Q: In What Order Should J.R.R. Tolkien’s Books Be Read?
ANSWER: There is no one correct answer to this question as the enjoyment of reading is a deeply personal experience. Informal polls among groups of J.R.R. Tolkien fans often produce about an even breakdown between those who believe The Hobbit should be read first and those who believe The Lord of the Rings should be read first. A small percentage suggest that The Silmarillion should be read first. Still, here is a suggestion about the order in which you may want to read J.R.R. Tolkien’s books.
The style of The Hobbit is very different from that of The Lord of the Rings. However, The Hobbit story was composed many years before the story told in The Lord of the Rings and one may find that The Hobbit is a light introduction to the creatures that populate Tolkien’s Middle-earth. However, whereas The Lord of the Rings deliberately seeks to give the reader a “feel” for the world in which the story is set, The Hobbit is written more as a traditional milieu or travel adventure, especially in a mode intended to entertain children.
If you are already reading science fiction and fantasy books intended for adult audiences you may find it easier to read The Lord of the Rings first and then The Hobbit.
Whichever of those two books you read first, Tolkien wrote several companion works that were published after The Lord of the Rings for fans who wanted to learn more about Hobbits and their world. These works have been republished in different collections through the years. You want to look for titles such as “The Adventures of Tom Bombadil” (which is a collection of poems that Tolkien modified or composed to fit into Middle-earth) and The Road Goes Ever On, which is a song collection composed by Donald Swann for some of Tolkien’s in-story songs. This book includes a few notes that provide additional information about Middle-earth.
If you want to know more about the ancient Elvish histories that are alluded to in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings then you should next turn to The Silmarillion. The early part of this book has been compared to The Bible and some readers who are uncomfortable with all the detailed relationships, names, and connections suggest skipping ahead to the beginning of the Elvish histories (“Quenta Silmarillion”), returning to the first part of the book later. The majority of the chapters in The Silmarillion are narrative summaries of historical events and are not typical stories or adventures in the 20th century tradition. Many of these accounts represent a stylized evolution of the old Norse sagas that Tolkien perfected.
The Silmarillion was edited by Christopher Tolkien, eldest son of J.R.R. Tolkien. In subsequent years Christopher published numerous corrections, errata, and anecdotes about the manuscripts he used to compile the published Silmarillion. Christopher freely admitted that some sections of the book were hastily composed in the years following his father’s death and that he made mistakes of judgement which he repudiated but did not feel compelled to correct (by creating a new edition of The Silmaillion). The Silmarillion thus departs from some of the “facts” established in The Lord of the Rings and also misrepresents some of J.R.R. Tolkien’s thinking about how ancient Middle-earth should have been depicted in his literature.
After The Silmarillion you will probably want to read The Children of Hurin. This book was compiled by Christopher Tolkien from fragments of two works his father left behind, but it omits a critical final chapter that was published in The War of the Jewels, the eleventh volume in the 12-volume History of Middle-earth series that Christopher published from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s.
After The Children of Hurin one is left only with the various annotated collections of Tolkien’s story notes, manuscripts, and outlines. Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-earth includes the fullest stories and adventures, along with some commentary from Christopher.
After Unfinished Tales all that remains to be read concerning Middle-earth from the hand of a Tolkien is the 12-volume History of Middle-earth series. The first two volumes of this series published for the first time Tolkien’s so-called “Mythology for England”, the Book of Lost Tales. Tolkien abandoned the English mythology but reused many of the stories to create a Silmarillion mythology that grew and changed over many years. Eventually Tolkien drew several of his children’s stories into the world of the Silmarillion mythology, but only The Hobbit was closely connected with that mythology.
Volumes 3-5 of The History of Middle-earth follow J.R.R. Tolkien’s work on the post-English mythologies that were eventually combined to create a coherent world for The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
Volume 6-9 of The History of Middle-earth have been republished separately as The History of The Lord of the Rings. These books follow J.R.R. Tolkien’s development of the LoTR story but do not include his work on the LoTR appendices.
Volumes 10 and 11 of The History of Middle-earth reveal the majority of the “final” source texts that Christopher Tolkien used to create the published Silmarillion. Throughout all these books Christopher provides extensive commentaries explaining the condition and history of the many manuscripts. In each volume he makes reference to earlier points in the history where he feels he had made a mistake. It is thus a very complex and confusing narrative that has led many readers to misinterpret the significance of some of the Tolkien texts.
