. The Fall of Gondolin
32. The Nature of Middle Earth
33. Monsters and The Critics and Other Essays
34. JRRT Biography
35. Roverandom
36. The Fall of Numenor: And Other Tales from The Second Age of Middle-Earth
I had no clue there was this many
Don't forget atlas of middle earth!
@@jacobburr3570 Sounds like a Nice Companion piece, but I only included books with Tolkien Himself as a the primary source.
And tales from the perilous realm
@@IppoMakunouchi_07 Well I didn't include that one because the only story (unless I am mistaken) from that collection which connects to Middle Earth Legendarium is The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, but that is sold and printed separately and already included on this list, but If I am wrong, please let me know. ;)
I love that he had to go back and fit things in. He didn't just say done. He created more and more further expanding the world we love so much. Oh man these movies and books have gotten me through many hard times. God Bless you Tolkien.
The Silmarillion is my favorite book.
Mine is Lord of the Rings. Silmarillion is great, but it doesn't have magnificent nature descriptions, beautiful songs and character thoughts. (Ok, it has, but in much less amount)
Book of Lost Tales Part I. : )
Or The Hobbit. : )
Silmarillion has inspired me the most; it's absolutely magnificent.
^^^ and it’s not all that close. Then again Silmarillion might be my favorite book of all time.
Good list.
Though I think The Silmarillion is probably the best book of the Legendarium, I would recommend reading them the same way I read them back in middle school - The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and then The Silmarillion. The Silmarillion might be a prequel, but I think it is a funner read if you've already read the other two. If you have no familiarity with Middle Earth, then getting through the first 50 pages of The Silmarillion could be a chore.
Yes! Roverrandom is such an under appreciated tale. Excellent list. The only thing I lack are a few volumes of HOME. I like the find my books second hand, which means it can be difficult to locate some of them.
Nice video! I suppose one could also include John Rateliff's The History of the Hobbit, which contains Tolkien's drafts for that book.
This was amazing, and thank you. I pretty much agree completely with everything you said: all the HoME books you mentioned are the same books I would recommend (besides just all 12). I personally like The Lost Road most from among the whole History, because you can feel Tolkien moving from unconstrained fantasy into some type of sacred and rational myth.
That being said, I don't think The Book of Lost Tales is necessary for people interested in the legendarium, but I do think The Return of the Shadow could be. I haven't watched all your videos, and maybe you talk about it, but the first workings of The Lord of the Rings (where there are some very interesting differences in Strider) would be something I would like to hear your opinion on. Again, I'm fascinated with Tolkien's seemingly inevitable shift from child-like and informal tales into strict, heavy, and systematic mythology.
Thanks for reading!
I haven’t gotten into that yet but want to eventually.
please do a video on Bilbo's Last Song, don't care for the silly illustrations in the book but the poem and it's history are wonderful. I also have a recommendation for people who find some of the books daunting. Go through them and read only what you find interesting at first and then let your expanded knowledge lead you to other parts of the book. Think of them as reference books not novels
Mae g'ovannen
I really enjoy your videos and would thank you for them. As for your book list here I would quite agree. But there is one more that I would add. The Letters of JRR Tolkien. Not strictly a "work" as such but all Tolkien. Not all of the letters are to do with the mythology, but there are some particularly interesting ones - especially when readers have written asking for more details or with some quite specific questions - often answered at length and in some detail. Quite a few gems in there from the changing nature of the immortality of the Firstborn to the design of Gondorian helmets
Namárië
I've been looking for a great ranking/breakdown of this. Thanks!
Great information break down 👍🏽
If you have small children (or grandchildren) The Adventures of Tom Bombadil is a good book for story time and also EXCEEDINGLY good for bed time as it can lull a little one to sleep with its sing-song phrasing. What other books would you recommend for reading to children? Illustrated Hobbit?
Thanks for all the awesome videos!
The lost road is super fascinating especially with the end of his universe Dagor Dagorath!
Thank you. Very useful.
Thank you for this! Great video and very helpful
Thank you! That’s really helpful.
After 20 years of reading, i consider Silmarillion number one. It wasn't at the begining.
Nice video! I was wondering if you had recommandations on the order in which you should read the Middle Earth books?
As far as the main three I’d definitely go Hobbit, LOTR, Silmarillion, and then Unfinished Tales next. The rest really depends on preference.
@@TolkienLorePodcast You really think you should dive into Unfinished Tales right after The Silmarillion? Wouldn't it make sense to read The Great Tales first?
I guess it depends on your goal. You get information more rapidly going straight to Unfinished Tales because the Great Tales add little to what’s in the Silmarillion while UT tells us a lot of things we don’t get elsewhere.
Wait whaaa so bombadil is just a out of universe cameo a character from other stuff and a 3rd wall break great explains alot.
