# Your Favorite Work by Tolkien?



## BeornTheBear (Feb 19, 2012)

This one shall have a poll!


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## Daeorod (Feb 21, 2012)

Hehehe.... poll sounds cool when u say it


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## BeornTheBear (Feb 21, 2012)

Daeorod said:


> Hehehe.... poll sounds cool when u say it


 
Hehe. I agree


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## Bucky (Feb 22, 2012)

Somebody voted for _Farmer Giles of Ham_ or _Leaf by Niggle_?


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## Starbrow (Mar 10, 2012)

I love "Leaf by Niggle," although it's not my favorite. If I could put second favorite work in, it would be non-Middle Earth works.


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## Prince of Cats (Mar 10, 2012)

Bucky said:


> Somebody voted for _Farmer Giles of Ham_ or _Leaf by Niggle_?



That was probably me






If I can count Tales from the Perilous Realm as one book, then yes - that's probably my favorite work of Tolkien. Farmer Giles is great fun, but Leaf by Niggle is brilliant - though the great stories of ME shouldn't be dimmed themselves by this comparison. I love LOTR, but Leaf by Niggle is a story not about ME (Middle Earth) but MEself (Prince of Cats) :*D I also find On Fairy Stories and Smith of Wotton Major particularly relevant to this passion we share here


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## Maiden_of Harad (Dec 30, 2012)

Out of all the works of Tolkien that I have read, the Silmarillion has the most compelling characters, gripping themes that seize your mind, the most tragic tales, the most evil villains ( including THAT elf ), and the most facinating collection of stories. Plus, it's the background to all the other Middle-Eath tales.
My second favorite would be Smith of Wotton-Major. Such a charming tale enveloped in a sense of enthralling wonder and beauty.
LOTR and The Hobbit are great, too.


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## Andreth (Dec 30, 2012)

History of Middle Earth definitely  I think it gaves to the Silmarillion much more depth... go figure why Christopher Tolkien left so much information out from the published work :*confused:


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## Ancalagon (Dec 30, 2012)

I went with Unfinished Tales for no other reason that the story of Tuor and his coming to Gondolin which I love more than any other Tolkien tale. 



> Then there was a noise of thunder, and lightning flared over the sea; and Tuor beheld Ulmo standing among the waves as a tower of silver flickering with darting flames; and he cried against the wind:
> "I go, Lord! Yet now my heart yearneth rather to the Sea."
> And thereupon Ulmo lifted up a mighty horn, and blew upon it a single great note, to which the roaring of the storm was but a wind-flaw upon a lake. And as he heard that note, and was encompassed by it, and filled with it, it seemed to Tuor that the coasts of Middle-earth vanished, and he surveyed all the waters of the world in a great vision: from the veins of the lands to the mouths of the rivers, and from the strands and estuaries out into the deep. The Great Sea he saw through its unquiet regions teeming with strange forms, even to its lightless depths, in which amid the everlasting darkness there echoed voices terrible to mortal ears. Its measureless plains he surveyed with the swift sight of the Valar, lying windless under the eye of Anar, or glittering under the horned Moon, or lifted in hills of wrath that broke upon the Shadowy Isles," until remote upon the edge of sight, and beyond the count of leagues, he glimpsed a mountain, rising beyond his mind's reach into a shining cloud, and at its feet a long surf glimmering. And even as he strained to hear the sound of those far waves, and to see clearer that distant light, the note ended, and he stood beneath the thunder of the storm, and lightning many-branched rent asunder the heavens above him. And Ulmo was gone, and the sea was in tumult, as the wild waves of Ossë rode against the walls of Nevrast.



Beautiful.


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## Eledhwen (Dec 30, 2012)

This is difficult to answer. I eventually voted Silmarillion because, although I read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings first, enjoying them immensely, The Silmarillion encapsulates the foundation of the entire Legendarium. After I had read The Silmarillion, The Hobbit and LotR became so much richer to read; because remarks and events that had seemed to be small asides in the tale took on new and deeper significance. 

I wish I had read The Silmarillion first, because then all the things I noticed on re-reading would have blossomed in the first reading along with the main story, instead of remaining buds; dormant until awakened by my reading with a deeper knowledge and understanding.


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## Erestor Arcamen (Dec 30, 2012)

Eledhwen said:


> This is difficult to answer. I eventually voted Silmarillion because, although I read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings first, enjoying them immensely, The Silmarillion encapsulates the foundation of the entire Legendarium. After I had read The Silmarillion, The Hobbit and LotR became so much richer to read; because remarks and events that had seemed to be small asides in the tale took on new and deeper significance.



Agree with this completely. Didn't Tolkien say one time that he created the languages first and then needed to create a world to house them? I find that amazing. Also, little bit of a Spoiler, but I love that PJ kept the Gondolin reference in LOTR when Elrond's examining Gandalf and Thorin's swords in The Hobbit.





> "what I think is a primary ‘fact’ about my work, that it is all of a piece, and fundamentally linguistic in inspiration. [. . .] It is not a ‘hobby’, in the sense of something quite different from one’s work, taken up as a relief-outlet. The invention of languages is the foundation. The ‘stories’ were made rather to provide a world for the languages than the reverse. To me a name comes ﬁrst and the story follows. I should have preferred to write in ‘Elvish’. But, of course, such a work as _The Lord of the Rings has been edited and only as much ‘language’ has been left in as I thought would be stomached by readers. (I now ﬁnd that many would have liked more.) [. . .] It is to me, anyway, largely an essay in ‘linguistic aesthetic’, as I sometimes say to people who ask me ‘what is it all about’."
> __The Letters of J.R.R.Tolkien, pp. 219–220_


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## Sulimo (Jan 1, 2013)

Almost chose Hurin, but went with the Silmarillion. Its been my "favorite book" for about 13 yrs now. I can't abandon it.


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