I have listened to the majority of the CDs in this collection and what a terrific experience it has been. Rob Inglis' voice is absolutely perfect for the story. All the characters come to life from this single narrator. What's more, the songs and poems in the book are sung and read brilliantly. The passage where Aragorn and Legolas sing to the western, southern, and northern winds for the passing of Boromir has been done exceptionaly well.

As noted by others, there are some minor word substitutions and differences in the edition being read from but that in no way diminishes this elegant work. The story is timeless, the reading masterful. It's almost as if the Rob Inglis' voice has been tailor made for this type of story. The imagery of the book really comes alive with the reading. One passage sticks in my mind. It's the one where the Fellowship is travelling down Anduin and Legolas steps out of the boat to shoot down the Nazgul and his flying steed. The reading and imagery are so vivid that the entire scene just builds an image in the mind. Few books and readings have achieved such a high level.

Undoubtedly others will find their own favorite moments. That's what the combination of literary and narrative masters provides. At the very worse this work will provide hours of enjoyment. No Tolkien fan should be without this exceptional effort.

Super fantastic! I have read the "Lord of the Rings" (LotR) trilogy eight times. I think that Peter Jackson's movies are the best to day. I think that the 13-hour BBC production is the best radio play to date. Although this 55-hour 46-CD set is the only unabridged audio book for LotR, I doubt that it could be surpassed.

Inglis does an excellent job at articulation and dramatization, giving different intonation and mannerisms to different characters. It really is as if you were reading the book.

The recording is very good. The CDs performed well. The packaging is excellent, in a cardboard case, with three cardboard boxes, each with three liners that can hold up to four CDs each.

One thing that I liked about this is that each track is around three minutes long. This is great for when you have to stop and pick up later -- especially if your portable CD player does not remember the track!

Another thing that I liked was the lack of dynamic range. Yes, the lack of it. The loudness is very even across a wine range of topics. This is especially important when listening in the car or with headphones, typically in noisy environment. With some other products, I was constantly turning the volume up and down. Not with this set. However, the performance of the reading did not suffer at all because of this. That is great!

This should be in every library of LotR fans, especially those that travel a lot and want to listen while on the go. Highly recommended!

Perhaps you will not believe me when I tell you that I have listened to this recorded book upwards of twenty times, but I have! I love J.R.R. Tolkien's masterpiece, but when Rob adds his incredible powers of voice and rythem the book wraps you up in its spell. The voices he gives each character are distinct and lifelike; Frodo, Sam, Gandalf, and Aragorn are all portrayed to the life. Every character is so real you can almost see them.

Rob Inglis sings each of the songs (which pack the books with life and color) with a nice, rich voice that does them justice. He makes the tense moments tense, the beautiful moments beautiful, and the tragic moments tragic (I still cry when Gandalf falls in Moria)...may seem alot to spend...but this audio book is worth EVERY penny. I know the books almost by heart now...

Both stories are much briefer than The Hobbit, but both are also much deeper than The Hobbit.

If I were to select three examples of the essential Tolkien for an English class, a discussion group, or reflective reading on a mountain-top, they would be

- Smith of Wootton Major

- Farmer Giles of Ham

- Frodo & Sam's visit with Tom Bombadil (in "The Fellowship of the Ring")

"The Hobbit" is fun, and I love it. "The Lord of the Rings" is vast and wonderful.

But these three are vivid, focused tales that touch the heart, arouse wonder, and stay just beyond the mind's reach.

And they stay with you for a lifetime.

Two of the three can be found in this book.

Farmer Giles of Hamm is a hilarious tale in the spirit of the lighter passages of The Hobbit. The Little Kingdom of this story has much in common with the Shire where Bilbo Baggins wandered. It should be read for the shear pleasure of the journey.

Smith Of Wooten Major is something else entirely. Though once again we travel to an ancient England that has much in common with Middle Earth, here we find a tale for grown ups. Though most reviewers say that the tale is about what the gift of fantasy adds to the life of those who receive it, I believe that it really speaks of the rewards that come to those who choose to live life on a deeper level. What makes the book difficult to describe is that in story form Tolkien paints a picture or an illustration of the faith and the grace that were such an integral part of who he was as a person. Travelling with him you feel that you have encountered something more deep and wonderful than words can tell. The journey is not for everyone, but for those of you who take it and begin to glimps its meaning, like Smith's magic star, it will become an integral part of who you are.

