I loved the appendices! Loved it to bits! They gave the world of Middle-earth a feel of epic grandeur and made it felt as if that world really existed and it progressed from what could pass of as its late classical era of antiquity to an High Medival medieval age. If the general concensus in LMP's thread on the writer's conceit was that LoTR was intended as a historical accord, then the appendices gave the book its gravitas.
Don't hate me! But must admit rather shamefully that I had a better time reading the appendices than the last parts of LoTR proper after the fall Barad Dur. Must be the history lover (or monster
) in me.