What to read next?

[tetramorph]

I have and have read (some many times):

The H
The LOTRs and all the appendices
The S
Unfinished Tales
Children of Hurin

What is the relationship of Unfinished Tales to Lost Tales?

How many Lost Tales books are there?

What is the relationship of Unfinished / Lost Tales to Christopher T's "History of ME"?

Where do I go next?

I like philosophy, theology and linguistics in a way, apparently, that Christopher T does not. Did he ever publish that stuff of his father's?

Help me out, I can't find a clear guide to all this desperate material on the inter-webs!

[tkdco2]

The History of Middle-earth a 12-book series

Other works by JRRT Farmer Giles of Ham is a must-read.

Tolkien also wrote about legends including The Fall of Arthur, The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun, and Beowulf.

Edit: Here's a bibliography of Tolkien's works.

[Falconer]

Definitely read “The History of Middle-earth” series. The Book of Lost Tales is published as the first two volumes of “The History of Middle-earth.” It is like the OD&D of Middle-earth. It rocks—I consider it my single favorite book of all time. Keep in mind that Volume II contains all the most famous stories, so if you find Volume I dragging a little (though personally I love it), skip over to Volume II. So, give it a try. If you like it, you can probably keep going with the rest of “The History of Middle-earth.” Some of the middle volumes drag a bit, and a lot of the time you’re just reading drafts of The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings, but the first few and last few volumes of the series contain some really awesome works that are unlike anything you can find elsewhere. If you just want to know what some of those gems are, I can lay it out for you.

[tetramorph]

tkdco2, thanks for replying! Yes, I'm aware of Framer Giles of Ham and his other fairy tale stuff. Totally love it. I am just going intense on Middle Earth at the moment.

I'm also reading his Arthur, Sigurd and Beowulf!

And thanks for the link!

Falconer, thanks man. How would you describe the difference between Unfinished Tales and the two Lost Tales?

[Falconer]

Apples and oranges.

In 1916-1920, J.R.R. Tolkien wrote a book, and he entitled the book The Book of Lost Tales. (Of course, this wasn’t published until much later.)

In 1980, Christopher Tolkien collected miscellaneous writings which his father had written during the 1950s through the early 1970s, and he entitled the collection Unfinished Tales.

This link might (or might not) be of assistance.

You’re better off thinking of The Book of Lost Tales as an early version of ‘The Silmarillion,’ but also by far the fullest version of ‘The Silmarillion.’

[Zenopus]

If you've read Unfinished Tales, History of Middle-Earth is similar, but with more versions of drafts and less relatively polished yet unfinished material. Unfinished Tales was sort of his "first scoop" through the unpublished material. It was published first and its success led to the Lost Tales and then the rest of the HOME series. I posted a list of some of the "gems" I found in HOME here.

Regarding the linguistic material (elvish language et al), I believe much of that has been published (with the permission of Christopher Tolkien) in journals such as Vinwar Tengwar: www.elvish.org/VT/

[Falconer]

There’s also this Must Read? thread.

[hengest]

tetramorph , if you haven't already barreled through everything, I would kind of suggest you dip into The History of Middle Earth volumes in accordance with your interests.  Christopher Tolkien did an admirable job with this, as far as I can tell, but the nature of this material means some appeals a lot and some doesn't, at least at a given time.

If you're interested in the "Years of the Trees" narratives from the Silm, you may wish to check out The Book of Lost Tales 1 which has a lot of those stories in a tone strikingly different from that used in the published Silm.  

If you're interested in the fates of Elves and Men, check out "Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth" (a conversation between Finrod and a mortal) in the volume Morgoth's Ring.

If you have any interest in the "sundering of tongues" and how Elvish languages could drift so much although the Elves aren't in the habit of dying, check out "The Teachings of Pengoloð" in The Peoples of Middle-Earth.

Or look through the contents and select a few things that match your interests and then branch out.  I don't know about you, but I would have been miserable and given up if I had tried to read these straight through.

Oh, I see Zenopus put up a list of gems, but I'll leave mine here, since they're pretty different.