. . .from the pen of the Master.

These two short stories by JRR Tolkien represent a branching out from the corpus of Middle-Earth writings for which he is most famous.

"Farmer Giles of Ham" is a wonderful, lighthearted tale of a farmer's adventures with a stupid giant, a not overbold dragon, and a greedy king. The story is obstensibly set in Britain of 1300 years ago, but comes replete with delightful (and deliberate) anachronisims which only add humor to the story.

"Smith of Wooten Major" is a story of a different sort entirely. It represents one of the last pieces of writing produced in final form by the Master, and unlike most of Tolkien's writing, has the feel of allegory to it. (Yes, I know that Tolkien despised allegory, preferring the term applicability. Perhaps analogy would be more appropriate here -- let the reader understand.) Regardless, the story represents the heart of the Master and his love for the world of Faerie. I fear to describe the story more deeply, lest its spell be broken.

Anyhow, this little volume is a "must-read" for any true lover of Tolkien -- and for all travellers in the realm of Faerie.

These books captured my imagination like no other books ever have. Tolkien's vision is astounding. His ability to use words to paint such an enormous and vivid picture is without equal. I cannot get enough of Middle Earth. Although these are fantasy novels, everything is so real. There is no way I can do justice to Tolkien's masterpeice with these few words. Middle Earth is a place where childhood dreams, nightmares, and fantasies all come true in bright, vivid colors.

I've just finished reading the Lord Of The Rings for the second time. My first reading of it was about three years ago. Amazingly, (and I think this says something of the quality of the story itself) I would say I enjoyed it even more this second time around. It is so sweeping and wide that it still thrills, never losing any of its unpredictablity even if one is already familiar with the ending. Tolkien's Middle Earth is so immense, such an entire "sub-creation" (as the author himself referred to it)... complete with its own creatures, history, languages, and breathtaking landscapes... I believe it is without parallel in fantasy literature of any era. This book is myth, rather than allegory. By that I mean that there is not really meant to be any strict one-to-one correspondence to specifically theological, political, or psychological aspects of our own "real" world. No-one in Middle-Earth is named Mr. Worldly-Wiseman or Mr. Evangelist or Mr. Charity. No, here we meet people and things like Tom Bombadil, Gollum or Treebeard... hobbits, elves, dwarves, ents, orcs and yes, even Men. And yet, as with great allegorical works all of these characters gravitate to one of two poles or extremes that can be seen as "good" or "evil". The Lord of The Rings is truly about a grandiose struggle between the FORCES of good and evil. In Chapter 2 of Book 2 we read that "Good and ill have not changed... nor are they one thing among Elves and Dwarves and another among Men." An interesting thing about the book is how Tolkien's brand of "dualism" very subtly points to the reality that ultimate Good or Evil is something yet greater (or beyond) any of the characters that try to perpetrate either of them. This is most clear in a statement by Gandalf in Book 3 during "The Last Debate" where he says "Other evils there are that may come; for Sauron is himself but a servant or emissary. Yet it is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule." If Sauron (who throughout the book appears as the evil to be reckoned with) is "but a servant or emissary"... then we must consider the question... an emissary of what? Or whom? And similarly, if all of the "good" that the Fellowship of The Ring strives to achieve will yet not "master all of the tides of the world"... then where is this locus of ULTIMATE good? Gandalf makes it clear that their own "goodness" is limited to the years wherein they are set. At the end of The Lord of The Rings, the future yet belongs to the good AND the evil that lie beyond the powers of any of the characters that have played a part in the present conflict. Maybe we are supposed to wonder... who IS the Lord of the rings? Almost 50 years ago C.S. Lewis, a friend of Tolkien's, said of The Lord of The Rings: "Such a book has of course its predestined readers, even now more numerous and more critical than is always realised. To them a reviewer need say little, except that here are beauties which pierce like swords or burn like cold iron; here is a book that will break your heart." And I too, could go on forever about it, but my best suggestion is for you to quit reading this, and just read the book. Or re-read it! The best review would be terribly inadequate. Tolkien's Middle-Earth is as impossible to imagine before you go there as it is to forget about once you've been.

