Someone told me not to bother if I saw the movie, because I would already know most of the story and the truth about the Ring. I am getting the boxed set with The Hobbit and wondering if I should read it first?
It don't matter. IIRC, Tolkein wrote The Hobbit b/c people who liked LOTR kept asking him to provide some more background to the whole story of Middle Earth and the Hobbits and the Ring. Chronologically it makes sense to read Hobbit first...besides, as someone else said, it's short and fairly simply written--it won't take you long to roll through it.
I would recommend reading The Hobbit first. But it wouldn't be catastrophic if you read LOTR first. I did, and it didn't make either of the books less enjoyable.
Definitely read the Hobbit, the movie doesn't come close to giving the background that it should.
<<
<< IIRC, Tolkein wrote The Hobbit b/c people who liked LOTR kept asking him to provide some more background to the whole story of Middle Earth and the Hobbits and the Ring. >>
No, he wrote the Hobbit long before he wrote LOTR. >>
Wonder where I read that....maybe I'm thinking of the Tom Bombadil book
or perhaps what I read was that he wrote LOTR first and Hobbit in response to reader requests, but neither was in publication, but when they finally were published they were done in order...
I'll have to go find that again.
isildur
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- Jan 3, 2001
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Taken from here.
<snip>
However, according to his own account, one day when he was engaged in the soul-destroying task of marking examination papers, he discovered that one candidate had left one page of an answer-book blank. On this page, moved by who knows what anarchic daemon, he wrote "In a hole in the ground there lived a Hobbit".
In typical Tolkien fashion, he then decided he needed to find out what a Hobbit was, what sort of a hole it lived in, why it lived in a hole, etc. From this investigation grew a tale that he told to his younger children, and even passed round. In 1936 an incomplete typescript of it came into the hands of Susan Dagnall, an employee of the publishing firm of George Allen and Unwin (merged in 1990 with HarperCollins).
She asked Tolkien to finish it, and presented the complete story to Stanley Unwin, the then Chairman of the firm. He tried it out on his 10-year old son Rayner, who wrote an approving report, and it was published as The Hobbit in 1937. It immediately scored a success, and has not been out of children's recommended reading lists ever since. It was so successful that Stanley Unwin asked if he had any more similar material available for publication.
By this time Tolkien had begun to make his Legendarium into what he believed to be a more presentable state, and as he later noted, hints of it had already made their way into The Hobbit. He was now calling the full account Quenta Silmarillion, or Silmarillion for short. He presented some of his "completed" tales to Unwin, who sent them to his reader. The reader's reaction was mixed: dislike of the poetry and praise for the prose (the material was the story of Beren and Lúthien) but the overall decision at the time was that these were not commercially publishable. Unwin tactfully this messge relayed to Tolkien, but asked him again if he was willing to write a sequel to The Hobbit. Tolkien was disappointed at the apparent failure of The Silmarillion, but agreed to take up the challenge of "The New Hobbit".
This soon developed into something much more than a children's story; for the highly complex 16-year history of what became The Lord of the Rings consult the works listed below. Suffice it to say that the now adult Rayner Unwin was deeply involved in the later stages of this opus, dealing magnificently with a dilatory and temperamental author who, at one stage, was offering the whole work to a commercial rival (which rapidly backed off when the scale and nature of the package became apparent). It is thanks to Rayner Unwin's advocacy that we owe the fact that this book was published at all - Andave laituvalmes! His father's firm decided to incur the probable loss of £1,000 for the succès d'estime, and publish it under the title of The Lord of the Rings in three parts during 1954 and 1955, with USA rights going to Houghton Mifflin. It soon became apparent that both author and publishers had greatly underestimated the work's public appeal.
<snip>
<snip>
However, according to his own account, one day when he was engaged in the soul-destroying task of marking examination papers, he discovered that one candidate had left one page of an answer-book blank. On this page, moved by who knows what anarchic daemon, he wrote "In a hole in the ground there lived a Hobbit".
In typical Tolkien fashion, he then decided he needed to find out what a Hobbit was, what sort of a hole it lived in, why it lived in a hole, etc. From this investigation grew a tale that he told to his younger children, and even passed round. In 1936 an incomplete typescript of it came into the hands of Susan Dagnall, an employee of the publishing firm of George Allen and Unwin (merged in 1990 with HarperCollins).
She asked Tolkien to finish it, and presented the complete story to Stanley Unwin, the then Chairman of the firm. He tried it out on his 10-year old son Rayner, who wrote an approving report, and it was published as The Hobbit in 1937. It immediately scored a success, and has not been out of children's recommended reading lists ever since. It was so successful that Stanley Unwin asked if he had any more similar material available for publication.
By this time Tolkien had begun to make his Legendarium into what he believed to be a more presentable state, and as he later noted, hints of it had already made their way into The Hobbit. He was now calling the full account Quenta Silmarillion, or Silmarillion for short. He presented some of his "completed" tales to Unwin, who sent them to his reader. The reader's reaction was mixed: dislike of the poetry and praise for the prose (the material was the story of Beren and Lúthien) but the overall decision at the time was that these were not commercially publishable. Unwin tactfully this messge relayed to Tolkien, but asked him again if he was willing to write a sequel to The Hobbit. Tolkien was disappointed at the apparent failure of The Silmarillion, but agreed to take up the challenge of "The New Hobbit".
This soon developed into something much more than a children's story; for the highly complex 16-year history of what became The Lord of the Rings consult the works listed below. Suffice it to say that the now adult Rayner Unwin was deeply involved in the later stages of this opus, dealing magnificently with a dilatory and temperamental author who, at one stage, was offering the whole work to a commercial rival (which rapidly backed off when the scale and nature of the package became apparent). It is thanks to Rayner Unwin's advocacy that we owe the fact that this book was published at all - Andave laituvalmes! His father's firm decided to incur the probable loss of £1,000 for the succès d'estime, and publish it under the title of The Lord of the Rings in three parts during 1954 and 1955, with USA rights going to Houghton Mifflin. It soon became apparent that both author and publishers had greatly underestimated the work's public appeal.
<snip>
if your so inclined, i would read the hobbit first. it is not crucial reading material to LOTR but it does provide some great background and characterization of not only hobbits, but dwarves and several other creatues inhabiting Middle Earth.
just keep in mind that the hobbit is written more for older children and young teens, unlike LOTR, but it is a quick read and i think you'll enjoy it very much.
just keep in mind that the hobbit is written more for older children and young teens, unlike LOTR, but it is a quick read and i think you'll enjoy it very much.
hobbit, then LOTR.
I recommend following that with the Silmarillion.
Currently I am working through Unfinished tales. Then I might read lost tales volumes 1 & 2, but that might not be necessary for everyone
I recommend following that with the Silmarillion.
Currently I am working through Unfinished tales. Then I might read lost tales volumes 1 & 2, but that might not be necessary for everyone
<< hobbit, then LOTR.
I recommend following that with the Silmarillion.
Currently I am working through Unfinished tales. Then I might read lost tales volumes 1 & 2, but that might not be necessary for everyone >>
Speaking of the Silmarillion, is it difficult to read?
<<
<< hobbit, then LOTR.
I recommend following that with the Silmarillion.
Currently I am working through Unfinished tales. Then I might read lost tales volumes 1 & 2, but that might not be necessary for everyone >>
Speaking of the Silmarillion, is it difficult to read? >>
For the most part it reads a bit like LotR, but it has some parts where he goes 'biblical' with names: while n>0 (n, son of n-1).
Thanks everyone. I will read The Hobbit first. I read it in middle school, but I really don't remember anything about it.
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