So as to prevent the Wheel of Time thread from being further derailed, I'm making a Tolkien thread.
You probably know the man from Lord of the Rings. He also wrote some other stuff, much of which he never published. His son Christopher, however, has been releasing books about Tolkien's writings over the years however. You can learn a ton about the man's writing process and his mythology through them.
What's really cool, though, is there is a new JRRT book coming out this Spring,
The Children of Hurin. Parts of it have been published in The Silmarillion and other works, but this is going to be the full tale, told (supposedly) entirely in JRRT's own words. This is pretty exciting.
So this is a thread to talk about that, or anything else Tolkien. Preferably the books though.
Posts
Haven't read Tolkien in years, but this is exactly the thing to get me reading him again. The version of the Turin story in Unfinished Tales was one of the best things he wrote.
dream a little dream or you could live a little dream
sleep forever if you wish to be a dreamer
What era is this story from?
Any famous elves in it?
I always liked this one.
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First Age, Hurin was the human who Morgoth chained to the top of a mountain. His son was Turin, who went around killing things with a Black Sword and accidentally married his sister. It's a tragedy; if I recall correctly, most of the major characters off themselves or each other.
My guess is that this will combine everything about Hurin and his kids from all these other sources, though if something new makes its way into this new release, I'll be quite pleasantly surprised.
That right there was my problem with the Silmarillion, sure it read like the Bible: Awesome Version, but it still read like the Bible. The stories seemed really good, but I just couldn't get past the writing style.
He also had a Shroud, right? Or am I thinking of something else?
...
Yeah, I'm looking forward to this.
I completely agree there, every time I read that story I cry. Although I can't quite remember, I think I like the Book of Lost Tales version the best but it's been a while, or maybe that's just where I first read about him.
I think it's kinda a shame people miss out on a lot of Tolkien's best stuff. People tend to do Hobbit->LotR and then Silmarillion, which promptly puts them off reading anything by him ever again.
*excitement!*
I don't remember any shroud. I vaguely remember some sort of helmet.
Check your Bible for that reference. Or, you know, wikipedia.
I guess I should finally get around to reading the Silmarillion. And finishing The Return of the King, I guess.
I'm a terrible excuse for a geek.
Although Tuor had a nifty cloak from Ulmo. That's kind of like a shroud, right?
Except that the whole god vs. rebel angel theme wasn't even invented until the late second temple period (after the Maccabean revolt in Judea) long after the entire old testiment (with the possible exception of portions of the book of Daniel) were written.
What does that have to do with my post? Because I'm pretty sure that what you just described still comes before Tolkien. :P
There's a lexicon, I had to use it a lot when I was reading the Silmarillion. XD I'm glad my dad has most of Tolkien's books. ^^
What I would recommend is family tree diagrams where possible. The biggest problem I had was not knowing who was associated with whom and why.
I'm so fucking excited for this.
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I literally jumped out of my chair and punched the air. I then called up my best freind and told him. He told me I needed to get laid.
But Tolkien man.
Also hello CK how are you doing?
I wish I could get as excited as you about... well anything really. It must feel pretty good to be that excited.
It's just now hitting me
edit: oh my god
edit edit: oh my
edit edit edit: oh praise the valar
There is some heavy Tolkien love
But I loved the Silmarillion.
Which brand of Tolkien should I expect from yon book?
I'd say that you should expect more of the Silmarillion brand than anything else (edit: goddammit, Elendil!)
So this is great timing.