How many of the so called great authors have created such a detailed and original world? Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, The Silmarillion, and the rest of Tolkien's books based in Middle-Earth are without question the greatest story ever written. It's almost mind boggling of how a man can create a world in his mind, and then write a complete history of it. Who needs Shakespeare? What he wrote was all about finding "hidden meanings" and "reading between the lines". Tolkien was a true literary genius. Instead of writing a novel to be analyzed in a classroom, he created an imaginary universe that everyone can enjoy. No one can hope to ever write a story close to Lord of the Rings' greatness. I would recommend this book to any person in the world. If you havn't read Lord of the Rings, you are a deprived person.

I don't give this book five stars. Five stars is an insult to Tolkien. I give Lord of the Rings a 20 star rating, and even that is an understatement.

Other Recommendations: The Hobbit, The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales of Middle-Earth, and the Lord of the Rings Movie Trilogy.

Sadly, Carpenter's standard biography of Tolkien is written by a man wholely unsympathetic with Tolkien's life work and beliefs. As a result, while many of the facts are more or less correct, the spin given them gives an inaccurate picture of this very real, very human man. Pearce's biography, _Tolkien: Man and Myth_ ought to be read along side Carpenter's work for a more accurate picture.

This book is the definitive biography of one of the 20th century's most beloved authors, JRR Tolkien. Humphrey Carpenter, Tolkien's official biographer was given unprecendeted access to Tolkien family members and family papers, and this clearly shows. Tolkien's early life, his love of Edith Bratt, his devout faith and his war-time experiences are all chronicled, giving new understanding to his life as not only the premier fantasy-genre author of his day (and of all time, for that matter), but also his academic career as a noted philologist, and his relationship with "The Inklings", especially CS Lewis.

No fan of Tolkien will want to be without this book.

Tolkien fans will also want to read "Letters of JRR Tolkien" also edited by Carpenter, and fans of the Inklings as a literary group will want to read Carpenter's "The Inklings".

5 solid stars for this biography.

Considering the fact that Tolkien abhorred the idea of someone writing a biography on him, considering the fact he thought it ridiculous that someone should read a biography on a writer, and considering his sentiment that the best biography on an author is his works of fiction, calling this book the 'authorized' account is pretty presumptuous.
Still, Carpenter manages the subject very well, chronicling Tolkien's life from his early years throughout his life, with a special amount of attention given to the period in which he was creating his 'hobbit' stories. This is as much a look inside Tolkien's literary mind as a look at his life, and one of the most fascinating aspects of this work is that the reader is able to follow the development of Tolkien's creative genius and see the very elements that inspired him to write his masterpieces "The Hobbit," "The Lord of the Rings," and "The Silmarillion."
For his biography, Carpenter was able to meet personally with Tolkien before his death. He also had full access to all of Tolkien's papers and letters at Oxford. He was able to talk with many of Tolkien's friends and family. Because of this, Carpenter is able to present a very accurate, extremely reliable, and very personal biography. He is very fair with his subject, and treats Tolkien neither as a deity nor an eccentric old man. The man who created Middle Earth was human, and Carpenter captures this brilliantly.
This work on Tolkien is very highly recommended to any fan of his work who wants a peek inside the life of this remarkable man.

The magnificence of Rob Inglis' dramatization, both with respect to its place in the Tolkien Legend and in comparision to the present state of the spoken theatre, is quite simply ineffible. Here presented is THE ONLY completely unabriged reading of the Lord of the Rings to be found, and to commuters like me, it represents a long awaited opportunity to become aquianted with the work of a genius without fear of losing precious shards of his masterpiece to the whim of an editor. Worth every moment of the 20 hour listening time, from the endearing character voices to the hearty singing of songs and chanting of poetry that is sure to linger in your mind throughout the day. A purely wonderful experience for both Tolkien Veterans and the uninitiated alike.

What happens when destiny breaks up the fellowship?

