The best British & Irish Literary Criticism books: Reddit reviews

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

Suggestions: Find yourself a map of Beleriand (Fonstad's "Atlas of Middle-Earth is the best thing ever), also consult the family tree of Finwë when needed.

According to the information in A Tolkien Bestiary, krakens were one of many various evil beings spawned by Melkor when he first ruled out of Utumno, before even the Elves awoke. When he was defeated and chained, many of these things persished, but a few survived, and this particular kraken resided in some dark underwater place under the Misty Mountains for many Ages. When Moria's Dwarves were getting their asses kicked again, the Orcs found it and dammed the river outside Moria to create the lake we see in the movie for it to infest.

And if you're going to read O'Brian, you need a copy of <em>A Sea of Words</em>, which is a dictionary created by rabid O'Brian fans.

"Marthambles", what a lovely name for a disease!

It doesn't hurt to be more knowledgeable about seafaring, because it will help to unpack some of the denser maneuvers and the like that are a big part of the battles and cutting-out expeditions, and suchlike. Luckily there are a number of companion volumes aimed at lubbers that will help. I picked up this one on my first run through, and it helped get a handle on things. It's still sometimes frustrating to have to look up a number of different terms all at once, but once you have a better sense of them the action flows a little smoother, imo.

But no, I wouldn't say the later books are overburdened with impenetrable naval terminology, or at least none that I remember as being particularly bad. There are some really terrific scenes that I remember vividly coming up for you, too.

Please please please: if you read Ulysses, do it with a friend AND a guide like this one. It will make the process a much more enjoyable one, and will make everything more digestible and comprehensible.

There is a book called Lobscouse and Spotted Dog: Which It's a Gastronomic Companion to the Aubrey/Maturin Novels, that not only describes all of the foods in the novels (and movie), even gives recipes.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0393320944/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_imm_HAAEEV3A5HE1ZH7E71NR

It's a fun book. I really want to try the Drowned Baby desert.

Speaking of maps, you'll probably be a very happy camper if you reward your new achievement (and prep for the Silmarillion) by spending around $20 for this atlas. Helps with not just locations, but populations, battles, journeys, and even timelines. Indispensable and so readable you'll sit with it just turning the pages, not only for reference.

And congratulations on completing your first read of Hobbit and LOTR! Be sure to check in here as you go while reading the Silmarillion. First-time readers have a special honored place here :-)

OP, this is the correct answer right here.

And even if you aren't looking for a whole book, you should still get Fonstad's Atlas. It's a bargain and gives you way more info than a mere book of maps. I once read it nearly cover to cover.

I don't know if you're aware, but there is a marvellous companion book to the series called "Lobscouse and Spotted Dog" containing recipes for every food mentioned in the series.

Amazon link here, obviously also available from other retailers.

Personally, I have made figgy dowdy (it's very similar to spotted dog) a number of sauces, Lobscouse and a sea pie following their instructions. Oh, and quite a lot of the cocktails.

It's a charming book, very much in the flavour of the novels, and I can't recommend it highly enough. As a bonus, there's an intricately worked out time line which will reveal just which Midshipman was responsible for the theft of Stephen's madder fed rats. (Yes, there is also a tested recipe for rat in onion sauce... Madder optional.)

Not exactly an Encyclopedia, but The Atlas of Middle Earth by Karen Wynn Fonstad is excellent.

Everything is incredibly well sourced (including showing you exactly where in the texts she gets her information) and I personally consider it the most accurate and "essential" book on Middle Earth not written by a Tolkien. It has a ton of information, and maps to accompany all of it. It is a lot more than just maps though.

Looks like you can snag it used on Amazon for less than $10 too. https://www.amazon.com/Atlas-Middle-Earth-Revised-Karen-Fonstad/dp/0618126996

Hermetics started with a Greek book called the Hermetica. You can find it with different amounts of scholarly commentary attached.

Kabbalah starts with the Jewish “Zohar”, and the same as Hermetica, there’s tons of scholarly commentary to be found on it.

