Tolkien’s world is super complex and The Lord of the Rings + The Hobbit is just a fraction of Middle Earth’s history and its mythology. And Tolkien is not just Middle Earth! He has written stories that don’t take place in Middle Earth.
I really have no idea where to start, but I guess since you’re like completely new to this whole world, I suggest you start off by watching the movies. Just to get an idea of what you’re about to get into.
And to avoid too much confusion, you should watch them in chronological order.
MOVIES
The Hobbit – An Unexpected Journey
The Hobbit – The Desolation of Smaug
The Hobbit – The Battle of the Five Armies
The Lord of the Rings – Fellowship of the Ring
The Lord of the Rings – The Two Towers
The Lord of the Rings – The Return of the King
Keep in mind, they were not filmed in that order! Lord of the Rings was filmed ten years before The Hobbit. But I think it just makes sense to watch them in that order so understand the storyline better.
There’s an extended edition of every movie (except for The Battle of the Five Armies, which will be released later this year) and most people will tell you that the movies are a lot more fun and interesting if you watch the extended editions. But they’re super long! Like, really freaking long. I mean if you’re up for 12 hours of move material and 40+ hours of Behind-The-Scenes material, go ahead! But I started off by just watching the theatrical versions.
BOOKS
Okay, you know that the movies are based on books, that’s good! And I think once you’ve watched the movies, you should also read the books. But don’t be surprised: Sometimes movie and book are two completely different things, especially The Hobbit. Like, you will literally find yourself thinking “what the hell, this is really the same story????!!!” So, yeah. Just a warning.
You can find pretty much all of Tolkien’s works online.
What? The Hobbit is just one book? Yeah, that’s correct. Again, two completely different things!
Okay, so you’re covered for The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings, which are obviously Tolkien’s most famous stories with the widest fanbase.
But, there’s a lot more to read about Middle Earth! Ready for a shit ton of Middle Earth history? Here we go!
The Silmarillion
A collection of stories about The First Age (Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit take place during The Third Age), published and partly written by Tolkien’s son Christopher. It really is a must-read for Tolkien fans! It really describes the universe in which the stories take place and at times it can be a bit confusing because there’re so many characters and races and places and wars.
And the fandom has even provided us with a hella cool reader’s guide, which is a cool thing to keep up with the story and all the long-haired and beautiful elves.
So, that’s The Silmarillion. If you’re wondering if there’s gonna be a Silmarillion movie, the answer to that right now is no. But you never know.
Unfinished Tales
Again, written by Christopher Tolkien. As the title suggests, this is a collection of ‘expanded’ stories from The Silmarillion, The Hobbit & Lord of the Rings. It’s mostly longer versions of certain chapters or stories. Definitely not as hard to read as The Silmarillion, since you already know all the characters and storylines!
Okay, once you’ve come this far, it’s time to step up the nerd level a little bit.
The History of Middle-Earth
Okay. Okay, now take a deep breath, because shit’s about to get real. Because The History of Middle-Earth is a 13-volume series of books! Basically it collects and analyses every piece of material that is related to Middle-Earth. There’s stuff like early versions of already published works but also completely new material!
These books are so freaking detailed, because Christopher Tolkien literally analysed every single footnote and every small bit of information that his father had written down. This is all the mythology, you guys!
I cannot give you a summary or overview of every single book, because by now they have kind of converted themselves into this massive box that is titled “Middle Earth nerd trash stuff” in my brain. I’m sorry!
Congratulations! That’s about it for the mythology. But we’re far from done here. There’s more!
But so far, all of the books I have listed should be read in that order! Just to make things easier for you. Anyway, there’re a few more books, but it doesn’t really matter when you read them, because some of them are stories on their own, some are only loosely connected to The Lord of The Rings or The Hobbit and some of them are just collections of poems, not really story-related at all.
So, here we go!
The Adventures of Tom Bombadil
Basically just a collection of poetry. Beautiful poetry! These poems are loosely connected to the events of The Lord of the Rings, but don’t contribute anything to the story.
So freaking interesting! A collection of letters written by the professor to his wife Edith, his friend C.S Lewis, his son and many other. Most of them discussing his stories.
A poem sung by Bilbo at the Grey Havens as he is about to leave Middle-Earth forever. So chronologically it takes place at the and of The Return of the King, but it was never included in the book.
Couldn’t find a link anywhere!
The Children of Húrin
A more detailed version one of the Three Great Tales in The Silmarillion.
That’s about it. It took me about five years to read and understand all of this. So, good luck my friend!
WEBSITES
There’re so many websites dedicated to Tolkien and his characters and languages! If you ever feel like looking up some random stuff or learning more about certain things, here’s a good list of interesting websites!
Okay, I’m spent! That’s literally all of the information and resources I could dig up. Should last you for a bit, I think!
If you ever have any questions about Tolkien, feel free to ask me! Because I do think that I know quite a bit, even though I’m still far from being an expert! So far from it!
Just going to leave that there for anyone who needs it
this is true. whenever i study, write, or other university things, i always listened to game music, film musics and classical. (and maybe a playlist of adventure time and starwars). it makes me super focused!
More advice from a gamer and psych major. Make two playlists! One with the softer, more flowing music, like what you hear while traveling in a game. Name it “Field music.” This kind of music is supposed to just keep the flow as you travel in the game and it keeps pressure even.
Now take all the high-intensity battle music and make a playlist called “Boss Fight.” This music is supposed to make you feel just a bit desperate, but also empowered and badass. This is good for VERY CLOSE DEADLINES and “HOLY SHIT THREE PARAGRAPHS TO GO I GOT THIS.” It helps you get reenergized and gets you pumped to push through the last bit.
This is how I study and write papers.
For those of us who like lyrics, pick something NOT in the language you are writing in. When you’re writing in English and listening to English music it lowers your ability to write as well as you could because your brain is also interpreting the music.
Mashups and Exports 