[Huinesoron]

Originally Posted by Lhunardawen

So did the story progress any further while the world is on lockdown?

Alas, it has not. I find it hard to be appropriately off-the-cuff when I'm not driving at the same time, so "Elves" (as in, "Can we do Elves?") is on hold while we're stuck at home.

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

You could do a "let me tell you a bit about Gondolin" backstory. It doesn't even matter when you tell it, cause it's disentangled from the other Silm stories. Aredhel just does her thing sometime before H&H arrive.

This is the plan, now that you suggested it. We'll do Princess Aredhel and the Spooky Man, lead into Grubby Mortals Wind Up In Gondolin, then jump over to The Long Grim Tale of Turin and Tuor, Or, Grubby Mortals In Gondolin 2.0. Y'know... someday.

Originally Posted by Rune Son of Bjarne

At what age did you guys start introducing them them to Tolkien's Legendarium?
Did you start with the Hobbit (which is my least favorite) or did you jump straight into the fun stuff?

I tried reading The Hobbit in a different car setting (waiting to pick up my wife after work). We got... nearly to Gollum, I think? It wasn't a great hit, which is a shame. That would have been, oh, a year and a bit ago? So they were 8 and 6.

Originally Posted by Estelyn Telcontar

I've told them some of the events of LotR and bits of Sil, but we have entered the realm of fan fiction. When they stay with me, they demand Bilbo stories of the Hobbit's life as a child. One of the girls suggested I write those down and publish them, but of course copyright laws would prohibit that - and the fact that the Shire looks and feels an awful lot like their own modern life!

Excellent! This sounds like the sort of thing that would happen in the Shire itself - tales of Mad Baggins and all.

Originally Posted by Thinlómien

This is pretty amazing, and I daresay it requires quite a good memory and storytelling skills from you, Huine. I'm really curious what your kids will think of the Silm when they are old enough to read it themselves.

So am I. I know I had repeatedly read LotR by the time I was 12 or so (that would be 1998), but I think I didn't lay hands on the Silm until after the movies came out. In fact, my personal copy of LotR (as opposed to either of my parents') and my original Silm were under matching covers, so I must have gotten them fairly close together.

Listening to your story, I'm wondering whether my children would be up for LotR now (or at least, once we've finished our current storybook). I shall have to ponder the point. Original Silm, I'm afraid, they'd probably find rather dull; I read them Rosemary Sutcliff's Arthurian retelling and had to liven the language up in that, let alone Silm.

Originally Posted by Thinlómien

But like I said, I love how you've put such a personal spin on The Silmarillion and basically made your family's own branch of The Legendarium. I can't help thinking The Professor would greatly approve.

It's been fun! I've heard them playing at Luthien a time or two, too... I occasionally think of the way Tolkien started hearing back versions of Errantry that had been orally transmitted through multiple iterations, and the only word that was universally unchanged was "sigaldry".

hS