Here’s links to the best versions of both (although I wouldn’t recommend actually buying this edition of Zohar unless you’re a collector, as it is 12 volumes— also there is probably a newer edition of the Hermetica done by the same people, I just know this one by its cover):

Hermetica https://www.amazon.com/dp/0521425433/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_O9cAFbPJKBFTQ

The Zohar: Pritzker Edition, Vol. 1 https://www.amazon.com/dp/0804747474/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_p.cAFbF70XV9V

I just purchased Artist & Illustrator recently and I'm pretty impressed so far. It has over 200 Tolkien illustrations, reprinted in colour, with a solid amount of commentary (from all of his works [including random sketches and doodles he drew that were not part of any of his books], not just the Legendarium). It's also a quite simply a great looking book - nice and big.

They mention that they take from "Pictures by JRRT" which only has a small amount of photos. They also worked directly with the Tolkien family including Christopher himself to procure the other pictures and illustrations they showed, which I don't believe are available elsewhere.

With that, and while I haven't viewed everything that's available, you really can't go wrong with A&amp;I as a Tolkien companion book.

Edit - added more info

Fun facts: Norwegian immigrants to Liverpool brought lapskaus to Britain, where it was Anglicized to "lobscouse" (British sailors may have also popularized the dish). Lobscouse’s association with Liverpool eventually resulted in the local accent and dialect being named the shortened "scouse" (with which non-Brits may be familiar from the Beatles).

Lobscouse &amp; Spotted Dog

Are you familiar with Tolkien's World from A to Z: The Complete Guide to Middle-Earth.

This is what I was hoping that the Companion would try to be. It has everything in it. Everything. Even the page listings for each entry! Robert Foster put a lot of time and hard work into it, and it shows. I LOVE this thing.

I was extremely disappointed that Jordan's work could not get the same treatment. Not even remotely close.

From what I have seen, there are many dictionaries out there you can use. I would recommend going here and checking out the resources. Pretty useful.

Here's another, I find, useful resource for sale on Amazon.

I hope this helped!

This, OP. Buy it. It's cheap. It's indispensable. It's interesting enough to sit and read by itself.

As others have said recommended I'd start with Silmarillion first, though I'd also recommend picking up The Atlas of Middle-Earth to have close by so you can reference as needed when reading.

/u/italia06823834 mentions it in that post, but I just want to reiterate, if you're interested in maps of Tolkien's works I highly recommend Karen Wynn Fonstad's The Atlas of Middle-Earth. It's only $16 and it's well worth it.

>Also, after the Kybalion where do I go?

For sure check out the actual texts of historical Hermeticism. As the other poster ITT noted, The Kybalion is a New Thought book published in 1908 and not directly connected to Hermeticism. The best source material to read is the Corpus Hermeticm.

https://www.amazon.com/Hermetica-Hermeticum-Asclepius-Translation-Introduction/dp/0521425433/ref=sr_1_1?crid=UQGMQRNZPJ2&amp;keywords=Corpus+Hermetica&amp;qid=1671396837&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=corpus+hermetica%2Cstripbooks%2C70&amp;sr=1-1

You might enjoy the story. This would have been during POB's tour of the US, the time he had dinner aboard the U.S.S. Constitution in Boston with William F. Buckley and Walter Cronkite, 1999 maybe. I think Patrick Tull was there too. I was active then on the POB Usenet group and one of the members invited the others to his home near Boston for a party in celebration. I don't know how he got Patrick Tull to come.

I showed up with a couple bottles of sparkling wine and some homemade cheese straws and found myself in a very nice kitchen meeting the "amiable sluts", the mother and daughter team who wrote Lobscouse and Spotted Dog. Amiable indeed! They praised my cheese straws, which went straight to my heart. And then, wafting over our heads, there was The Voice. I followed it to its source and found Patrick Tull standing in a group of admirers and poured out on him a brief flood of fanboy geekieness. I had already spent so many hours with his voice.

Later he favored the company with a performance of the Off Hats! piece. Very moving, as always. The party showed what you know already, that POB fans are some of the nicest people.

It’s partial, utilize but don’t treat it as direct doctrine, this isn’t church. Get this book. and then get every book cited in it, study it until it hurts.

I wouldn't bother with much of the "optional stuff" until you've read the main trilogy twice. Silmarillion is a good next step.

Unfinished Tales is just that - a lot of "unfinished" and often contradictory stories. Something people new to the space don't quite understand is that a LOT of the works in UT/HoME are not actual complete, fleshed out stories - but notes on directions that Tolkien jotted down, him starting to take characaters/stories in certain places, changing his mind and then creating another version. But it's all recorded, so we read and study them all.

