Middle-earth Reading Order - Lord of the Rings, Silmarillion, and beyond! | Tolkien 101

i have not tried to re-read the Silmarillion.......the audiobook is great though!

What if I want to read Chronologically?

Amazing video thanks so much this helps out a new reader like myself so much! Question on the History of Middle Earth, what box sets or collected editions are there that is reasonable price to read them all?

where does the fall of numenor fit into this? Or did i miss something?

And, "Debbie". I always love to hear that at the end.

Silmarillion is so good. It's so epic. I'm halfway through my second re-read. I'll do Children of Hurin next ! Thanks for all the goodies man

get the audiobooks narrated by Andy Zerkis. They are phenomenal.

I started with the silmarillion because i wanted to read the books in a chronological format..... safe to say it was one of the dumbest descions of my life theres stories in other books that not only make you need to pause reading to fill in the blanks but also that you would then need to read stories breifly covered in the silmarillion in more detail making it all the more confusing 😂

I didn't think The Silmarillion was that difficult tbh. I think the biggest issues are 1.) the adjustment to not having a main protagonist, which I knew and didn't have much of a Problem with, and 2) all. The. Names! But the index helped me. And when you read it and take your time, it's not a big issue.
I don't want this to sound like a boast, and The Silmarillion is not your regular pulp novel, but I think the difficulty of the Silmarillion is very much overblown and more people should give it a try.

I can understand LOTR being called book of the century, but book of the millennium?

Where does the fall of Numenor fit in this list ?

Starting with The Silmarilion is the way to go, because by the end your brain will be broken and you can start The Hobbit with a childlike mentality as it was meant to be

I can't imagine listening to the Silmarillion, though to each their own of course. I spent as much time in the Index as in the book proper, flipping back and forth & studying the map/family trees.

You do have to have a physical book though. Much like Infinite Jest it doesn't work nearly as well as a digital copy

Can anyone help advise me on where "The Fall of Numenor" is in the lineup, unless I'm just stupid and am missing it somewhere.

Say what you want about marvel or Star Wars or GOT but no world will ever be as large and amazing as tolkiens middle earth and LOTR. Reading the books you can feel the love that Tolkien had for his world and it’s history

I never attempted to read the Silmarillion, however I did Listen to the audio book. But even then I couldn't grasp many of the things that actually happened. And especially the locations of everything.

In fact discovering your videos were actually very helpful in fully understanding certain storylines, geography, characters, etc.

Thanks for this great video, read allreadt Hobbit and Lotr. Now I will contineu this great saga.

Video Idea: There are NO videos of a chronological reading order. With the new Numenor book that came out. Im talking about either Option A: whole books like say start with Silmarilion stop where they begin the Fall of Numenor and the go read the book and get back then read Children of Hurin, then go back to Silmarilion and go back and forth as not to get "spoilers" from Silmarilion. Or Options B: actual back and forth reading like I mentioned in Option A; but adding the back and forth on flashbacks and other writings in The Lord of the Rings books. (I hope I'm making myself clear, sounded straightforward in my head.) Anyway it would be super cool to see a video like that (I understand different editions have different page numbers and so on for option B).

Why tf are u spoiling, mate wtf?

Pls do a review on the History of Middle Earth

14.7.2023 now lets dive into The Middle-Earth

I finish the Silmarillion but it has so many information that I couldnt handle it jajajaj

You are missing from your list the earliest of the token middle earth short stories list. The one he published well before the lord of the rings.

Thanks so much for this video I was always confused to what I have read. I think the silmarillion has Beren and Luthien and other tales in their too. My favorite is the silmarillion I love the Valar and its so cool how gandalf as powerful as he is , is weak compared to morgoth and manwe!!

So I have been a huge Tolkien and CS lewis fan my whole life. Ok can you please tell me if I have read all tolkein. I have read the hobbit, lord of the rings and the silmarillion. Is there anything else for me to read from Tolkien?

Where does The Fall of Numenor fall into this list?

I feel like I’m the only one who started with the silmarillion. I always loved the movies as a kid and wanted more lore on the creation and history of middle-earth and that’s exactly what I got.

