From the Bookshelf of J.R.R. Tolkien…

The Lays of Beleriand (The History of Middle-Earth, #3)

J.R.R. Tolkien,

Christopher Tolkien (Editor)

Start date: January 1, 2016

Finish date: March 31, 2016

Discussion: Group Reads

Why we're reading this: Continuing our journey through The History of Middle-earth...
[close] Continuing our journey through The History of Middle-earth...

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Group Reads

* Group Read September 2021-January 2022 (No Spoilers)
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last updated Jan 31, 2022 11:38AM

Group Read January-March 2015: The Silmarillion
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last updated Apr 18, 2023 01:00PM

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What Members Thought

Mar 09, 2016 Beverly rated it liked it

Shelves: af-fantasy, anf-800-poetry

I loved Tolkien's Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, but I found this book very challenging. Christopher Tolkien has put together some poetic stories that his father worked on but never finished. "The Lay of the Children of Hurin" was difficult to read because of the often odd syntax. The "Lay of Leithian" was easier to follow because it was composed in rhyming couplets, and therefore flowed more smoothly. In "Lethien," a man named Beren meets and falls in love with the elf king's daughter, Luthien, ...more

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Dec 19, 2013 Lisa rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: tolkien, reviewed, fantasy

The Lays of Beleriand is the third volume in the History of Middle-earth series which details the drafts and notes Tolkien made in his lifetime about the bodies of work that has become known as The Silmarillion and Lord of the Rings. This volume focuses on Tolkien's attempts to write his cycle of myths as "lays" (alliterative verse, aka a form of poetry used in Old Norse and Anglo-Saxon).

The main tales focused on in The Lays of Beleriand are "The Children of Húrin" and "The Tale of Lúthien and B ...more

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