I would suggest avoiding those two for now as they might confuse you until you fully grasp the main stories. A lot of these subs also struggle with that when regarding the show, because they believe there is an actual "canon" that was broken having only read, say, the Silmarillion, without reading more of Tolkien's ideas for the second age.

My suggestion would be to read

1. The Fellowship of the Ring
2. The Two Towers
3. The Return of the King
4. The Hobbit
5. The Silmarillion - although even this has many things that were published that were no longer considered "canon" by Tolkien, so be a little careful with it
6. The Lord of the Rings Readers Companion by Hammond &amp; Scull
7. Any of Beren & Luthien/Fall of Gondolin/Children of Hurin/Fall of Numenor that interests you
8. Then dive into Unfinished Tales & HoME.
   

Don't sleep on the readers companion; make sure it's the one by H&S. It's AMAZING, and it complements a second re-read so well.

Seriously, just buy Fonstad's Atlas right now. Look how cheap it is! You won't have to do any printing and you'll get not just maps, but explanations of the maps. And SO MANY MAPS. All the maps. Maps of places, maps of populations, maps of battles! You will end up reading this thing on its own like a regular book. If you love Tolkien you need this book.

We're all obligated to chime in here because OP is a new reader and might not get the joke :-)

OP, avoid all the works of David Day like the plague, he will lead you astray. But do go ahead and buy the wonderful Atlas of Middle-earth by Karen Wynn Fonstad, you won't regret it!

You don't *need* it, but you might want Forster's Complete Guide to Middle Earth. It's handy for looking up obscure in-world allusions and references, keeping track of uncommon characters, etc. Theses days it's fairly easy to find a website or app that does the same thing (Encyclopedia of Arda is a good one) but I like old fashioned printed reference works.

Otherwise, welcome to Middle Earth! Enjoy your travels here!

I haven’t seen all editions of LOTR, obviously, but all of my copies have the same small maps. If you really want a good resource for tracking their travels, I’d recommend “The Atlas of Middle-earth” by Karen Wynn Fonstad.

The Atlas of Middle-Earth (Revised Edition) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0618126996/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_WV6A129ZBPV2JRDPXGEZ

This was made by Karen Wynn Fonstad, a geographer/cartographer and serious Tolkien student. It's from her Tolkien atlas, which is not infallible but is widely praised and seen as one of the best resources we have. She based her work on not just the published "canon" but also on the additional materials that came out in HoMe.

Hammond and Scull are well-regarded. Generally, though, the best writers tend to focus on scholarship rather than general reference. There aren't a lot of good books of that type for Tolkien, probably because to go into sufficient depth, you have to make your reader spend just as much time on your book as if they were just reading Tolkien's books themselves. The other end of the spectrum is stuff like "Lord of the Rings for Dummies," which, while more reliable than Day, is pretty shallow, and in between, there's just a big gap.

That's how Day managed to make such bank on his high-visibility, low-information book series. The people who were already familiar with JRRT indepth instantly spotted the insufferably poor quality, but newcomers to the fandom, if they were looking for an abridged catalog of "the lore," thought they were finding a great prize that would help them "get up to speed." His books look very tempting if you don't know what you're getting.

He takes quite an authoritative tone in them, too, with the result that we regularly get newcomers posting here attempting to show off some bit of knowledge, only to be quickly told that "that's wrong, and it sounds like something you'd read in David Day," and that's when they find they have a lot of learning to unlearn.

You dodged a bullet.

I don't think you can rely at all on any game maps, except for in-game use. Those "fantastic details" aren't necessarily accurate, and if anything is "not covered in the books" then it is inaccurate by default, as in "made up." Not that that makes them bad per se - I'm sure in the game it's loads of fun - but the game is no more accurate in terms of maps than it is terms of story.

The only non-Tolkien-authored source that might be useful for out-of-game convos like this one would be Karen Wynn Fonstad's Atlas of Middle-earth. It's not flawless but it's the best thing out there and based on tons of indepth research. If you're into maps (which it seems like you might be) it's a page-turner, maybe you'd enjoy it!

Welcome aboard, sir or ma'am. A glass of wine with you.

May I humbly recommend some additional resources that shall enrich your delight?

- "A Sea of Words" will greatly facilitate your understanding of the languages, terms, and jargon of the period and the Navy. It's not necessary to comprehend the novels, but it will aid in your pleasure of them.

- "Harbors and High Seas" may be of service in helping you track the maritime voyages and movements of Jack and Stephen, the creatures.