Reading order
New Tolkien fans are usually puzzled with the complexity of the works and the best order in which to read the works. The most famous works take place late in the legendarium's history, with hints to the backstory. The stories that comprise the background are relatively complex and have no obvious links to the most famous works. Furthemore, the stories-chapters-essays overlap each another, or take place simultaneously, differing only in the extensiveness of the details.
Hardcore fans read the works more than once. For example one can read The Lord of the Rings first, then The Hobbit and sometime later The Lord of the Rings again, in light of the backstory seen in The Hobbit. However, it should be noted that although The Hobbit is a book written to stand alone, literarily speaking it is the prequel, or better yet, "Part 1" of The Lord of the Rings, because it tells how the all-important One Ring enters the events of The Lord of the Rings, and in fact the two main characters of The Hobbit, Bilbo and Gandolf, are important players in The Lord of the Rings precisely because their deeds in The Hobbit lead to the events of The Lord of the Rings. Confused yet? It gets even better. There are three books to The Lord of the Rings, and it was not intended that they should each stand alone. Tolkien only wrote one book called The Lord of the Rings, but his publisher believed that no one would buy such an enormous book and insisted it be broken into three parts:
- 1) The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
- 2) The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
- 3) The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
- These are not three individual books, they are one novel broken into three tomes merely for the sake of preventing a strain on the reader's biceps.
There can be various approaches:
Publication history
This is one of the most famous and popular approaches.
- The Hobbit
- People can start with The Hobbit, as an easy and lighthearted fantasy story, which Tolkien wrote first, without having much backstory or historical details in mind.
- The Lord of the Rings
- The Lord of the Rings is the natural sequel of The Hobbit and completes the story. However it has many allusions to the greater world and ancient history of Arda.
- Published after Tolkien's death, it provides the cosmogony and earlier stories of Arda. It can give the reader insight about the world they already know and shed a lot of light on just what in the world they are talking about.
- These books provide additional and extensive details about several aspects of the greater History.
Rough chronological order
A less common approach is to read the saga in chronologically accurate order
- The Silmarillion
The Silmarillion can be a complex and tedious reading for someone not already acquainted with Tolkien, however it describes the beginnings of his world.
- The Children of Húrin
This book gives an extended version of the story of Túrin, featured as a part of the Silmarillion
- Unfinished Tales
Parts of this book give insight about Númenor, the Second Age (mentioned in the Silmarillion) and early Third Age, with elements that will play their role in the Lord of the Rings.
- The Hobbit
Although only indirectly related to the Silmarillion, it is the next big story in the world history of Arda.
- The Lord of the Rings
The conclusion of the story of the Hobbit as well as things mentioned in the Silmarillion (like Sauron and the Line of Númenorean Kings); Tolkien's fabulous stories of Arda end here.
Exact chronological order
External links
- Chronological Tolkien discusses the issue and also provides a calculator to find the exact reading order.
- The order to read Tolkien's books by David Bratman