The Road Goes Ever On

Hello and happy New Year! And of course, being January 3rd, don't forget to raise your glass to the Professor tonight at 9pm!

I am super excited to continue my blog through Middle-earth in 2014. As I alluded to in my last post of 2013 I will undergo my biggest Tolkien reading challenge yet: The Histories of Middle-earth. 12 volumes detailing Tolkien's extensive work on his mythology which he began around 1915 and worked on until his death in 1973. But the 12 volumes works out nicely for me--one for each month.

My plan is this: to update this blog once a week (check on Friday's!), unless of course inspiration strikes me, and highlight what I am learning in my readings. I am super excited to see if there are any bits and pieces I may be able to add to the chronological reading schedule I've been working on. Also I want learn more about the process of writing this epic fantasy which has brought so much enjoyment to me personally. With that being said, I have little idea what to expect.

The Histories seem to be a little more academic in spots (with many references to several other biographies and books concerning Tolkien) as Christopher Tolkien traces the etymology of various names and places throughout the writing process. And it seems that his father was apt to beginning writing when time and inspiration allowed--and wrote on whatever and wherever that was! I cannot imagine the time the son put into pouring through the father's notes trying to determine when things were written, what as "finalized", so on and so forth.

Alas, I digress. I have just begun The Book of Lost Tales, Part I, which at roughly 297 pages is the (ahem) shortest of all the Histories. One of Tolkien's earliest writings was a story about The Cottage of Lost Play. At this point Elves were Gnomes (that takes some getting used to!) and the names were much different. But even so one can see the beginnings of what would later be published works of Tolkien. It was interesting to see the inspiration for Tolkien's writing: his longing for an English mythology, the country-side where he or his future wife, Edith, resided.

It's clear, at the beginning at least, this Middle-earth was to be directly connected to England, sort of a mythology of pre-history. Given that construction I'm debating if I can at all incorporate some of the readings about the Cottage into a chronological read. The story, in part, is a man (Eriol) who travels to Tol Eressëa (initially conceived by Tolkien to become England) and meets some Gnomes (Elves) who foster children of Men. Eriol is taken in by the scene and reveals in his family histories one of his relations talked of such a place in a dream-like fashion. Is this place real? Is it a dream? I am not quite sure yet but depending on which perspective I land on it may make for a fitting read.

Accompanying this story is a poem: The Little House of Lost Play Mar Vanwa Tyaliéva:
"We wandered shyly hand in hand, 
small footprints in the golden sand, 
and gathered pearls and shells in pails,
while all about the nightingales
were singing in the trees" (p. 30, The Book of Lost Tales, Part I).

Hopefully in the next week I'll continue to make headway. In the words of Bilbo Baggins: the road goes ever on...