The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum - View Single Post - Are there any pre-1977 readers here?

Saurondil · 08-07-2021, 06:37 PM

I discovered LOTR in 1977.

I wondered about a lot of the references to (what was in fact) the Sil, and accepted them as part of the feigned history of that world. Reading the Sil was a definite bonus, which certainly added to LOTR, much as restoring a familiar painting adds to the painting. But just as a painting need not be restored to be appreciated, I never felt the lack of the Sil while it was still unpublished, while reading LOTR. LOTR was sufficiently complete and self-contained to be enjoyed on its own, without knowledge of The Hobbit, except for what is said of TH in LOTR. The references to the ancient past were mysterious, but they were not distracting, and they did not make themselves felt as things which one had to know about in order to enjoy the book that one was reading. In other words, one could take them, or leave them.

Now that I have read the Sil, I think it is in some respects even better than LOTR. It adds, not so much to LOTR, as to knowledge of the past from which the events in LOTR flow. In that indirect way, it adds greater depth and weight to the events told of in LOTR.

08-07-2021, 06:37 PM	#9
Saurondil Animated Skeleton Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: North-East of the Great Sea Posts: 38	I discovered LOTR in 1977. I wondered about a lot of the references to (what was in fact) the Sil, and accepted them as part of the feigned history of that world. Reading the Sil was a definite bonus, which certainly added to LOTR, much as restoring a familiar painting adds to the painting. But just as a painting need not be restored to be appreciated, I never felt the lack of the Sil while it was still unpublished, while reading LOTR. LOTR was sufficiently complete and self-contained to be enjoyed on its own, without knowledge of The Hobbit, except for what is said of TH in LOTR. The references to the ancient past were mysterious, but they were not distracting, and they did not make themselves felt as things which one had to know about in order to enjoy the book that one was reading. In other words, one could take them, or leave them. Now that I have read the Sil, I think it is in some respects even better than LOTR. It adds, not so much to LOTR, as to knowledge of the past from which the events in LOTR flow. In that indirect way, it adds greater depth and weight to the events told of in LOTR.