You will find out when you read the Two Towers.
In this second part, the deeds of all the members of the company after the Fellowship was broken, are told.

Frodo and his inseperable Sam sneak away towards Mordor, while Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas have to change their plans when they discover that Pippin and Merry have been kidnapped by orcs. These decisions that they make, take each character on its own path and the events that take place in this book really help in developing the complete tale.

The whole story really takes shape in it. Loads of things start happening, and many different characters take center stage. There is a lot more action, and the plot takes a few unexpected twists.

Unlike the first part (The Fellowship of the Ring), this second book actually does have a season finale ending! so make sure you have the Return of the King (3rd part) close by, because you will want to start reading it straight away!

The Two towers is a masterpeice of tolkien. It continues the story of the Fellowship of the Ring as a sequel by bringing all the things that the fellowship had and more. It met the high bar left by the fellowship and was able to carry that mark throughout the whole book.

This book so much to offer, from blood pumping battles, to the mythical Ents. It starts by telling the story of Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas chasing the band of orcs that holds onto Merry and Pippin. The first few chapters switch between Pippin's party and Aragorn's party. It builds up suspense with the meeting of treebeard and the White Rider. The Helm's Deep is the climax of the first part of this book.

The second book continues the journey of Master Samwise and Frodo Baggins, the ring bearer. These two meet a new friend right in the beginning. His name is smeagol. Sam feels that he is untrustworthy yet Frodo trusts his new companion and heeds his advise and uses him as a guide. Smeagol of course is trustworthy to Frodo and proves his worth through the marshes of the dead. He even show him the way into Mordor. The make in a good distance into Mordor when they are captured by their allies, Faramir. He seeks the ring for Gondor, but eventually sees his downfall with the ring and allows Frodo, Gollum (smeagol), and Sam to journey to Mount Doom.

This book is simply a work of art by Tolkien. It shows the perfect form of a science fiction novel. It is a must read especially if you liked the movie.

This book gets five stars because it contains "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" - not because Tolkien translated it (although that probably helps)

"Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" is one of the masterpieces of the English language, one of those books we are asked to read in school over and over again (I personally read in in 12th grade AP English, my freshman year Arthurian legends class and Introduction to British Lit. my sophomore year). At first it is hard to read and you wonder why it is a legend.

Then I read it out loud, the words sounded better than they read. I also began looking into the mythology behind the story (why Troy is important in the first lines for instance). In the end, I have come to love this poem. To be honest, although I like this edition quite a bit, I haven't gotten around to reading the other two poems. I mean to though, any time now.

Before he was known as the writer of the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien was an acclaimed translator, a deeply scholarly philologist, and a professor of the same at Oxford University. His love for language and his proficiency with Old English dialects is nowhere more evident than in these translations. The beautiful prose and poetry that flows easily from the lips will intrigue and delight even the lay reader. The accuracy and brilliance with which Tolkien sets down these words will make a fan out of any scholar. All told, these aren't of the same stock as Tolkien's fantasy novels, but they are a great find for scholars, Tolkien fans, and anyone else for that matter.

. . .of the Master's academic abilities.

JRR Tolkien is best known (and rightfully so) for "The Hobbit", "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Silmarillion". Nevertheless, it must be remembered that he was a career academic, holding professorships in the English Language at Oxford for more than 30 years.

This book, a modern translation of three ancient stories, represents the most accessible of Tolkien's academic works. It also represents the best 20th century critical translation of these important medieval manuscripts.

I highly recommend this book for fans of Tolkien's writings as an introduction to the exciting world of medieval English literature.

Tom Shippey's first book on Tolkien, _The Road to Middle-Earth_, was a profoundly insightful work. His philologically informed background provided keen insight into the linguistic backdrop (both real and imaginative) of Tolkien's fiction, showing the complex verbal play taking place within the story. It still stands, in my opinion, as the single-best scholarly book yet published about Tolkien.

By comparison, _J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century_ is a disappointment. Why? Several reasons, the first of which is the fact that many of the points Shippey makes here have previously been made in his first book. Much of the material here is a rehash of _Road to Middle-Earth_; this is true both in the general nature of Shippey's approach (i.e. emphasizing Tolkien's philological inspiration, and in particular his Anglo-Saxonist bent) as well as many specific and detailed philological points.

