Start date

The read along will be starting on December 1st 2019, two weeks from the day this is posted. That should give everyone time to order any books they need to follow along, for those who don't check the sub regularly to see it, and for us to quickly finish polishing up the last couple of discussion posts. (If you want to lend a hand at any point please shoot us a PM.)

Structure of the read-along

There will be a post every weekend describing that week’s reading. The post will include the following sections.

• A “Before you read” intro where we explain what the work is, and when it was written, often quoting or paraphrasing from Christopher Tolkien's commentary. We'll also give any necessary background knowledge that we feel one should know before reading the material. It will be okay to come into this read-along having never read a Tolkien book before with only some basic familiarity with the story of The Lord of the Rings.

• An “After you read” summary which recounts the main points of what happened and shares some additional insights.

• Resources that we think are helpful.

• Some discussion questions to get things started.

Schedule and Post Index

• November 24th: Resources

Part One: The Fall of Númenor - aka the main second age story

We’ll begin by reading through a few primary texts concerning the fall of Númenor, Tolkien's central narrative of the Second Age. We'll look at it as told in the LotR appendices, as told in the Silmarillion's Akallabêth, a summary of events during the Second Age outside of Númenor, and then we will wrap up with one of Tolkien's letters where he summarizes the tale and highlights the important themes of the Age.

• December 1st: LotR: Appendices A and B, (just the second age parts)
• December 8th: Silm: Akallabêth
• December 15th: Silm: Of the Rings of Power / Letter 131 To Milton Waldman (just the second age parts)

Part Two: Other Second Age stories

In the second part we’ll expand to other stories and essays Tolkien wrote about the Second Age, as published in Unfinished Tales and The Peoples of Middle-earth. Most of these are pretty rough and unfinished, but they show a tremendous range, from "Aldarion and Erendis: The Mariner's Wife" about the wife of one one of the early Númenórean explorers to "Tal-Elmar", which looks at the Númenórean colonization of Middle-earth from the point of view of the indigenous inhabitants.

• December 22nd: UT: A Description of the Island of Númenor / The Line of Elros
• December 29th: UT: Aldarion and Erendis
• January 5th: UT: The History of Galadriel and Celeborn
• January 12th: UT: The History of Galadriel and Celeborn - Appendixes
• January 19th: HoMe XII: Tal-Elmar
• January 26th: HoMe XII: Of Dwarves and Men / Glorfindel (just the second age parts)

Part Three: Tolkien's journey to Númenor

Finally in the last part, we'll trace the wild journey that Tolkien made as he struggled to find a place to tell the story of Númenor. We'll see how he tries doing it in his abandoned time-travel book "The Lost Road", and then in "The Notion Club Papers", a somewhat autobiographical account of a bunch of Oxford dons dreaming about Númenor, before deciding to set it directly in his legendarium proper.

• February 2nd: HoMe V: The Fall of Númenor
• February 9th: HoMe V: The Lost Road - The opening chapters
• February 16th: HoMe V: The Lost Road - The Numenorean chapters
• February 23rd: HoMe V: The Lost Road - The unwritten chapters
• March 1st: HoMe IX: The Notion Club Papers - Intro/forward
• March 8th: HoMe IX: The Notion Club Papers - Part One
• March 15th: HoMe IX: The Notion Club Papers - Part Two
• March 22nd: HoMe IX: The Notion Club Papers - Major Divergences
• March 29th: HoMe IX: The Drowning of Anadûnê - The third version of The Fall of Númenor / The original text of The Drowning of Anadûnê
• April 5th: HoMe IX: The Drowning of Anadûnê - The second text of The Drowning of Anadûnê
• April 12th: HoMe IX: The Drowning of Anadûnê - The final form of The Drowning of Anadûnê / The theory of the work
• April 19th: HoMe IX: The Drowning of Anadûnê - Lowdham's Report on the Adunaic Language
• April 26th: HoMe XII: The History of the Akallabêth
• May 3rd: HoMe XII: The Tale of Years of the Second Age / The Heirs of Elendil / The Making of Appendix A (just the second age parts)

What books are we reading

Note: ebooks, audiobooks, and foreign edition books are often missing crucial maps and charts that are meant to accompany the text. When a reading contains images we will link scans in that week's post, but it's always better to have it in the book itself.