As someone who has loved the movie all his life (I’m 23) and who read the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit many times I wish I was better/smarter at reading. I love the stories and fictional history/mythology. Problem for me is it just feel super overwhelming to try to get further into within getting lost.
Glad to find your channel bro
How about The Letters of JRR Tolkien? Yes, there is a fair amount of personal stuff and long winded philosophizing by the good Prof. which might not appeal to many readers, but there is some truly great nuggets that are scattered throughout the 300 plus letters, making this book the most valuable post-Morten publication by Christopher Tolkien after The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales and HoME, Volumes 10-12. As for Children of Hurin, great story, but I’d been reading it in full since 1980 between The Silm and Unfinished Tales, almost verbatim (about 200 words changed I read). I’d hardly call this ‘important’ but more like a cash grab.
I’m really only considering his actual works of fiction in this video, so letters don’t really count.
The Adventures of Tom Bombadil are somewhat obscure in that as they are down the importance list and not everyone is into a bit silly whimsical poetry, not that many people read them or sometimes even know about them. But besides mentioning that they are linked in some way by the essay as a Hobbitish folklore, I think it should be mentioned that that essay makes them an official part of the Red Book of Westmarch and even identifies the authorship of some of the poems as Bilbo and Sam. So this may ramp up the importance a bit for some for the completionist sake. (The poems are nice and completely worth for themselves though if that is your sort of thing. But if they aren't, it may still be interesting as an official part of the RBoW.)
Great info. thanks
Excellent. ❤️
So if someone had The Silmarillion, Unfinished tales of Numenor and Middle Earth, The Children of Hurin, The Hobbit, and The Lord of The Rings, would they know everything about the STORY of Middle Earth? Being uninterested in story versions and such.
That sounds about right.
Interesting as they are, I was a bit disappointed that Beren & Luthien and the Fall of Gondolin did not follow the same approach as Children of Hurin.
That is gathering all pieces of the story, select the canon from all different versions, combine them all with the hand of an editor, to create one single story.
It made Children of Hurin such a great read and I would love to have had the same with Fall of Gondolin for example.
Very interesting, but at the same time a little confusing for me. I never acquired the Silmarillion because I was under the impression that the Book of lost Tales 1 and2 were a more comprehensive version of it. Now I'm wondering if the Silmarillion contains different material or is the better version. I've been a fan since the mid 1970's but must admit I stopped collecting Tolkien's works because I was unsure whether I would be purchasing new material or something that was redundant in the sense that I already had it under a different title. This video is helpful but it would be great to see something that explains the different works based on timeline and contents. I'd love to have some new Tolkien magic in my life these days.
Silm is the canon version of the lost tales. Thats why some people say you can skip lost as version history.
I see their main worth as providing the only complete narratives (albeit pre canon) of two of the great tales with Tale of Tinuviel and Fall of Gondolin in part two.
Essentially, Tolkien wrote the Book of Lost Tales first, but then he shifted to instead writing the epic poems of the Children of Húrin and the Lay of Leithian (these can be found in the lays of Beleriand). Eventually he abandoned them to begin writing the Silmarillion, which was originally intended to provide summary accounts to give a background to his Lays. He used the Lost Tales as inspiration, but they arent the same stories, there are significant changes between it and the Silmarillion.
@@vibecheck3572 My recom for reading order would be Hob->LOTR->CoH->UT-> Silm-> ROTK appendix, for people who want the canon stories.
CoH and the 1/3 completed Gondolin story in UT even form a nice little mini chain. Silm should be last as its a history encyclopedia that spoils everything.
@@jamesbyrd5175 that list makes little sense. Why read UT before Silmarillion? To quote Christopher in his introduction to UT "I have throughout assumed on the readers part a fair knowledge of the published works of my father (more especially The Lord of the Rings)". The only portion that would make much sense without the base of the Silmarillion would be the third age material, and even then, much of that wouldn't make much sense without the knowledge gleamed through the appendices to the Lord. CoH is a fine tale, but it's best understood when you have the rest of the Silmarillion to complete your background.
Your description of the Silmarillion as being a "history encyclopedia that spoils everything" instead of "Professor Tolkien's magnum opus" is absurd and leads me to theorize that you havent really read it.
@@vibecheck3572 Read UT before Silm because of the parts that deal with LOTR.
Plus if you read CoH before, Gondolin in UT is a quasi sequel to CoH and forms the longest novel chain after that.
Why Hurin before Silm? Novel format trumps silm format for most people. If you are coming from the Hobbit and LOTR (novels) why not give them the other stand alone novel.
Silmarillion has a weird format, spoils itself, and does function more like a history encyclopedia to a fictional world. Silms third age section is a cliff notes summary of Lotr. What do you call that.