Even more disappointing is the fact that the writing in parts of this book has a scattered quality. The introduction, the "Re-Inventing Middle-Earth" chapter (about the Hobbit), and the greater part of the first chapter on Lord of the Rings ("Mapping Out a Plot") are solid and well-organized, but after that, one can't help but get the feeling that Shippey got a bit rushed and just started throwing things together in an increasingly slapdash way in order to get the book out before the first of the Lord of the Rings movies appeared. The end of "Mapping out a Plot" starts to lose focus, and while the second Lord of the Rings chapter (on evil) still holds together reasonably well, the third Lord of the Rings chapter (on Tolkien's mythology) is particularly disorganized, with little sense of any intellectual or methodological focus whatsoever. The Silmarillion chapter and the chapter on Tolkien's minor works are pretty much pointless, while the two appendices (one on Tolkien's critics, and one on Tolkien's literary decscendants, like Donaldson), seem like hastily tacked-on additions that aren't fully developed.

In spite of all that, there still is a lot of merit in this book. Though much of it is rehashed, the fact remains that Shippey's philological observations are still as insightful here as in _The Road to Middle-Earth_, and anyone who has not read that book, will still learn much from this one. Also, there are a few moments of specific analysis that are quite solid examples of thorough scholarship. Shippey's account of Tolkien's writing process in "Mapping Out the Plot" is solid and critically thoughtful, while his close analysis of speakers and language in the "Council of Elrond" chapter is nothing short of brilliant.

Shippey's attempt to redefine the literary context of Tolkien is also suggestive. Too often, it has been the convention to lump Tolkien in with his friends C.S. Lewis and Charles Williams-- or more broadly with a larger romance/fantasy tradition. In the chapter on Evil, Shippey suggests (quite rightly, I think), that Tolkien ought more properly be compared with other 20th century writers (like Orwell, Golding, Vonnegut, and even T.H. White) who have been distressed by the seemingly unlimited human capacity for *evil* that modernity has enabled us to unleash and found that this question could not be meaningfully approached except through the creation of 'fantastic' worlds and scenarios. (I'm not entirely sure that I agree with Golding and Orwell being called 'fantastic' here, but I think the basic point holds well enough). Unfortunately, this idea requires greater development and complexity than Shippey gives it here-- but it still is a very suggestive beginning. IMHO, Shippey should have devoted all the time he spent rehashing material from _Road to Middle-Earth_ to developing *this* idea further, making it the central argument of the book.

All in all, I have to say that _J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century_, in spite of its many flaws, is a worthwhile and insightful book-- and it's still better than most of the fluff that passes as 'Tolkien scholarship'. Still, it's no _Road to Middle-Earth_, and anyone expecting this book to rival that one should prepare to be disappointed.

Perhaps the single most important reason I loved this book is that now I can explain more coherently to the uninitiated why Tolkien is such a great author. I think a lot of us have an intuitive understanding of why we like the Lord of the Rings so much, but it defies simple explanation. Shippey dives into the tremendous subtlety of the books, explaining much of the background, many of the inspirations, and generally getting into the mind of Tolkien and thinking deeply about the Lord of the Rings. This is tremendously refreshing, since Tolkien's works have managed to escape serious study by being looked down upon in most academic circles, and yet being subtle and complex enough that those of us without a serious literary, philosophical, or philological background could certainly use the help.

I have only two complaints about the book, and I mention them only to make it easier to read. Firstly, much like Senior's analysis of Donaldson's Covenent books (also recommended, and Shippey cites him - although amusingly Shippey seems to have as weak a grasp of Donaldson as Senior does of Tolkien), the first chapter gets a little bogged down in a rather irrelevant and needlessly defensive justification of the fantasy genre. This is emminently skipable. Secondly, once Shippey gets through the Lord of the Rings and starts wading into the Silmarillion, things get a little obscure and tedious even for the serious fan (and I have even read and enjoyed the Silmarillion).

