Posted: March 08, 1999 at 10:37:31: by Goodgulf
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: Christopher Tolkien's History of Middle Earth is sort of a "making of". It recounts the evolution of his father's writing, and lays down previously unpublished manuscripts with some background information. Personally, even though I adore Tolkien, I've found his son's series difficult to delve into, which is probably a mistake. It is slow reading, but probably invaluable and exceeding interesting. I might be teaching a continuing studies class at a university in Houston this fall, and I feel that I should read the series beforehand, as I imagine it provides more insight, if not actual information, into Tolkien's mind.That's a good synopsis, though as the "History" series grew larger and larger, I wondered if perhaps Christopher Tolkien shouldn't have titled it, "Every Scrap of Paper My Father Ever Scribbled On That Has Any Bearing On the Lord of the Rings." Some of the drafts seem trivial in their change of content. The books detail (and I do mean DETAIL) every nuance of change in sentence structure, spelling, dates and any other revisions made by his father prior to and even after the publication of the LOTR. As a one time English lit major, I can only be thankful that we don't have access to Shakespeare's early drafts of his plays. Goodgulf
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