What About the Other Tolkien Books? In Conclusion There is no real fantastic white and black way to read the Lord of the Rings Canon, based on if you are a massive Tolkien fan, or just getting into the books for the first time. Aug 5, How to Read the Lord of the Rings Series. May 20, Apr 27, Apr 20, Dec 5, Return of the King Book Review.
Dec 3, Lord of the Rings Series 4k Extended Edition. Jun 10, The Two Tower Book Review. Sep 26, AM. Both LotR and The Hobbit are stand-alone novels and don't need each other to be properly understood.
However, The Hobbit is a great book and a perfect introduction to Middle-earth and its main characters. I recommend reading it before The Lord of the Rings. I couldn't put it down even tho I had Four Children to care for. I have been a fan ever since. I regret I never wrote to TRR before he died. My husband once played Gandalf on stage and did a great jobLOTR is like being inside all the great fairy stories, I read them when I feel depressed and need to be lifted.
I read The Hobbit after and only then loved it. Sep 29, AM. I'd go for the Hobbit first, just to get your feet wet in the world of middle earth. You don't have to, but it will enhance the reading of LOTR in a big way. Oct 03, AM. There And Back Again will give you a little more of the backstory that might help you to understand what's going on in the trilogy. A few of the characters appear in both works.
I would hesitate to say that it's mandatory to read it first, but it would certainly make LoTR better. Dec 01, PM. So happy i found this discussion! I have been wanting to read LotR and didn't know if i should read the Hobbit first. I will defiantly be picking up the Hobbit monday morning when the library opens. I'm one of those readers who missed out on reading Tolkien as a child even though I saw the Cartoons. When I finally got around to reading the books, I had a hard time getting my hands on the professor's books from the library, as they were always--and I do mean--always rented out.
I got tired of waiting to read the books in literary order, so I decided to grab the only book that was available to me and that was The Silmarillion. Fortunately, I'm a fan of mythology and classic literature, so it made my introduction to Tolkien much easier than the average reader.
Only afterwards, did I go on to read The Return of the King. Having read the books in this haphazard order, I highly recommend readers to start with The Hobbit. As others have mentioned, it's the most reader-friendly of the Middle-Earth books and will set up the storyline for "Rings" for you.
If you read Rings first, you'll miss some of the references to The Hobbit and lose some of the impact of the cyclic nature of the tales. Dec 02, AM.
If you want to start right at the very beginning then you should read The Silmarillion. That way you'll know how Middle Earth was created and all but its a long complicated history. The Hobbit is a lot easier to read and its more fun too. It would be better to read it before reading LOTR because that way you'd understand Hobbits and Dwarves better and it provides the perfect back story to the trilogy.
Dec 03, PM. The Hobbit has always been a fun read for me. I started to reread over Thanksgiving and I know I am farther along than the first movie. Read it now before the movie put images in your head. I thoroughly enjoyed The Silmarillion, but having already read the other books and loved them, helped my in navigating my way through The Silmarillion tremendously.
It's a great book, but I would never suggest that someone new to Tolkien read it before getting comfortable with his world and style.
The Silmarillion is my all-time favorite book, but I wouldn't dare recommend anyone to start their education of Tolkien with it. Aside from the sheer size of the book, its contents would scare away most readers who aren't familiar with mythic tales.
The Hobbit is by no means crucial to your enjoyment of the trilogy. The parts of it that matter to rest of the story are more than adequately summarized later on. The Hobbit is not a "bonus feature" of the Lord of the Rings. It's a separated — but still related — story. About your question if reading the Lord of the Rings is sufficient If you want to just read LoTR, yes, then it's sufficient. I think whether one wants to read it before or not is up to everyone, but if you haven't started reading anything yet, why not proceeding in a chronological manner?
Start from The hobbit and then proceed reading The Lord of the Rings. You don't say how old you are. I read the Hobbit first because I was 12 and it was easier to read.
I didn't manage the Lord of the Rings trilogy until I was The Hobbit used to be described as a children's book, though I suspect it would fall into the "young adult" category these days, but much like the Harry Potter books it's a fun read for adults as well. So I'd say read The Hobbit first. However, if you read The Hobbit first, you will have a better understanding of some parts that happen in LOTR while they happen, instead of posting here and asking about them while you are reading.
Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. Is it advisable to read The Hobbit before reading the Lord of the Rings trilogy? Ask Question. Asked 9 years, 8 months ago. Active 3 years, 10 months ago. Later, at the battle of the Hornburg Gamling refers to half-orcs and goblin-men, and subsequently Aragorn also mentions half-orcs at Isengard.
These remarks, if Gamling and Aragorn are correct, imply that Orcs had similar reproductive qualities to mankind. This reveals that under Morgoth Men could be made to mate with Orcs, producing larger and more cunning breeds.
Saruman rediscovered this and did the same resulting in larger cunning Men-orcs and treacherous and vile Orc-men. Incidentally, during the course of this essay Tolkien reveals that Orcs were not immortal, on the contrary they were short-lived in comparison with men of higher race, such as the Edain p. But in stories that seldom if ever see the Orcs except as soldiers of armies in the service of the evil lords we naturally would not learn much about their lives. Not much was known. However, Tolkien was aware of this question at an early stage, especially after reading the first film storyline for The Lord of the Rings in He knew for the strength of the story that they should be used sparingly.
The Eagles already had a prescribed role, so they were not always at the beck and call of Gandalf. On a mission in which secrecy was a key element employing a giant Eagle to carry the ring is not the most sensible option.
Every reader is different. If you are a child of 9 then the first book should definitely be The Hobbit. The Silmarillion is quite a dense read, and should probably be tackled a little later. Even this is a bit prescriptive. One reader might particularly enjoy epic poetry, so they may prefer to read The Lays of Beleriand much earlier than someone who dislikes verse. The most obvious order in which to read the Middle-earth books is probably to follow that in which the books were published.
This is:. They should be read in any order the reader chooses, but most of all they should be enjoyed. Most of all persevere because you will be rewarded for all your hard work with some marvellous epic tales!
There are parts of the languages worked out quite thoroughly, but not a complete grammar. Tolkien himself said that he did not have the urge to converse in Elvish, which was just as well because he did not make enough to converse in, except perhaps about stars, trees and death.
Some language enthusiasts write short poems in elvish for much the same reason. He made many different dialects of Elvish, and kept changing them this is what he liked doing. We have also in our Peter Roe Booklet series a concise Sindarin word list compiled by Ken Chaij, which can be useful as a reference for someone who has already read The Lord of the Rings and its Appendices. Tolkien regarded his invented languages as a pleasure, a study and an art all his life. They were his own work, drawn from knowledge that he gradually built up over 70 years.
He did not approach his art as an obsession or a battlefield. A man of strong opinions, he nevertheless strove to establish peace and reconciliation in his academic roles. He aimed to understand in depth, and respected the work of others. Tolkien, A Biography. This should be supplemented by The Letters of J. Tolkien by Humphrey Carpenter and Christopher Tolkien. Have a look at our Books about Tolkien page for a more exhaustive list of suggestions. You can also contact our Education Secretary at education tolkiensociety.
Five titles are available from Penguin Books with thorough introductions under the byline Legends from the Ancient North :. These contain late nineteenth-century texts which may have been known to Tolkien.
Several are also illustrated by the most popular contemporary illustrations of the time, and all are introduced by fantasy author Cecilia Dart-Thornton. The full list is:. This is a difficult question. Tolkien was a good writer, and he understood how language works from the inside out. He wrote about fantastical beings in such detail, and placed his characters in believable settings and situations that makes his narratives acceptable to almost all open-minded imaginative readers.
He provides a lot of background to what he writes, people find that the story of The Lord of the Rings echoes all sorts of dilemmas that belong to the present day as well as the world of the imagination. Tolkien won few awards during his lifetime. Awards for books were not so commonplace as they are today and, even today, awards rarely spot a classic in the making.
Letters of J. Tolkien , Letter It is not true, as has sometimes been suggested, that the book was obscure until it was released in US paperback.
The Silmarillion won the Locus Award for
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