Question about "History of Middle-Earth"

[Eru]

I wanted to know what is inside "History of Middle-Earth". A very, very, very, very, short summary of all the twelve books, because only the first and the second one are also in german. And i have heard that they are more difficulty to read than "The Lord of the Rings". I am Austrain, you know.

[Tar-Ancalimë]

hi Eru! welcome to the forums...

well to the best of my knowledge they are merely commentaries on TLotR, TH, and the Sil... just little bits and pieces about ME, written mostly by Tolkien's son with small snatches of Tolkien's own writing in between. Yes, They are more difficult, at least for me, as I started the first one and then gave up lol....

As for summaries, I can't help you, as I said, I never read them :huh:

[Finrod Felagund]

I have the Lost Tales I and II and the last 3 HoME. VERY difficult to read. They are merely compilations and commentaries of and on the elder Tolkien's work. There are often several versions of the same story that are contradictory. They are good reference books about a piece of fiction but not good pieces of fiction.

[Losshiroth]

Well, they aren't intended to be read as fiction novels, they are like referece books. I own the first one, shadow of the past, and have read several of the others, and I quite liked them. They've got stuff like first drafts, notes, etc.

[Catz]

they are good reference books IF you keep in mind that CT has a habit of slanting things towards that way HE thinks that things should have gone, rather than just presenting the information......with that in mind then......and the fact that they often present several different and contradictory versions of the same piece, then yes.........as reference materials they are interesting.......but by no means the last word.......not a "read" in the usual sense tho
oh and the titles give you as much of a summary as you can really get....theres a list of the titles in this thread (http://www.warofthering.net/forums/vbulletin225/upload/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2241)
:catz: