Hello friends, I hope you had a good week!

I suppose late is better than never right?! I truly meant to post this yesterday, but I’ve been a day behind all week (which is super annoying!) I even missed putting my recycling out!

Anywho…

We are closing in on the 25th of March which happens to be one of my favourite days of the year Tolkien reading day. For those who don’t know March 25th was the date Tolkien chose as the date that Frodo completed his quest and the Ring was destroyed (as set out in The Lord Of The Rings). Every year the Tolkien society (who organise the whole thing) encourage us Tolkien nerds to get together and read our favourite parts of the books/write poetry/dress up as hobbits etc…

…this years theme is fellowship and community which is rather lovely and I always find there to be quite a lot of fellowship from the community itself, I’ve taken part in many a read-along, art swaps or whole days chatting with other Tolkien nerds at various conventions.

On a side note this is the tenth Fleeting Thought (how cool is that!), if you’re reading one of my blog posts for the first time (hi/friendly wave) and if your back and happy to read more of my ramblings (massive hug and a beaming smile!!). 

Now, most of my wordy fleeting thought posts are nature based, but this time I wanted to try something a bit different and thought I’d share one of my 2025 projects with you. 

Basically I’m releasing my inner nerdy bookworm.

So here goes…

Also there may be things considered spoilers ahead and plot synopsises. Which I’ve marked in italic, ya know, incase you want to avoid them.

I love reading and am known to devour books, in 2024 I re-read all 41 of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels, which was fun (the man was a genius!) and for this year I’ve decided to set myself a reading goal of J.R.R Tolkien and his wonderful works set in Middle Earth. Most people would agree that the books should be read in publication order (Hobbit, LotR and the Silmarillion) but I’ve decided to try and read them in roughly ‘age’ order (first age, second age and finally third age). I suppose its little easier as I’ve already read all the books at least once so I know what happens fairly well. I just want to see how they flow together.

With that in mind, my reading order is as follows – 

The Slimarillion (4/1-21/1)

Beren and Lúthien (29/1-10/2)

The children of Húrin (15/2-3/3) 

The fall of Gondolin (19/3-)

The fall of Numenor 

The Hobbit

The Lord of the Rings

*Unfinished tales* (I’m reading the relevant chapters to each book)

It’s not quite as many books as my Pratchett read-through but Tolkien’s books are bigger!

I’ve been captivated by Middle Earth since I was a very young child, I permanently borrowed my grandfathers copy of LotR, it was a beautiful book and it took like four months for me to get through…I’d actually forgotten what happened at the start by the time I reached the end and then it wasn’t long before the movies started coming out in cinema! Because its on such thin paper and is such a special thing I don’t actually read that particular copy anymore and have wrapped it in cellophane to keep it safe.

My copy of The Hobbit was bought by my mum about eighteen or so years ago from a coffee/bookshop near to Loch-ness in Scotland, one of my every year Autumn traditions is to read it (its being used to press some autumn leaves at the moment! Although its beginning to look a little sad around the edges. And then I’ve bought pretty much every other Tolkien book known to man!

I adore these newer hardback editions with the amazing illustrations by Alan Lee. Quite a few of Tolkiens books have been dutifully edited by his son Christopher and then posthumously released. 

The Silmarillion is quite tough to get through on the first go, its basically the book that starts at the very creation of Tolkien’s world, it spans thousands of years and there are many, many hard to pronounce names and places but its really worth persevering with. 

Its also quite hard to try and write a synopsis for…as its less of a novel and more of a creation of mythology.

SPOILERS AHEAD!! (highlight the blank space!!)

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It begins with the creation of the universe by Eru (chief god), and the shaping of Arda with help from the Valar (other gods). As always in these stories one (Morgoth) turns evil and tries to corrupt everything before being captured and taken back to Valinor.

Because of Morgoth, elves are allow to settle in the land of the gods (Valinor) and the Silmarils (three powerful/perfect jewels) are made by the Elf-smith Feanor – Morgoth feigning friendship sets elf against elf, steals the Silmarils and destroys the trees of light for good measure, the elves are banned from going after Morgoth on pain of exile but they go anyway and the havoc and ruin these items created goes on for thousands of years. Theres plenty of battles and death and very little hope as Morgoth uses lies and hatred to spread fear and treachery.

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Within The Silmarillion there are short versions of ‘the three great tales’ Beren and Lúthien, The Children of Húrin and The Fall of Gondolin all of which are beautiful stories of heroism and tragedy theres some great stuff written about Númenor and the forging of the great Rings of Power which basically sets up all the stories in Middle Earth.

The first age basically sucked, hardly anything positive happens and the whole thing is a drawn out war of attrition that the elves and men always seem to pretty much lose.

For the three great tales I definitely recommend reading The Silmarillion first, just to gauge the lay of the land.

Beren and Luthien is quite a jumpy and slightly distorted book, its less like a story and more of a series of essays but I actually quite enjoyed rediscovering the changes Tolkien made to the tale. I particularly like that Tolkien at one point describes the Noldorian elves as gnomes…thank goodness he moved away from that idea all I could picture were the type that live in the garden (normally with a comical attitude and a fishing rod).

SPOILERS AHEAD!! (highlight the blank space!!)

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It centres around the love of Beren (a mortal man) and Lúthien (an immortal elf) and their quest to capture one of the Silmarils stolen by Morgoth as her father demands it as a dowry (thinking Beren will chicken out and leave his daughter alone).

Beren is sent alone and meets King Finrod who along with a band of merry-elves agree to join him meanwhile Lúthien is locked in a tree house where she uses magic to grow her hair super long and makes a nice hairy cloak. She enchants it so that whatever her hair-clock touches falls into a deep sleep and escapes.

Theres a singing battle, Beren and Finrod are captured, Lúthien is befriended by a giant talking dog and saves Beren, together they go though various struggles sneak into Morgoth’s place where Lúthien lulls him to sleep by singing and dancing. Beren steals one of the Silmarils from Morgoth’s crown, but loses his hand to a giant wolf outside the gates.

Eventually they end up fighting that giant wolf again and Beren dies, so Lúthien devastated begs the Valar to bring him back to life and gives up her immortality.

For a while they get to live happily ever after.

~

If you’re a great lover of Greek tragedy look no further than The Children Of Húrin. I recommend it to everyone even though its pretty much the most depressing book I’ve ever read, but its got everything.

SPOILERS AHEAD!! (highlight the blank space!!)

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Basically Húrin is a king and elf-friend, married to a beatiful woman Morwen, he goes off gets captured by Morgoth (Sauron’s boss) and gets his whole family cursed with tragedy, his son Túrin is sent to live with elves for safe keeping but he rebels and pretty much ruins the not just lives of his acquaintances but his closest friends as well. He later marries and impregnates his sister (although they’re both under a dragon spell so it’s not intentional) she later commits suicide, Túrin also commits suicide and his sword starts talking.

Then poor old Húrin is released from captivity and goes to where his children are buried, finds his wife who’s been aimlessly wandering in the woods and she dies in his arms.

And none of them live happily ever after!

~

Theres also plenty of fighting, an evil dragon and an elf-witch. In my opinion its like the Oddessy but in Middle Earth. Its a powerful book and I really recommend it as long as you don’t expect good things to happen.

Excitingly we’re not even in April yet and I’m already on my fourth book The Fall Of Gondolin. My plan is to write another post like this later in the year focusing on the next few books.

If you’ve never thought of reading Lord of the Rings or any of Tolkien’s other books because it seems like such a daunting thing, I really recommend giving them a go, pick one (or however many) andmake it a summer project because Tolkien’s books really are some of the most amazing works of literature and are totally captivating. I pretty much read all the Middle Earth books I can get my hands on – the first time I read The Fall of Numenor, it only took about 5 days as I couldn’t put it down.

Well, that just about concludes this post…I really hope you enjoyed it! Are you a fan of the professor? I’d love to know. As always thank you so much for reading my friends, and have a lovely week!