Inderjit Sanghera:
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1. Feminism in M-E (Aldarion and Erendis.) I’m not a woman, but I do sympathise, in some ways with non-radical feminism. And it made me laugh.
2. More stories on Finwe and his house! (Home 4,5, 10, 11,12, esp. the Shibboleth of Feanor)
3. ‘Tal-Elmar’ -shows what life may have been like for the Haradrim.
4. ‘Bilbo was getting married’ Originally Bilbo was leaving the Shire to get married! Thank god for Tolkien changing that!
5. HoME 4 shows us early geographical conceptions of Arda.
6. Great psychological discussion in ‘Myths Transformed and Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth’
7. More stories on the first age and al the ages of the Valar.
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Excellent points. I particularly agree with you about Tal-Elmar; it offers a very unusual perspective on Middle-earth and the Numenoreans. And there's nothing wrong with sympathizing with feminism - I'm not a woman either, but I would call myself a feminist.
Lindil:
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It will create a subtle but distinct shift in the Silmarillion to not have the twins Amrod and Amras and to not have the 'seven' sons of feanor, but the Six.
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Very much agreed. I look forward to it.
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By the way Aiwendil, would it not make more sense to place UT between HoME 11 and 12 than at the begining?
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Hmmm. Perhaps. Of course, there would also be problems with that. For example, it would result in reading 'The Wanderings of Hurin' prior to the 'Narn i Chin Hurin', which might be kind of strange. Perhaps it would go better between 10 and 11. Then again, assuming one has already read the published
Silmarillion, he or she would already have read things out of chronological order. That leads to an interesting thought: suppose a new reader started with HoMe before the Silmarillion, and read
everything in the order in which it was written. It boggles the mind.
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I suppose you read every etymological entry also!!
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Yes, but then I also subscribe to Elfling.
Cudae:
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In any case, here's some good reasons to read it English:
1. More information than you ever wanted to know about the First Age.
2. Awesome portrayal of women in the "Of Lembas" essay (Peoples of Middle-Earth aka volume 12)
3. Great information for an essay on how Tolkien's writings have changed the genre of fantasy in everything from surrealism to Arthurian legends. (I actually wrote this and got an A)
4. Background information that explains some character quirks. (This is mostly for the Silm. and UT but the Histories are good too.)
5. Great information for an essay on how Elves evolved from impish little things in the hills to the majestic beings of some modern fantasy writers. (Wrote this one too, didn't come out quite so well, but was interesting nonetheless.)
and finally
6. You'll realize how uncomplicated your life really is.
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Agreed on all points. While we're on the subject of essays, HoMe helped me with one on the synchronicity of 'pagan' and Catholic religion in Tolkien's works.