Hello all!
First and foremost, I’d like to announce the winners of our Great Tales Giveaway!
Congratulations to Michael L and Patrick Q! I’ve contacted them individually to get their sets of boxed sets of Tolkien’s Great Tales sent to them. Thanks to all who indicated your interest in the giveaway!
Also a special shout-out and thank you also to LGGByron, Carol I, Mark D, Lisanne, Rajan N, Erica B, Rachel K, and Peggy B for joining the Extended Edition and joining our read along! So excited to have each one of you!
The Great Tales Never End
There’s a moment in The Two Towers I’ve been thinking about for the past few weeks as I’ve been preparing for reading through Tolkien’s Great Tales together: after climbing the stairs of Cirith Ungol, Sam and Frodo have a conversation about their adventure so far that ignites a moment of realization for Sam, all because of the Great Tales of Middle-earth.
‘I don’t like anything here at all,’ says Frodo to Sam, ‘step or stone, breath or bone. Earth, air and water all seem accursed. But so our path is laid.’
Sam replies to Frodo:
‘Yes, that’s so….And we shouldn’t be here at all, if we’d known more about it before we started. But I suppose it’s often that way. The brave things in the old tales and songs, Mr. Frodo: adventures, as I used to call them. I used to think that they were things the wonderful folk of the stories went out and looked for, because they wanted them, because they were exciting and life was a bit dull, a kind of a sport, as you might say. But that’s not the way of it with the tales that really mattered, or the ones that stay in the mind. Folk seem to have been just landed in them, usually – their paths were laid that way, as you put it. But I expect they had lots of chances, like us, of turning back, only they didn’t. And if they had, we shouldn’t know, because they’d have been forgotten. We hear about those as just went on – and not all to a good end, mind you; at least not to what folk inside a story and not outside it call a good end. You know, coming home, and finding things all right, though not quite the same – like old Mr. Bilbo. But those aren’t always the best tales to hear, though they may be the best tales to get landed in! I wonder what sort of a tale we’ve fallen into?’
‘I wonder,’ said Frodo. ‘But I don’t know. And that’s the way of a real tale. Take any one that you’re fond of. You may know, or guess, what kind of a tale it is, happy-ending or sad-ending, but the people in it don’t know. And you don’t want them to.’
‘No, sir, of course not. Beren now, he never thought he was going to get that Silmaril from the Iron Crown in Thangorodrim, and yet he did, and that was a worse place and a blacker danger than ours. But that’s a long tale, of course, and goes on past the happiness and into grief and beyond it – and the Silmaril went on and came to Eärendil. And why, sir, I never thought of that before! We’ve got – you’ve got some of the light of it in that star-glass that the Lady gave you! Why, to think of it, we’re in the same tale still! It’s going on. Don’t the great tales never end?’
Sam has heard some of the tales from The Silmarillion (one place we know he heard at least a portion of this story is from Strider in Fellowship Book I, Chapter 9, “A Knife in the Dark”) and because he knows the key details of Beren and Lúthien he is able to understand some of the significance of the phial that Galadrial gave to Frodo in Lothlórien.
Frodo and Sam’s journey is a continuation of the same Great Tale that began long ago under the light of the Two Trees of Valinor…the same light that shone in the Silmarils and now shines in Galadriel’s phial.
In just under two weeks, we will be embarking on a journey through the Great Tales of Middle-earth. These stories — Beren and Lúthien, The Children of Húrin, and The Fall of Gondolin — are all fundamental links in the story of The Silmarillion and comprise much of the key background of The Lord of the Rings.
Knowing these stories sheds a new light on the events of The Lord of the Rings, unlocking depths of meaning and significance that otherwise would remain buried in the text. Like Sam did, we’ll become aware of the place of The Lord of the Rings within the larger tale that Tolkien is telling.
I’m eagerly counting down the days until we begin, and I couldn’t be more excited to set off on this adventure together!
A Few More Details:
We will begin reading The Children of Hurin on September 22nd. I’m still finalizing the overall schedule, but I anticipate that the tale will take us all the way through October. Next up will be Beren and Lúthien, which will likely take the remainder of 2025, and we will pick up with The Fall of Gondolin in January of the New Year.
Concerned that you won’t be able to keep up with it all? Don’t worry, not only is this something you can participate in at your own pace: I’ll also be giving varying levels of potential involvement for each of the three books.
Beren and Lúthien and The Fall of Gondolin can be a bit challenging, due to how they are written (tracing the development of Tolkien’s versions of the tales and not as one complete narrative) but for all three books I will provide three levels of involvement: Hobbit, Elf, and Wizard. So you can choose how you participate!For the ‘Hobbit’ Level, I’ll be suggesting you read the shorter versions of these three tales as found in three chapters of The Silmarillion.
For the ‘Elf’ Level, I’ll provide suggested reading schedules through the three books
For the ‘Wizard’ Level, I’ll aim give you even more good stuff that you can read when you finish the other levels
Hopefully that means that everyone will find just the right level that they can participate!
It’s not too late to join us! The 22% off sale on paid subscriptions is good through the start of our read-along, 9/22! If you’d like to embark with us, hit the button below for more details:
P.s. — can’t join the Extended Edition right now because of your financial situation but still desperately want to participate in the discussions and get the whole experience? Shoot me an email at jrrjokien@jrrjokien.com and let’s work something out to ensure you can be part of it!
Appendices
Scientists have published images of a ‘blazar’ (essentially a huge black hole at the center of a galaxy) which they say reminds them of the Eye of Sauron
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