The Sixth Set of Stories
THE MODERN AGE
(length is in our future; began
in our year 1914)
Chapter Twenty: Discovering
Middle-earth and How It Relates to Our World
THE STORIES:
The History of Middle Earth Vol. 5: The
Lost Road and Other Writings: Part 1 Chapter III: The Lost Road (I think a beautiful way to end this
journey, about how the long-ago stories were discovered; actually starts about
1903 CE. It's fascinating how so much mythology could be woven together.)
OTHER FASCINATING FACTS:
The History of Middle Earth Vol. 9: Sauron
Defeated: Part Three: see about how the entire group of Middle-earth
stories tie into our geography and ordinary history and into other mythology: v's
pp397-399, 409, 410's note 2.
Just a note that Tolkien said he
"compiled" from Bilbo's written memoirs. (The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, p17 2nd paragraph.)
Re so-called Inklings: The History
of Middle Earth Vol. 7: The Treason of
Isengard: Chapter V, p. 85m. (Note there is a CORRECTION for this page in
The History of Middle Earth Vol. 8: The War
of the Ring: Foreword, x bottom-xi.) Also The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, p36 last.
In case you wondered, Tolkien said
that King Arthur stories are not in his universe. (The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, p145). (Also, not his Leaf by Niggle
and his Farmer Giles stories.)
About Tolkien's ancestry: The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, p37b and
54 1st. You can trace him starting at https://www.geni.com/people/J-R-R-Tolkien/6000000008428906004
!
INTERESTING RETELLING(S):
Re elves' being seen in modern
times: The History of Middle Earth Vol. 7: The
Treason of Isengard: Chapter XIV, 281m.
Letters
from Father Christmas, re nasty orcs (called goblins as Tolkien did in some
contexts) and brilliant elves and interesting bears who lived near the
1930s-1940s North Pole. One learns that Father Xmas, as he signs himself
sometimes, is the brother of The Green Man and the son of Grandfather Yule, and
also that he's directly related to JRR Tolkien himself!
ONLY IF you're really interested in
Numenor and probably also like Inkling-type groups, see The History of Middle
Earth Vol. 9: Sauron Defeated: Parts
Two and Three except as noted above. Or just see the appropriate parts of them
IF you're into languages. I myself did not enjoy these, the only bits of this
whole plan I did not.
An interesting playscript fragment
about early "modern" men in The History of Middle Earth Vol. 7: The Treason of Isengard: Chapter V, pp.
106m-107m.
INTERESTING MANUSCRIPT
NOTES:
Why these accounts are so confused!
in The History of Middle Earth Vol. 9: Sauron
Defeated: Part Three p406.
OTHER MEDIA YOU MIGHT WANT
TO ENJOY AT THIS POINT:
√ In Dreams (From The Lord of the Rings) Joshua Messick Stillness 7
of 11