The final volume of The History of Middle-earth covers the development of the LoTR appendices and includes additional, previously unpublished material (the most important of which is “The Shibboleth of Feanor”).
Beyond the Tolkien books there are a few notable sources that provide yet more Tolkien manuscripts. The most important of these sources is the two-volume History of the Hobbit, begun by the late Taum Santoski and completed by John Rateliff. Rateliff’s ground-breaking research proved definitively that the original “Hobbit” story was indeed intended to be a children’s adventure set in the canonical world of the early Silmarillion mythology.
Humphrey Carpenter edited The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, which include many detailed comments and explanations by Tolkien of the complex structure of Middle-earth. Some of these letters were composed in response to questions from readers about minutiae that were not included or fully explained in The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings.
Another important source is J.R.R. Tolkien: Artist & Illustrator, edited by Wayne Hammond and Christina Scull, which traces the development of Tolkien’s artistic works, especially those associated with his Silmarillion and Middle-earth stories. The book includes some details and information not previously published. Hammond and Scull also published two companion books for The Lord of the Rings: The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide – Reader’s Guide and The Lord of the Rings: A Reader’s Companion. Neither of these books provides much new information but they are considered useful for interpreting the complex world of Middle-earth by many readers who don’t want to pursue in-depth research of the sources.
Much of the linguistic material associated with Tolkien’s Middle-earth has been published (with permission from the Tolkien Estate) by the newsletter Vinyar Tengwar, edited by Carl Hostetter with assistance from Patrick Wynne, Christopher Gilson, Arden Smith, and Bill Welden. Several of the essays published in Vinyar Tengwar have included many previously unshared details about Middle-earth and its peoples.
A few fan magazines through the years have also published material exclusively shared by J.R.R. Tolkien in the 1960s.
Finally, Jason Fisher recently published J.R.R. Tolkien and the Study of his Sources: Critical Essays, an essay collection that also includes some previously unpublished Tolkien letters. Books that attempt to deconstruct J.R.R. Tolkien’s sources have no authority or standing in representing don’t normally share canonical status with Tolkien’s fiction but this volume is notable because of its use of previously unpublished Tolkien material.
There are, however, references to a Valinor-like land in some of Tolkien’s other children’s stories, such as Roverandom and Smith of Wootton Major. Although not considered “canonical” with respect to the Middle-earth mythology, these references to Valinor or Faerie are part of Tolkien’s broader Legendarium, which touches many stories. Again, it’s not possible to say in what order J.R.R. Tolkien’s books should read for everyone, but hopefully you’ll find this list helpful when you ask “which tolkien book do I read first?”.
See Also:
Browsing the Compleat Middle-earth Library
Where Can You Learn about the History of Arda?
Was the Tale the “Aldudénië” Ever Told?
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Have you read our other Tolkien and Middle-earth Questions and Answers articles?
Michael, thank you for mentioning my book, Tolkien and the Study of His Sources: Critical Essays, even if you did do so in a rather back-handed way. That’s all right; we don’t all have to agree, though I do hope you will read the book. I’d be happy to hear any further thoughts you may have when you do.
In addition to extracts from previously unpublished letters, there are also a couple of quotes from Tolkien’s unpublished lecture notes on the legends of the Goths. And you might be interested to know that your name comes up in my book as well.
Jason, I didn’t mean for it to sound in any way backhanded. It’s just that your book is quite different in nature from the rest of the books in the list. I apologize for the apparent misunderstanding. I’ll modify the text of the article.
Thanks, Michael. I didn’t mean to suggest you should change your post, but I appreciate the consideration anyway.
I see that you have elsewhere written that my book “has received mixed reviews so far” (sf-fandom.com). Can you point me in the direction of any reviews you have read which could be characterized as negative, or even mixed? My book is certainly not impervious to criticism — far from it! — but the only reviews I have seen thus far have all been overwhelmingly positive. If you can point out any others to me, I would be very grateful. Thanks!
I’ve spent the past few weeks looking at Tolkien-related blogs and forums and to be honest I have no idea of what led me to suggest there were mixed reviews.
If anyone reading this blog or my comments elsewhere has any doubt about where I stand on the book (of which I have only read some excerpts), I trust Jason’s judgement. I think the book is fine and makes some interesting points. I look forwarding to reading the full book.