So you’re finally ready to dive into Tolkien’s world of Middle-earth.
Whether you’re looking to take your next step or you’re jumping in for the very first
time, you’re in the right place.
Because today, on Nerd of the Rings, I’m presenting my recommended Reading Order for
the books of JRR Tolkien.
#1 - The Hobbit Now while some may say publication order is
the way to go, I prefer to recommend people make their way through Middle-earth as the
books grow more complex.
Either approach has the same starting point - the classic 1937 children’s book The Hobbit.
And if you want to read the original chapter of Riddles in the Dark where Gollum voluntarily
gives up the ring - you can read The Annotated Hobbit, which contains some great insight
into the story.
#2 - The Lord of the Rings Next up is the masterpiece itself - The Lord
of the Rings!
There’s not a whole lot to say here.
It’s the definitive work of fantasy and was even dubbed Book of the Millenium in multiple
surveys back at the turn of the century.
While unparalleled, The Lord of the Rings is by some standards just the tip of the Middle-earth
iceberg and its story and characters are the culmination of ages of tales and events that
come before it…
#3 - The Children of Hurin Here is where my list diverges from many recommendations
you may have heard.
Rather than go straight to arguably the biggest challenge on the list in The Silmarillion,
I suggest going to The Children of Hurin.
Compared to The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, it’s a relatively short book.
It’s a single self-contained narrative following Turin Turambar, one of the most tragic Tolkien
characters and an ancient relative of Aragorn.
Not only does it open with a description of a pivotal first age battle - the Nirnaeth
Arnoediad, but it also features not one, but two of Tolkien’s greatest villains - Morgoth
and Glaurung.
Morgoth features in the opening of the book in an incredible dialogue with the hero’s
father and Glaurung comes face to face with Turin himself, showing why some consider him
their favorite of all Tolkien’s villains.
Children of Hurin is one of my absolute favorite Tolkien books and is one of the inspirations
for me doing videos so focused on mapping out characters and events.
I loved the story of Turin, but had no idea where all these places were that he was traveling
to throughout Beleriand.
Children of Hurin is similar to The Lord of the Rings in reading level, and sets you up
well for the next book on the list.
#4 - The Silmarillion It’s the big one.
The crusher of dreams.
The book that many have attempted and …well, many have finished it…but a lot more have
attempted to finish it and not so….let’s get to the description.
The Silmarillion is a collection of stories from throughout the history of Middle-earth
- from the very creation of the world to the Rings of Power and the Third Age.
This is where many of the stories of the First Age of Middle-earth first came to light.
It was the first of Christopher Tolkien’s herculean effort to see his father’s remaining
stories published and can certainly be a more challenging read than the previous entries
on this list.
It’s more Biblical in both scale and language, has a great cast of characters, compelling
stories, and is well worth taking the time to read.
Personally, I found listening to the audiobook to be tremendously helpful in my first successful
read through, so I’d highly recommend that method if it proves challenging to keep everything
straight.
In The Silmarillion, we have a shorter account of the tale of The Children of Hurin, as well
as a couple books that we will get to later.
It connects in a multitude of ways to the characters, events, and artifacts we see in
The Lord of the Rings, so if you’ve ever wanted to read for yourself about the significance
of Galadriel’s gift of three strands of her hair to Gimli, or Aragorn’s ring of
Barahir and its connection to Galadriel’s brother, or the first location to bear the
name Minas Tirith in an entirely different part of the world, The Silmarillion is the
place to go.
#5 Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-earth Often referred to simply as Unfinished Tales,
this book marks a turning point for my list.
Whereas every previous book tells a straight narrative tale - the remaining books take
a mixed approach between narrative and commentary.
In between narrative sections like those we saw in The Silmarillion, we have sections
of commentary from Christopher Tolkien.
As one may assume, we learn a good deal of Numenor in this book, as well as the origins
of the wizards, the death of Isildur, the founding of Rohan, and the story of Galadriel
and Celeborn.
For those interested in some of the potential storylines of Prime Video’s Lord of the
Rings series - this is a great book to pick up!
#6 Beren and Luthien The next two books on this list contain Tolkien
stories in a unique format which takes the analytical nature of Unfinished Tales a step
further.
Rather than a collection of different stories like The Silmarillion or Unfinished Tales,
Beren and Luthien contains a single tale in its various forms from throughout Tolkien’s
years of writing the story.
In this way, we not only get the latest and most complete version of the story, but also
get an inside look into the creative process as the story, characters, and events were
changed to varying degrees over the years.
As for the story itself, it is THE love story from Tolkien’s world.
So integral to JRR Tolkien is this story that the characters very names are engraved upon
the tombstones of the author and his beloved wife Edith.
#7 The Fall of Gondolin It’s one of the most tragic and important
tales of the first age.
It marks the moment when Morgoth takes control of Beleriand by eliminating his only true
remaining threat.
The tale involves Glorfindel, who we meet at the Council of Elrond as well as Elrond’s
father and grandparents.
An epic tale of one of the greatest cities of all time, its fall sets off the chain of
events leading to the War of Wrath, this is a tale of betrayal, love, and a battle for
survival against a dark force of orcs, dragons and balrogs.
#8 The History of Middle-earth Now we get to the deep end of the pool.
The twelve-volume History of Middle-earth set published over the course of 13 years
are a work like no other where Christopher Tolkien presents and discusses manuscripts
written by his father.
Within the pages of these twelve volumes, we get some previously unpublished material
as well as earlier versions of published material - giving us unique and unparalleled insight
into the creative genius of JRR Tolkien.
#9 The Nature of Middle-earth In the same vein as The History of Middle-earth,
we have the most recent of all books on this list - The Nature of Middle-earth edited by
Carl Hostetter.
While not officially part of the History of Middle-earth series, it fits quite well alongside
it.
It contains what is believed to be the last of Tolkien’s unpublished materials and could
very well be the final such book we will ever see.
It’s name is derived from two meanings of its title - nature being both metaphysical
and natural/historical.
Among other things, we learn more about the lands, plants, and animals of Numenor, elvish
life cycles, fate and free will, and much more.
#10 Letters of Tolkien Finally, as somewhat of a bonus read, we have
the collected letters of JRR Tolkien.
This book has proven useful to me many times and is a great companion to your Middle-earth
book collection.
Here we have a multitude of Tolkien’s correspondence with family, friends, and fans addressing
and answering questions about Middle-earth.
For anyone curious why my theory video had Gandalf claiming the one ring and completely
overthrowing Sauron, this comes directly from one of JRR Tolkien’s letters where he tells
us that is exactly how things would play out!
Now of course, there are further books you can dive into that were not written by one
of the Tolkiens.
Primary among these is The History of the Hobbit, edited by John D Rateliff, which takes
the History of Middle-earth approach to Tolkien’s first publication of Middle-earth.
Like Nature of Middle-earth, it is well deserving of a place alongside History of Middle-earth
series for those interested in a deeper dive into the development of the book that started
it all.
Not to mention, there are a multitude of books on Tolkien the man if you want to dive deeper
into the life of the greatest fantasy author of all time.
But that’s it for my suggested reading order.
If you’d like to join in the Nerd of the Rings book club as we make our way through
all of Tolkien’s world one chapter per week, check out my patreon page where you can join
for a little as 99 cents a month!
It’s a great community filled with people who love Middle-earth and there’s always
great discussion on lore, theories, upcoming adaptations, video ideas for the channel - and much more.