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In case anyone else was curious like I was, these have been compiled by Tolkien's son, Christopher Tolkien [1]. Of all the fantasy authors I've read only Georg
by colemannugent 9y ago
In case anyone else was curious like I was, these have been compiled by Tolkien's son, Christopher Tolkien [1].
Of all the fantasy authors I've read only George R.R. Martin of the ASOIAF series spends nearly as much time world-building. Even then, Martin is still a world apart from Tolkien in my opinion.
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Tolkien https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Tolkien
- sorokod 9y agoIs LOTR universe known to be consistent? Are there glitches in chronologies, genealogies , geography, etc...? Is there a (graph) dB of LOTR facts?
- seren 9y agoThe officially published world is consistent. The Hobbit was even slight modified to be consistent with LOTR. However, all the drafts Christopher Tolkien is using have been written at various times, they were rewritten multiple times while the overall world evolved so they are not canon or consistent. What Christopher Tolkien is mostly doing is "adapting" these drafts into the final canon of the Silmarillion.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- quake 9y agoIt's consistent to a point. There have been several revisions of The Hobbit and LOTR over the years, but all were done by JRR himself I believe, and were done for continuity sake and detail. As far as the worldbuilding goes, it's exceptionally consistent. Considering the bulk of all work put out was done by JRR, with Christopher Tolkien doing editing passes during compilation. For instance, the Children of Hurin and The Lay of Beren and Luthien were described in LOTR and the Silmarillion, but were not included largely due to length and incompleteness (the Silmarillion is really just a Cliff's Notes version of the full Legendarium, allegedly). As far as a timeline goes, several are available, but I would try to steer away from most wiki sites, as they have been, in the eyes of some, 'polluted' by the handling of the IP by non-Tolkiens. (ie the movies and games like Shadow of Mordor) Geography of Middle Earth is a somewhat complex topic, but the big deal is that it goes through some drastic changes as part of the Silmarillion called the War of Wrath. Other than that large shift, the geography is very consistent. Tolkien really, really loves his maps.
- krupan 9y agoSmall quibble, The Silmarillion is more of a Bible-esque summary of thousands of years of history than an easy to read Cliff's Notes, lest anyone be surprised by how difficult it is to read when they pick it up :-)
- mhd 9y agoThe whole Hobbit business is severely out of place compared with the rest of the background. It's pastoral 18th century England in a Dark Ages setting.
- OscarCunningham 9y agoOne nice thing is that whenever a character mentions the phase of the moon Tolkien has been careful to get the correct phase for that particular day.
- darepublic 9y ago> Martin is still a world apart from Tolkien in my opinion You mean Martin's books are not the same calibre as one by (JRR | Christopher) Tolkien?
- wanderer2323 9y agoRobert Jordan (Wheel of Time) is rather ahead of George Martin worldbuilding-wise and is probably second after Tolkien in the genre.