And you are wrong I have read it so lol, easily disprovable statement. Why? Because I don't have a cookie cutter opinion on it?
Did you hear there’s is a new book coming out next year to add to the Legendarium: “The Nature of Middle Earth”? Apparently the author was sent various unpublished material of JRRT on ME by Christopher Tolkien before his day adding.
*bwfore his passing (I don’t know why my iPhone constantly has to change what I actually type)?
I think I heard something about a new book but I don’t remember if that was it.
Love your video as a new Tolkien Reader, I just finished the hobbit and LOTR, i plan to eventually dive into the big book soon. I am slighty confused as a new collector how do i collect the history of middle earth books as reader copies? i see a box set of the first 5 but then they dont match the rest that have the cool art on them?
There are various editions, it just depends how important it is for you to have matching covers lol
@@TolkienLorePodcast hahaha ya idk how big a deal matching should be lolol, how do you like the big boxset?
@PhatYeti it’s pretty but personally I mainly care about the contents lol.
@@TolkienLorePodcast which edition you think has best content
@PhatYeti they’re all the same as far as I know, with maybe some editorial corrections in later editions.
Hi Tolkien Geek, can you please do a video on The History of The Hobbit by John D. Rateliff?
I actually don’t have that book. Need to get it….
Where would you put the fall of numenor?
I haven’t finished it yet so I’m reserving judgment lol
it would be completed info if you show the book you mention..for newbies like me..no clue what you said..
I was bummed that the Amazon series just decided to make crap up and set things in the second age rather than say, adapt "The Children of Hurin." Maybe it was because of licensing.
Yeah, no one has rights to Silmarillion material so that’s off the table.
Where does the fall of numenor rank?
Pretty low I’d say.
What about Master Giles of Ham?
Not exactly a Middle-earth book lol.
Is the history of Middle-earth books worth it?
It depends. There are lots of hidden gems but most of it is earlier versions of the published Silmarillion and LOTR, which can be pretty dry but also interesting in some of the details and changes. But there’s also a bunch of other stuff, especially after volume 3, and that volume is worth it for the poetry alone.
Would you suggest reading the Children of Hurin, Beren and Luthien and the Fall of Gondolin to somebody who has read the Silmarillion but didn't really understand lot of it? (I really should try it again now that I'm 30, not 15 y.o. 😅) I'm kinda interested of trying them.
I also must comment how fun it is always to hear someone saying Finnish words out of blue. I heard the word Kalevala said very cutely and realised something. I took video back a bit and heard the earlier word had been Kullervo. I could understand it now that I knew the context. Before that I thought it was some Elvish/Numenorian name 😅
Children of Burin would be your best bet. The other two are more about the textual history.
You sort of just listed the works in the order they were published lol.
The big 3 is obvious but why would you rank Children of Hurin so low? Below HoMe? Just because it is newer? How many fully developed middle earth novels are there? I'd rank it above Unfinished Tales and below silm. You can debate if UT's lotr material trumps being a novel, but def no lower than that. I'd also rank the other two great tale books above HoMe.
Getting the fall of Gondolin and Tale of Tinuviel/poems plus the artwork in the books I'd say outranks a gigantic academic style series like HoMe.
The UT outranks CoH because it has all that material plus Fall of Gondolin plus other stuff. There’s a ton of stuff that’s only in UT, not so much with the great tales books.
@@TolkienLorePodcast Which is why I said CoH and UT are debatable and I think thats legit reasoning (my view is a single well developed novel format can trump more info ), but putting CoH below HoMe? It just became a date published vid at that point.
The other two great Tale books are compilations, deceptive after how CoH was. I wanted that for the other tales.
So did I, but alas. But the reason I put HOME above CoH is again the uniqueness of information. So many of those volumes have fascinating info to be found nowhere else.
@@TolkienLorePodcast That is for "super nerds" though. The general fandom doesn't need to plow through CT breaking the 4th wall talking about his fathers scribblings in HOME. HOME is the ultimate "super nerd" work, even your lower ranked ones are more readable than HOME, just more minor and questionably related.
If CoH had been released some time in the 70s or 80s, it would have a much bigger following. Fans just retroactively downgrade it because they are jaded by version histories and since it had no new information at the time it was published downgrade it. The general public was so confused and put off by a lot of Middle earth earth books that by the 2000s they didn't notice it (even if it somehow managed to top the NYT best sellers list).
So, basically they were published in order of importance.
Not exactly.
i wish i had money to read the simirillion , but i guess i’ll settle for these videos for now.
It’s not exactly an expensive book in paperback. ;)
@@TolkienLorePodcast I would like it in hardcover so that it could be protected more
@@tonyc2909 It's a book, not a cellphone where you may drop it that probably needs a case. Many a paperbacks have survived years of use through multiple hands. Treat it like a book.