HoMe Study: Essays discusssion

[Nóm]

This thread is for general discussion about essays that our guild members have written or will write.

Here are my thoughts:
I've wanted to write an essay dealing in great part with information found in HoMe. A problem with this is that I have read such a small amount of HoMe that I am not sure what the subject of my first essay should be. I want to write the essays to help myself study these books, but also to present them in our guild to get suggestions and comments on the essays so that I might learn more.

A great part of our membership have expressed interest in digging into HoMe and learning all that can be learned of Arda and I think there must be some way that we can help eachother in this.

Maybe those of you who have read the entire HoMe (all TTF members, not just guild members) can offer some suggestions for essay topics, for any member who is interested.

I have discussed the study of HoMe with a member of the Guild of Tolkienology and him and I are leaning in the direction of the opinion that HoMe is best studied alone. I do not want to believe this though, I think there must be a way that we can work together that is more efficient than solitary studies.

I am thinking that good topics for those who don't know HoMe well might be a small essay on the evolution of a particular chacracter; their name, close relations, and the evolution of the events surrounding them.

Topics that require mostly the study of just one chapter or one book would be good too.

What might, for example, be a good topic that requires only the reading of Myth's Transformed (outside of orcs please!;))?

Philosophical and theoretical topics are good, but I think it is imporant that the essay topics require the gathering and analsys of information, rather than just the spouting off of thoughts or speculations (something I am too inclined to do) that are based on a small bit of information found in HoMe.

If someone wants to present a topic with a wider scope, it might be reasonable to tell which chapters of which books need to be studied.

Thoughts?

[Inderjit S]

Good idea, Nom. At the moment, I have only read 6 HoME, 1,2,6,10,11,12 though I should get 4/5 by the end of the week.

On theological essays, HoME 10, is about the best book you need, as it contains the Athrabeth and Myths Transformed. (Those dratted Orcs are the most intresting part of it.)

How, about, topics on why Tolkien changed certain things in his mythology, such as Gil-Galad's parental evolution (why he didn't want Finrod as father and introudouced the'Amarie'f factor) and the fact that Valar could no longer pro-create.

[Nóm]

I am going to start work on my first essay.

It would be a help if anyone can tell me where to find information on the follow:

Interaction of men with elves before they met the Eldar (aside from mentions in published Sil and Vol. X)

Men having contact with the Valar (aside from Tour)?

Anything regarding the early beliefs of men (aside from Adanel's tale).

I may ask for more later, but for now I know I could use the information that I listed.

Thanks!

[Inderjit S]

Interaction of men with elves before they met the Eldar (aside from mentions in published Sil and Vol. X)

HoME 11; Quendi and Eldar

HoME 12: Of Dwarves and Men



Men having contact with the Valar (aside from Tour)?

Pretty much non-existent, unless you want to drift into the non-canonical and early mythlogies. The only one I can think of at the moment, is in HoME 5; The Lost Road, in which the Valar were said to walk in the gardens of Numenor, though that idea was dropped. Also, there may have been Valar in the War of Wrath (Orome and Tulkas perhaps?) It is plain that Orome is known amongst men, hence the 'Kine of Araw', Araw being either Mannish or Sindarin for Orome. ( I think Tauron is Orome's Sindarin name.)