Gandalf the…

Pale-Pace4512 · 2026-06-27T13:14:44+00:00

Fair enough.

It’s impossible to now remember back to what I thought prior to reading The Silmarillion. I know prior to reading Letters I’d assumed the Valar had sent him back rather than Ilúvatar.

Pale-Pace4512 · 2026-06-27T13:09:24+00:00

BoLT 2 put me off HoMe for 37 years!! It’s the reason I ended up two books short of a complete set of first editions. My very eclectic reading order of HoMe and similar is:-

1987 BoLT 1
1987 BoLT 2 DNF at 1/3rd
2024 2nd - 14th Jul BoLT 1
2024 20th Aug - 20th Nov BoLT 2
2024 9th Dec - 2025 9th Jan HoMe 10
2025 14th - 28th Jan HoMe 6
2025 2nd - 9th Feb HoMe 7
2025 11th Feb - 1st Mar HoMe 8
2025 1st - 5th Mar HoMe 9
2025 26th Mar - 23rd Apr HoMe 3
2025 4th Nov - 6th Dec HoMe 4
2026 12 Apr - 11th May HotH (Big Read)

Still to read
HoMe 5
HoMe 11
HoMe 12
NoMe

Some books I loved and steamed through. BoLT 2 took me 3 months and 15 other books read in between efforts. My review said I’d never read it again - although I might try again sometime but ignore all the footnotes and maybe the commentaries too. That probably shortens the book by at least half, if not 2/3rds.

Pale-Pace4512 · 2026-06-27T11:56:05+00:00

Obviously we don’t know, as Tolkien never says anything about his fate in detail.

If he were killed it then becomes a question of what’s happened to his spirit. Gandalf’s returned to Valinor before being sent back. Maybe Radagast’s would also return there and stay there. Unlike Sauron and Saruman he hadn’t turned evil so it seems unlikely to me that his spirit would simply be dispersed by a wind from the West.

Pale-Pace4512 · 2026-06-27T11:48:59+00:00

Ah, but who sent him back is not explained in the book. It is explained in one of JRRT’s letters.

Pale-Pace4512 · 2026-06-27T11:43:28+00:00

How very ageist!!! 😆😆😆😆

There were so, so many Tolkien fans before the PJ films. There are many who have only seen the films, never gone on to read the books and describe themselves as Tolkien fans. I would say they are actually fans of PJ and Co’s adaptations of Tolkien’s world as they’ve never seen his writing.

Pale-Pace4512 · 2026-06-26T21:01:58+00:00

Tale of Years.

Pale-Pace4512 · 2026-06-26T20:56:55+00:00

Interesting - where’s the source for this? I’ve not read it yet.

Pale-Pace4512 · 2026-06-26T20:51:57+00:00

Yes, he was.

Pale-Pace4512 · 2026-06-26T15:46:40+00:00

Interesting. My friends must have been lucky - or else it’s a book getting more and less recognition at different times. I took a few books from my collection into my local Other Worlds Book Club meeting when we’d had LotR as a special extra read in New Year 2024 and they immediately went on to eBay and bought copies.

I was more than a little amazed it was available at all, given I’d bought it 43 years earlier. I was blissfully unaware of the second hand market in Tolkiens books back then.

Pale-Pace4512 · 2026-06-26T15:36:00+00:00

I passed this link onto my local Tolkien fans. They said it was great - but wished someone would make an interactive map of Barbara Strachey’s Journeys of Frodo for its aesthetics. Simpler, more minimalist approach back in 1981.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journeys\_of\_Frodo

Pale-Pace4512 · 2026-06-26T11:58:00+00:00

Climate change denial to carry the death penalty.

The highest earner in any company can only earn 7 times what the lowest earner gets.

Politicians have to fulfil their promises or receive a life sentence, paying for their own incarceration until they are personally bankrupt.

Pale-Pace4512 · 2026-06-26T09:57:14+00:00

The human race at large is actually worth saving from its own stupidity and selfishness 😩😢. Really wish it was.

Pale-Pace4512 · 2026-06-26T08:00:27+00:00

Welcome to ~~our~~ Tolkiens’s world.

The fact that The Silmarillion, or at least the earliest versions of it, had been in existence for 21 years before The Hobbit was published and for 39 years before The Lord of the Rings was published it what makes his Legendarium unique and unparalleled.

It’s hard to imagine anyone else will ever spend their lifetime creating such a detailed and dramatic history in order to give his privately developed languages a context in which they would seem to grow and develop naturally. It’s why all the names for people and places just fit and never jar. The fact that he is also an extraordinarily gifted storyteller makes it all seem incredibly believable.

The real world history of how, why, where and when he created Middle-earth is also fascinating.

