Let the party begin!

Seventy-one years ago, The Hobbit was published on September 21, 1937. The enthusiastic throngs of readers are FAR from dwindling now in the third millennium. Thousands of people around the globe are still discovering the thrills of Tolkien's fantasy world, and countless others are re-discovering them as we are doing today. The adventure begins in this charming children's story.

I hope you enjoy reading The Hobbit! ;)

For those of you who wanted a schedule, here are a list of dates to try to hit as we read up to The Silmarillion. As we keep moving, I'll make more to accomodate. EDIT: Okay, I guess this is a bit fast. ;) I'll extend the dates each by about a week; that should be more reasonable. (I tend to read pretty quickly) Also, keep in mind that you can read at whatever pace you feel comfortable with. You don't have to stay on this exact track; I simply wrote it up for people who felt like deadlines would be helpful. This'll probably be about the pace that I'll be posting as well, but it doesn't matter as long as you keep reading.

October:
8 - Finish The Hobbit
24 - Finish The Fellowship of the Ring

November:
6 - Finish The Two Towers
21 - Finish The Return of the King (including the Appendixes)

December:
11 - Finish The Silmarillion

Let me know if you feel like this is going too fast or too slow.

Galu
~Aldawen

Maps of Middle-earth

Besides being a linguist and a writer, Tolkien was also interested in drawing and cartography. He drew multiple maps for Middle-earth, declaring that they were "essential" for the books. He advised his son Christopher that "[i]f you're going to have a complicated story, you must work to a map; otherwise you'll never make a map of it afterwards." With such an intricate narrative as the Lord of the Rings, and such a rich and historical land as Middle-earth, maps are truly an indispensible part of the fantasy.

For my birthday this year, I received The Maps of Tolkien's Middle-Earth by Brian Sibley and John Howe. There are four maps with a glossary of sorts accompanying them. I don't know how many of you may own this, but the artwork is exquisite and certainly does Tolkien justice (in my opinion). They're more like posters than they are actual maps, but the proportions are pretty accurate. Here is the link to find it on amazon.

A book that I haven't been able to look into, but seems interesting is The Atlas of Middle-Earth by Karen Wynn Fonstad. Have any of you seen it, and do you think it'd be worth buying?

EDIT: What a huge response to this! I've ordered it. ;)

I have for my desktop this general map of Middle-earth for quick reference. ;) Its dimensions are 1024x768

The map of the Wilderland is something that you might end up wanting to consult at some point while reading The Hobbit:

Also, here is Thror's map:

Both of these were drawn by Christopher Tolkien.

If any of you have any good-quality images of ME maps please share them! Any links would be welcome. As we keep reading, I'll post more images as they become relevant to where we are (approximately).

I'll work on having some sort of rough schedule for everyone. I know that we'll all be reading at different paces; probably most of us are pretty busy so we can only read so fast. I know it'll help motivate me if I have dates to try to hit, though. You can look for that in an upcoming post.

Cuio vae!

The SAYR

There's a blog that I run called The Society of Avid Young Readers on Homeschoolblogger.com. To kick of the challenge, we'll be reading The Hobbit together. Our discussions will be weekly over a period of probably 3 weeks (as there are 19 chapters). I know that Grace4God and Halfling are both members, so hopefully we'll be seeing them post up on the discussions. ;) Feel free to pop in and see what's going on--even post your own comments (you don't have to be a member).

Also, watch out for a post coming up soon about maps of Middle-earth!

The Quest into Middle-earth

Mae govannen mellon nin!
My name is Sylvia, or Aldawen (meaning tree-maid). Welcome to the Tolkien Reading Quest Blog. This is a challenge to read through Tolkien's works on Middle-earth. It would be impossible to come up with a definitive chronological list of works as Tolkien's writings past The Hobbit and The Trilogy were incredibly scattered and mostly unfinished. However, thanks to JRRT's son, Christopher Tolkien and others, we have a collection of many books through which we can navigate to discover more about the imaginative world of Middle-earth. I've compiled my own list for this reading quest, consisting of:

The Hobbit
The Fellowship of the Ring
The Two Towers
The Return of the King
The Silmarillion
Unfinished Tales
The Children of Hurin
[J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography]
The History of Middle-earth Series:
I. The Book of Lost Tales, Part I
II. The Book of Lost Tales, Part II
III. The Lays of Beleriand
IV. The Shaping of Middle-earth
V. The Lost Road and Other Writings
VI. The Return of the Shadow
VII. The Treason of Isengard
VIII. The War of the Ring
IX. Sauron Defeated
X. Morgoth's Ring
XI. The War of the Jewels
XII. The Peoples of Middle-earth
The Tolkien Reader [containing The Adventures of Tom Bombadil]
The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien

No less have I required of myself to be able to say that I have a "comprehensive Tolkien education!" I've always been a Lord of the Rings buff, but have put off reading most of JRRT.'s posthumous works (other than The Silmarillion) because I wanted to re-read The Trilogy first. So, I decided to have a blog marathon and read as much as I can in order to gain the coveted title of "Tolkien Scholar!"

I've started this blog to give other serious Tolkien enthusiasts like myself a chance to join me. I'll be posting up on my progress and sharing my thoughts and a few tidbits as I plow through this considerable pile of books. I imagine it'll be a lot more fun and probably more motivating if I have some friends along with me doing the same thing. The adventure starts on September 22. "What say you?" Are you willing to come along with me on this mission (...quest...thing)? ;)

Calo anor na ven!

Aldawen