I’m trying to dig into the History of Middle earth and I’m struggling a little bit. The book of lost tales, Cabin of Lost Play, has a lot of name and words that’s I’m not sure how to pronounce as they’re not used elsewhere are have unfamiliar characters, ex Æ. Do you have or recommend a video or guide for pronunciation of Tolkien’s words?

Thank you for this list!
Your hard work is greatly appreciated Sir.

Where does fall of numenor fit in this all?

Hey I asked a question about this once! Thanks!

Thank you very, very much for your hard work on this channel. The illustrated story summaries made it easy for me to read The Simillarion. I could picture the stories in my head and this made them easy to comprehend. Tolkien himself I am sure would be thankful for what have done!

“It may very well be the last book we ever see”
Fall of Numenor enters the chat

Yo sup Nerd 🤓 can you encourage me to read Narn I Nin Hurin in unfinished tales after I just read children of hurin & silmarillion what're the major differences?? I love his tale and its epic for sure but it's so fresh in my mind rn n don't wanna burn out tryna force it haha. 😤 🙏

i watch your videos and men of the west and the broken sword im ready for the breaker of dreams

where would you add Fall of Numenor in this list?

Finished reading the Silmarillion for the very first time a few days ago. October last year I read the hobbit and then the Lord of the Rings, also for the first time. Now the silmarillion for me felt like a bible of middle earth. In that it ends with a briefing of the end of the 3rd age. I found it very enjoyable. When I wasn't reading it. I was researching videos from previous chapters and characters. Can't wait to continue reading the rest of Tolkiens books related to Middle Earth. If only I read these when I was a kid.

The Silmarillion, for me was a kinda dry. Still really interesting! But dry. I liken it to a tasty cracker.

this video was very helpful I've first watched lotr in 2020 and I want to start the series to read I've read the hobbit and am now at the fall of numenor and I didn't quite get how to read the series. thx :>

I never found The Silmarillion to be a hard read and it is my favorite books of his by far.

It took me three tries to finish the Fellowship of the Ring (over the span of like 5 years including restarting each time). After finally finishing that, I finished The Two Towers and The Return of the King within 2 years (1 year each). It took me that long because I took breaks, but now after 2 years since getting the Silmarillon I finally started reading it 😆

You know what "In a hole in the ground, there lived a Hobbit", and "Another Galaxy, Another Time" have in common? They are the first lines of works to become some of the most popular, beloved, and influential pieces of fiction of all time! That being: The Tolkien-verse (The Hobbit, Lord of The Rings, Simarillion, etc.); and Star Wars. Yes, Star Wars didn't actually start off with "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away", that was the movie in May, 1977. But 6 months before the movie, the original novelization of A New Hope was released first, and its first line in the prologue was "Another Galaxy, Another Time". Regardless, anyone see similarities between the two lines that began such huge, and beloved franchises?

The silmarillion is my favourite then the children of hurin

And what about The Adventures of Tom Bombadil? Is there something to read in this book?

If the Fall of Numenor was in this list, it would be right after Fall of Gondolin in my opinion.

Read The Hobbit as a child (10/12ish I forgot), I love it but even then I thought I book is pretty challenging, it took me a LONG time to finished compared to my other reading like Harry Potter for example. I re-read it again in middle or high school and it still a bit challenging. I start to read Lord of The Rings in highschool and could never finished it (only read Fellowship of The Rings and half of Two Towers). Now I'm 26 yo and start to re-read The Hobbit again and I found it fairly more easy (and fun!) to read. Blazing thru pages cuz how fun it is! Maybe I'll try LOTR again after I finished The Hobbit :)

Oh me and my dad loves The Hobbit, but both of just can't finished LOTR XD

The Silmarillion is worth the investment. It went from being my least favorite to favorite rather quickly, and ever since reading it I think of Tolkien's entire legendarium in the context of the Silmarillion.

wow spectacular though the books themselves can be long and tedious and often times overwhelming I think I might give it a shot in my older years. I'm 16 right now and I know I'd stop reading after I get to the Silmarillion. how old were you when you read everything middle earth related? So far right now I've only watched the movies and read only a bit of Fellowship of the Ring as far as 'Many Meeting' when Frodo wakes up in Rivendell.

The Silmarillion is a hard read for sure. It's description as "Biblical" is correct. I've yet to read the Akallebeth.