Still, this is in contrast to the remainder of the book which is wonderfully and amazingly insightful, and very helpful for truly appreciating and understanding one of the 20th Century's great masterpieces. This is the best attempt at literary criticism of such a popular book that I have read. Anyone who has read the trilogy more than once should absolutely read this book, and it gets the highest possible recommendation from me.

Shippey's argument that Tolkien was the foremost author of the 20th century has surely raised hackles among professors of literature: after all, fantasy is even more reviled than science fiction among high culture's arbiters of taste. Shippey martials an impressive body of evidence to support his claim that Tolkien deserves to be considered a great author on the grounds of influence, literary quality, and relevance to the burning social issues of his day; he also demonstrates that Tolkien's works are, for stories set in an imaginary past, almost perversely cutting-edge in their social, artistic, and intellectual concerns. Along the way, he also directs some (IMO) satisfyingly sarcastic remarks at the snobbery of a literary-critical establishment that ignores the literature read by the vast majority of readers. I enjoyed these as much as I enjoyed Shippey's perceptive analysis of Tolkien's works, which increased my appreciation for the ingenuity and artistry of the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings. All in all, the book left me looking forward to rereading Tolkien's works with greater relish than ever.

I am not sure whether someone who has not suffered through a doctoral program in English would get the same kick out of this book that I did. However, by the standards of lit crit, it is wondrously readable; and fans of Tolkien should enjoy a book that defends not only the author we love, but ourselves as readers, as well.

I have been a fan Of The Lord Of The Rings for 25 years( I read the Hobbit and Trilogy 3 times in College and re-read it all again last year when I heard about the movies, I also have the box set that sells here (price)) and this is my first audio book of any type. This is a BBC dramitization( this is what is "UNABRIDGED") not a word for word reading of the novels. After getting use to listening to the dramatic acting style involved in this I found it very enjoyable. It does not contain everthing in the trilogy. It does, I here the movies coming out do also, leave out Tom Bombadil and the Barrowdowns section and other smaller parts of the books.I did have a good time listening to it. I took almost two weeks, primarily in the car driving to work and around town and it looks good on the bookcase. Ian Holm doesn't read it, he plays Frodo. It will be interesting to see how he plays Bilbo differently in the movies. There are another dozen or so main actors in it and a narrator.

I bought the audio-cassette edition of this years ago, before the days of CD and online shopping, and I've long been hoping that it would one day be released on CD. It really is a magnificent achievement - the thought, planning, respect and sheer professionalism that have gone into creating this is simply remarkable. What a contrast to the execrable Mind's Eye edition ! The BBC version is not a complete reading of the book, but rather a (judiciously) abridged and compact dramatisation. Having said that, it's still very long. It's like listening to a really good, long (13 hours!) film of LOTR with your eyes closed. The atmosphere and feeling of the book has been captured wonderfully, with great, stirring performances from internationally-known and respected actors like Ian Holm, Michael Horden and Robert Stephens. The music and songs are haunting and dramatic, and the sound effects are so authentic that you really feel like you're there with the Company on its quest to destroy the ring. Even the packaging is of the highest quality, another thing the people that made the Mind's Eye version should take note of. The CDs come in a very nicely designed box with artwork, maps, and other information. Quite a few people have been asking which CD edition to buy - if you want an amateurish, cartoon-style version this isn't for you. If, however, you are looking for excitement, intelligence, humour, a sense of wonder, and faithfulness to the spirit of Tolkien's masterpiece, then the BBC edition shouldn't disappoint.

This is a BBC radio production that goes back about 20 years and is now presented on 13 CDs. It is a very good production of LOTR, and reminded me of what a good radio production is -- good actors, combined with dialog, sound effects, and accompanying music that let you follow the story and visualize it in your mind. Although it is 13 hours long, it mostly goes by quickly. The books are of course very long and detailed, and the BBC adaptation is quite compact and faithful to the book -- very little of the action is left out. One nice feature of the recording is the use of a narrator who both moves the action along and also provides many of Tolkein's fantastic word pictures of the world of LOTR.

The acting is very good in the series -- I particularly liked Ian Holm as Frodo and Robert Stephens as Aragon. The sounds effects are mostly very good -- lots of hoofbeats for the black riders, swords clanging, water running, etc. Most of the time, it is very clear who is speaking, though occasionally voices get lost in the melee. There are some songs and poems included in the set -- some people may find these tiresome, in that they do sometimes slow down the action.

