2015 Blogging Goals for The History of Middle-earth

In 2014 I thought I would read and blog my way through The History of Middle-earth (HoME) series. I fulfilled one of my goals. A quick review of this blog will indicate it wasn't the blogging goal. I did finish the HoME and completed The History of the Hobbit and The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien as well. It was a ton of reading and subsequently I wasn't able to keep up with blogging. Another factor was I quickly realized I could not blog about HoME in the same way as I had with other Middle-earth stories (see 2013).

I found the HoME a far more laborious read than say The Silmarillion. Last year my goal was to pick up bits and pieces from Tolkien's unfinished or unused materials and massage them into my chronological reading schedule. I still hope to do so; I have copious notes from HoME to compare with Tolkien's published Middle-earth writings. Of course to do so would likely take much editorial liberties that, I suspect, many would disagree with. But, I feel picking and choosing from Tolkien's own writings would be a more worthwhile endeavor than adding my own creative liberties to the text. But that's just my humble opinion.

Alas, when it comes to writing I've always been a bit verbose. So what's going on with my blogging journey in 2015, isn't that why we are here now? My goal is to discuss what I learned while reading HoME, how Professor's methods struck me, characters and story thread's that I wish would have been fleshed out, glimpses of deeper meanings behind the whole mythology of Middle-earth.

The process of mythology and myth-making is what really struck me as I read. I marvel at how Tolkien was able to pick up on little fragments of history (often a mysterious word--he was a philologist after all!) and fill in the gaps or create his own imagined history. Even how he viewed his own work as myth. The idea that myths and legends were passed through history by oral story telling. As with any story telling, all the more so those stories that are passed on from generation to generation, bits and pieces may be left out or embellished along the way. Hence he could tell the same story from different perspectives (Elf legend from Man's perspective) or in different modes (prose verses poem), or in different words. After all, through three full Ages of Middle-earth the core of the legend would remain intact even if the details changed slightly.

Honestly, I had not thought about myth in such way before. It explains the somewhat maddening task of trying to organize the work chronologically. But as I reflected on the HoME the brilliance of Tolkien once again overwhelmed me.

This month I will focus on The Book of Lost Tales, Vols. I & II. As Christopher Tolkien explains: "The Book of Lost Tales was begun by my father in 1916-17 during the First War, when he was 25 years old, and left incomplete several years later" (The Book of Lost Tales, Volume 1, p. 8). Approximately 100 years ago in the mind of (likely) a bored soldier began a story that would impact millions and millions to come. Quite amazing. The germ of the legends the Valar, Elves & Men, Gondolin, and others began here.