The Book of Lost Tales Part 1 - Reading Group

[Curufin]

This is the first thread in the HoME reading group discussed here. Please feel free to join in!

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The Book of Lost Tales - Chapter 1 - The Cottage of Lost Play

Characters:

Eriol - (Human) A mariner who is a "son of Eärendel"
Lindo - (Eldar) The Lord of the Cottage of Lost Play
Vairë - (Eldar) The Wife of Lindo
Meril-i-Turinqi - (Eldar) of the line of Inwë (Ingwë)

Brief Summary:

In this chapter, Eriol, a human mariner/explorer, has stumbled onto the isle of Tol Eressëa, and finds himself at a 'magical' house known as The Cottage of Lost Play. Here he meets Elves and becomes involved in story-telling and learning of the lore of Elder Days. This chapter also includes several poetic versions of 'The Cottage of Lost Play' and 'Kortirion among the Trees'.

Comments:

I thought I'd just post some of my impressions of the chapter, and other people can comment or add impressions of their own, or ask questions. Afraid I'm not real great at getting stuff like this started.

While reading this chapter, I was fascinated with the ways in which Tolkien tied together the ancient history of England with Tol Eressëa and the Elves of Valinor. I think this is something that would have been a good addition to the Silmarillion, although I also understand why it was left out.

I also found interesting how different the elves were between, for instance, BoLT 1 and, for instance, Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth. In this version, there is even some indication that Tolkien thought of the elves as 'small', although CT points out that he also saw this as due to 'fading' and not being their natural state...

The poetry was also quite enjoyable, I thought. I thought it did a good job of conveying the sadness of a beautiful place and memories lost, just simply in the tone of the verse...