Each CD is about an hour long, and the set is nicely packed as 3-4 CDs into folders that fit into a book. Each folder provides background on Tolkein and the LOTR and includes a short summary of the plot for the each disk within the folder. The disks all have 5 or 6 bands, so it is possible to pick up the story again if you take the disk out of your CD player (e.g., your teenagers want to listen to something else).

This is a set worth having, particularly at the price ... is selling it at (think of it on a per-disk basis). It tells the story in a very enjoyable way and will (hopefully) send you either back to the books or to the books if you haven't read them. A definite buy.

Contrary to popular belief, this is not a book about Middle-earth. Middle-earth didn't exist when Tolkien wrote the poems contained in this book. But the legends they established were taken up into the later Middle-earth mythology even though we were only treated to glimpses of them in the years preceding the publication of this book.

Lays of Beleriand unveils the true source of the Beren and Luthien story told in The Silmarillion. Although the characters predate "Lay of Leithian", Tolkien brought them forward in a radical evolutionary process which changed many things. The product of his changes was a fantastic poem which would make a wonderful book in its own right. Alas! He never finished the lay.

Deemed too "Celtic" by an early reader at Allen & Unwin, the poem was set aside by Tolkien as he turned to lighter projects. And though he tried to return to it later in life, the flame had dwindled and he was unable to rekindle the ancient fire which inspired this masterpiece. The last lines of the poem seem to describe the work's own fate: "An gleam of swords in fire there flashed/the fangs of Carcharoth, and crashed/together like a trap, that tore/the hand about the wrist, and shore/through brittle bone and sinew nesh,/devouring the frail mortal flesh;/and in that cruel mouth unclean/egulfed the jewels holy sheen."

A few snippets followed, disconnected from the primary narrative. All that could have been, that should have been, was lost forever, unless Tolkien is singing the final stanzas for his beloved Edith beneath the trees in a faraway paradise even now....

Tolkien outdid himself with these two long poems. Although never completed, these alliterative verse versions of the "Lay of the Children of Hurin" and "The Lay of Beren and Luthien" are vivid, thrilling and deeply moving. There is little different about these stories from their versions in The Silmarillion, but they are more detailed, and in VERSE. Not only do they make very enjoyable reading, but students of Old, Middle and Early Modern English poetry will be in awe of Tolkiens completely unaffected ability to render his story in alliterative verse, complete with caesura. I was very frustrated not to be able to read complete versions, but the lies of Delu Morgoth live even today, and the ends of these tales are lost in the mists of time...

"The Lays of Beleriand" is one of my favorite books by Tolkien. It is the epitome of his poetic achievement. As the previous reviewer said, no praise formed by me would be worthy of this exquisite work. Truly, only Tolkien himself has the deep linguistic skill needed to properly laud this work. I had long loved Tolkien's prose before I read this book. But once I was exposed to his poetry, I quickly realized that he is as masterful in verse as he is in prose. Reading "Lays" was a euphoric revelation of another aspect of Tolkien's ingenius literary style. Rich, archiac language coupled with smooth-flowing meter and rhyme is employed to weave into verse the captivating tales of the star-crossed loves of Luthien Tinuviel with Beren Erchamion, and of Turin Turumbar with Neinor Niniel. The noble and deeply touching epics immerse you in their plots, engraving in memory an unforgetable image of this vastly intricate world. The verse, especially in "The Lay of Leithian", is spangled with particularly entrancing descriptions of the grandeur of Elven kingdoms long lost and the starlit enchantment of the Dancer of Doriath. These passages contain such delicate imagery presented in metaphor so elegantly phrased that they surely could entrall even Morgoth himself. Any devotee to Tolkien, and especially those who savor poetry, will be thoroughly enamoured with "The Lays of Beleriand".