1. The Lord of the Rings

What is this book about? This is Tolkien's best known book. It tells the epic tale of the destruction of the One Ring, the fall of Sauron, and the end of the Third Age. In the back of the book are some appendices with a lot of information on various things including some history of the Numenorean kingdoms of the second and third ages.

How much of this book are we reading? Very little. We're just reading two short passages from the appendices that concern the second age.

What else does this book have? It has The Lord of the Rings, which is kind of an important Tolkien book.

Which edition should I get? Make sure to get one that includes the appendices, as our readings are only from there. If you're getting a three volume edition you only need The Return of the King. Be wary of ebooks, audiobooks, and foreign edition books, as those may leave out the appendices.

2. The Silmarillion

What is this book about? This book gives you an overview of the entire legendarium from the creation story until the end of the first age and then has two shorter works appended to the back that give a much briefer overview of the second age and third ages.

How much of this book are we reading? A sizable but still small chunk. We're going to read most of the two tales in the back of the book. The "Akallabêth", which is Tolkien's narrative of the fall of Númenor, and "Of the Rings of Power" which tells about the history of the rings. We're also going to read part of a letter that's been published in the preface of the book in most editions.

What else does this book have? The main part of the book is the Quenta Silmarillion, the history of the First Age. We're not touching that.

Which edition should I get? You should try getting the second edition, which has the Letter #131 printed in the intro. Older editions, illustrated editions, audiobooks, ebooks, and foreign editions may not have it. The Letter is also included in Letters of JRR Tolkien, so if you already own that book you don't have to worry about which edition to get.

3. Unfinished Tales

What is this book about? This book is a collection of various Tolkien unfinished stories and essays from all three ages.

How much of this book are we reading? We will be reading roughly 100 pages which is about 25% of the book. We're doing the entire "Part Two - The Second Age".

What else does this book have? The book has two long stories about the first age (both of which have been published elsewhere), some stories about the third age, both parallel to the books (Aragorn hunting Gollum, Nazgul hunting the ring) and set long before the books (founding of Rohan). It also has some essays about things like the wizards and the Palantiri.

Which edition should I get? The parts that we are covering include some maps and diagrams. Audiobooks, ebooks, and foreign edition books may be missing them. Otherwise the edition doesn't matter.

4. History of Middle-earth volume V - The Lost Road and Other Writings

What is this book about? This book completes Christopher Tolkien's five volume attempt to document the early Silmarillion material and includes a lot of Tolkien's writings from around 1937.

How much of this book are we reading? We will be reading roughly 100 pages which is about 25% of the book. We're doing the entire "Part One - The Fall of Numenor and the Lost Road".

What else does this book have? This book includes a complete account of all of the phase of Tolkien's first age writings from right before he put them aside to write The Lord of the Rings. It also includes the Etymologies, one of the most important documents for Tolkien linguistics.

Which edition should I get? The edition does not matter.

5. History of Middle-earth volume IX - Sauron Defeated

What is this book about? This book finishes Christopher's 4-volume account of the history of the writing of The Lord of the Rings and then covers The Notion Club Papers and The Drowning of Anadune, two works involving Númenor that were written around the same time.

How much of this book are we reading? We are reading roughly 300 pages which is around two thirds of this volume. We will be reading "Part Two - The Notion Club Papers" and "Part Three - The Drowning of Anadûnê".

What else does this book have? This book shows the drafts for book six of The Lord of the Rings and includes both versions of Tolkien's epilogue which was cut from the published book.

Which edition should I get? There is an edition titled "The End of the Third Age" (also included in box sets with HoMe 6-8) that only includes the parts of the book that we are not doing. Do not get that edition. Other than that, the only concern is that there are some facsimiles of a handful of the original manuscript pages included in some editions, and it's preferred (but not essential) if you get one that has them.

6. History of Middle-earth volume XII - The Peoples of Middle-earth

What is this book about? This book covers the writing of the Lord of the Rings Appendices and a ton of miscellaneous writings from late in Tolkien's life.

How much of this book are we reading? We are reading roughly 100 pages which is around one fifth of the book. We will be reading various bits from parts 1, 2, and 4.

What else does this book have? A ton of more stuff about how the rest of the appendices were written, and some interesting other writings, including "The New Shadow", Tolkien's abandoned sequel to The Lord of the Rings.

Which edition should I get? The edition does not matter. There are plenty of charts in the book, but none of them are in the sections that we are reading.