Why read Tolkien's Legendarium?

Book cover of Tolkien's Legendarium: Essays on The History of Middle-earth

Book description

As a scholar of medieval languages and literature, J.R.R. Tolkien brought to his fiction an intense interest in myth and legend. When he died in 1973, he left behind a vast body of unpublished material related to his fictive mythology. Now edited and published as The History of Middle-earth by…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked Tolkien's Legendarium as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Peter Grybauskas

Author

I love this one because it’s a fitting tribute to Christopher Tolkien’s monumental work of literary archeology. The essays in this collection feel as fresh today as they did 24 years ago. It’s hard to pick favorites from such a strong and wide-ranging collection, but I often return to the essays by the late scholars Charles E. Noad and Richard C. West on the making of the Silmarillion and on the concept of ofermod, respectively.

From Peter's list on The best books for a dive into the fantastic depths beyond Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.

Richard Middleton

Author

This one’s for the hardcore Tolkien reader, but it’s a gem. It’s a collection of academic essays on The History of Middle-earth, (the foundational stories that lie behind Tolkien’s more popular works, some of which made it into The Silmarillion). Flieger and Hostetter are giants of Tolkien academia, and their individual works are well worth seeking out. The essays cover language, theme, structure, mythology, and other areas of literary criticism. As a writer, one in particular struck a chord with me: Hammond’s A Continuing and Evolving Creation. This explores how Tolkien actively worked on his vast…

From Richard's list on The best books on Tolkien that will astonish you with his genius.