It takes great strength of mind to be able to stick through this book, but if you're a true Tolkien fan, you'll love every minute of it. The Book of Lost Tales Part I tells the story of Eriol, a great mariner who finds his way to the lost island of Tol Eressëa, The Lonely Isle, where dwell a lost tribe of Elves. He finds himself in the company of Lindo and Vairë, who grant him shelter. He becomes a part of their lives, eagerly drinking in the stories they have to tell him of the origin of the world, and the ancient times, of Valinor, the origin of evil, the great works and deeds of the gods, and the creation of the world as it exists now.

For readers of the Silmarillion, many of the stories are familiar. They are told, however, in greater detail than that which is set down in the Silmarillion, and contain several interesting literary differences. (Nearly all of which are expounded on by Christopher Tolkien, who is, of course, the son of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien.) Some are as small as name changes, some are opposing details about the events surrounding a character. (Such as Dwarves were originally an evil race by nature, and Beren was an ELF!)

Christopher Tolkien pored through the scribbles and snatches that his father composed in his lifetime, and somehow managed to put it all together in this published form. He even offers commentary on each tale once it is finished. I often found that these commentaries are of little interest; I enjoyed the tales themselves more. Still, there are unique facts to be gleaned, such as such-and-such a page containing differences between this tale and that that Tolkien wrote, and a few interesting facts about his father.

The book contains the very beginning of Middle-Earth, as told to Eriol by Lindo. The Music of the Ainur, he learns of, and the coming of the gods down to Valinor. He learns of the dark deeds of Melko, the coming of the Elves, the darkening of Valinor, the creation of the sun and moon, the flight of the Noldili. The book ends with a tale told by an Elf named Gilfanon about the travail of the Noldili, who fled Valinor after the theft of Melko. Following the end of tales is an index on names, the etymologies, the development of names, etc.

Reading this book really gives you a feeling for how much work and effort went into the creation of the books we all enjoy, The Lord of the Rings. But little do we realize that there was a good three thousand years of history prior to that story - and Tolkien wrote it all.

If you have an enthusiasm for the works of Tolkien, the tales prior to the Rings trilogy, and the history of Middle-Earth, than you should read this book if you can. I'd recommend reading the Silmarillion first, even if you have already read it once; Christopher Tolkien compares the two many, many times. Also be forewarned that this book can be a little dry and long-winded. But for true Tolkien aficionados, it's worth every minute.

Have you ever wanted to see the evolution of an entire mythology?

These books let you see what the Silmarrillion was before it became the Silmarillion. The stories here are much more poethic than in finnnished work, full of descriptive detail and wonderful imagery. The pace is more sedate, more calm and flowing. It has a different shape. Its just so enchanting to see the fragments that were to survive, the little details that lie at the center of it all. Its also mind-boggling to see that some of the vital turning points of the later story are completely absent.

Where the Silmarillion is presented as a story on its own, the book of Lost Tales has a framework: the stories where suposedly told to a traveled while he stayed at a house filled with enchanted children, who had strayed too far into dream. I kept looking forward to those little moments at the Cottage of Lost Play, the cosy story-telling by the fireside and all the exentric characters that have sadly gone missing later. But I swear, some of them I recognise from LotR!

The book also presents exelent commentaries by Christopher Tolkien, who shows us exactly how these stories relaete to each other and to later stories. I cant imagine how much work must have gone into these books. Its an enriching experience if you like the academic aproach.

Included here are many poems by Tolkien, wich i really love. They show such talent, such love of words. Beautiful.

Be warned that these are not a complete story, like the Silmarillion. Passages are skipped, there are many inconsistencies and it breaks of before the end. However, I heartily recomend it in addition to the Silmarrillion. You might be best of waiting with this book if you have not read the later work.

So, if you loved the Silmarillion, than this is your chance to witness magic in creation. Go right ahead, and have fun!

Do you love the fiction of JRR Tolkien? Are you interested in the very beginning of the legends? The stories that evolved into "The Silmarillion"? Then you must purchase "The Book of Lost Tales, part 1". Here you will find, thanks to the loving research and editing of Tolkien's son Christopher, the first beginnings of the stories, legends and poems that became Tolkien's life work. Begun during the First World War, the legends occupied the remaining 55 years of Tolkien's life.

You cannot begin to fully appreciate "The Lord of the Rings" without reading "The Silmarillion" -- and this volume provides the very beginning of what became "The Silmarillion".