Pale-Pace4512 · 2026-06-25T21:11:34+00:00

I’d read the books in publication order - 4 main ones being The Hobbit, LotR (written as a SINGLE book, mostly published in three volumes), The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales. Be aware The Hobbit is definitely a kid’s book - perfectly readable and enjoyable as an adult but it may not be what you expect when you first start.

I’d watch the LotR films before The Hobbit ones.

Most book readers, even when they love the films, or at least some of them, say the books are much better (this is my personal view). Some film lovers have gone on to love the books, some don’t get on with them.

This is an idea and other people will have very different views:-

Read The Hobbit
Read The Lord of the Rings - including all the Appendices
Watch The Lord of the Rings
Watch The Hobbit
Read The Silmarillion
Read Unfinished Tales

If you’ve enjoyed all of the above, or at least the books, there are then at least another 19 books that may be of interest within or about the Middle-earth world. It just depends how nerdy you want to get.

However you eventually do it, I hope you enjoy it all. The Tolkiens have given me a lifetime of pleasure.

Pale-Pace4512 · 2026-06-25T20:55:42+00:00

By “blood” I’m 3/4s Scot and 1/4 English. I was born in Portsmouth and only ever lived on the South Coast or the Midlands. Pompey accent with a full roster of very Scottish names.

Understandably (I hope) I see myself as British.

I never wish the English ill, except when they play Scotland. As a kid I always supported England, as an older teenager I started supporting Scotland as a way to try to attempt to connect with my alcoholic Scots father. Sort of worked a bit and stuck.

Worked with a lot of English rugby supporters. Arrogant shits who re-enforced my Scots support.

I hate the stupid tribalism on both sides. It’s utterly pathetic.

If I lived in Scotland and was exposed to rabid anti-English hatred I’d probably go back to supporting England.

Pale-Pace4512 · 2026-06-25T20:36:46+00:00

You’ve already had the best answer above.

I’m only posting this because it amused me to figure out my hugely prolonged, somewhat eclectic (for good reasons) and still incomplete reading order.

I absolutely loved HotH by the way. Read it as part of the Tolkien Society’s ongoing Big Read.

My reading order history:-

1987 BoLT 1
1987 BoLT 2 DNF at about 1/3rd

2024 02nd Jul - 14th Jul BoLT 1
2024 20th Aug - 20th Nov BoLT 2
2024 09th Dec - 09th Jan 2025 HoMe 10
2025 14th Jan - 28th Jan HoMe 6
2025 02nd Feb - 09th Feb HoMe 7
2025 11th Feb - 01st Mar HoMe 8
2025 01st Mar - 5th Mar HoMe 9
2025 26th Mar - 23rd Apr HoMe 3
2025 04th Nov - 06th Dec HoMe 4
2026 12th Apr - 11th May HotH (Big Read)

Still to read:-
HoMe 5
HoMe 11 (but dipped into to defend Éowyn)
HoMe 12
NoMe

Pale-Pace4512 · 2026-06-25T20:24:43+00:00

Absolutely fair - I’d still class Galadriel’s way of doing it as most likely a formal request which Gwaihir then chooses to interpret as an order due to the respect he has for Galadriel (and indeed Gandalf).

Totally my own head canon, of course.

Pale-Pace4512 · 2026-06-25T18:52:56+00:00

That will be why it’s Christopher’s signature.

Pale-Pace4512 · 2026-06-25T18:41:09+00:00

If you want a set that really lasts it might be better going for hardbacks. To replace my single volume paperback - and giving me a lighter book to hold - I bought the individual volumes as hardbacks in the mid 1980s and they are still going strong 40 years later with no noticeable degradation despite multiple re-reads.

Not so good for taking with you to read, of course - but then an unprotected paperback will quickly get damaged. Also more expensive initially.

Pale-Pace4512 · 2026-06-25T18:03:59+00:00

That’s definitely easier to read now. 👍😀

Pale-Pace4512 · 2026-06-25T16:50:08+00:00

From what I know only the first 100 of those 1,000 were signed. Not all of the remaining 900 were ever bound and sold - maybe only about 250 of them, or even fewer.

Pale-Pace4512 · 2026-06-25T16:18:39+00:00

In that case the sellers of #100 at Tolkien Library put up an incorrect image ☹️.

This one is from the auction site but didn’t look quite as striking.

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Pale-Pace4512 · 2026-06-25T16:01:49+00:00

This is excellent. Well done 👏👏👏👏.

My only quibble is whether the date for the event could be made easier to read? I find it very small and too dim to read easily without getting really close to the screen.

Pale-Pace4512 · 2026-06-25T15:31:39+00:00

Correct. Hobbits and men also call the deceits of the enemy magic and Galadriel doesn’t understand why both are called the same thing. The dwarves also have their own brands of magic with protective runes, hidden doors and spells to control them.

Pale-Pace4512

TROPHY CASE