I Want To Know Everything About J.r.r. Tolkien And Middle Earth

I want to read Tolkien's Middle Earth series in chronological (in universe) order. How should I go about this?

As a moderate Tolkien enthusiast, I have one word to tell you:Don’t (yes, sorry, it’s two words, but who cares?)Yes, as others have mentioned, the Silmarillion is the first one, even though it can be interrupted by reading the Children of Hurin.But the beginning of the Silmarillion will not be a satisfying read. Really not. It was made into a more or less publishable form by Christopher Tolkien after his father’s death, but it’s a world away from Professor Tolkien’s writing at his best. Literally.So unless you have a very special aim in mind - no, please, I don’t really want to know - go for the “classical” order as already described, Hobbit, then TLOTR, then Silmarillion, and then the rest if you are still hungry.

Which of J.R.R. Tolkien's books on Middle-earth are considered canonical?

Thank you John for asking me to answer my own question!"I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description [hard-core pornography], and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so.  But I know it when I see it ..."  -- Supreme Court Justice Potter StewartDespite using the word canonical a lot in my answers, I don't really know which of Tolkien's books qualify, or even if it's possible to build a definitive list.  That's why I asked the question here, hoping Joshua Engel would take a shot at it even though I can't afford the credits to ask him.  But (I think) I know it when I see it.  So I include all the books you did, minus Christopher Tolkien's The History of Middle-earth (HoM-e).  There's a huge amount of canonical information there, but there is also a significant amount of information that was judged to be non-canonical by J.R.R. and/or Christopher Tolkien.  And there's nothing wrong with that, but when I read those things it messes with my mind and everything starts to mix together.  While the various inconsistencies, changing ideas and oversimplifications contained in J.R.R. Tolkien's collected letters prevent me from considering them canon, they are useful sources (like HoM-e) for understanding or clarifying intent within canonical works.Regarding the fact that J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien and Guy Gavriel Kay all contributed to The Silmarillion there is no problem with considering it canon.  The Christian bible canon had numerous authors contributing, most of whom never met each other.       The fact that The Silmarillion was published when and as it was is what gives it its canonical status.  If Christopher Tolkien published an updated version of The Silmarillion tomorrow with altered histories of events and characters (and I wish he would) then that would replace the existing Silmarillion as the canonical source.  After all, both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings were updated multiple times after initial publication and we consider the revised versions -- not the originals -- as canon.What I'd really like to see is Christopher Tolkien publish an omnibus with everything he considers canonical in blue text and everything else in black text.  See What would be the optimal structure to use for an omnibus publication of J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth fantasy literature works?

If J.R.R.Tolkien were alive, what would you want to ask him most about his middle earth?

This is what Tolkien wrote in a letter to one of his fans in 1956:while many like you demand maps, others wish for geological indications rather than places; many want Elvish grammars, phonologies, and specimens; some want metrics and prosodies — not only of the brief Elvish specimens, but of the 'translated' verses in less familiar modes, such as those written in the strictest form of Anglo-Saxon alliterative verse (e.g. the fragment at the end of the Battle of the Pelennor, V vi 124). Musicians want tunes, and musical notation; archaeologists want ceramics and metallurgy. Botanists want a more accurate description of the mallorn, of elanor, niphredil, alfirin, mallos, and symbelmynë; and historians want more details about the social and political structure of Gondor; general enquirers want information about the Wainriders, the Harad, Dwarvish origins, the Dead Men, the Beornings, and the missing two wizards (out of five).I’m inclined to say, “Yes please, all of the above”. And I agree with Mary Tower that the names of some of the female characters who are implied in canon but never actually mentioned would be good.In terms of background detail, I’d like to get more of an idea of population figures. When the elves marched from Cuiviénen to the Sea, are we talking about a few hundred people, a few thousand, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands? What about when the Noldor returned? Was Gondolin a city the size of an Anglo-Saxon burh, a mediaeval capital like Paris or London, or a metropolis like Rome or Constantinople or Baghdad at the height of its empire? And how about Minas Tirith, for that matter? How many people did Elendil’s nine ships actually carry — are we talking caravel-sized or cruise liner-sized? How many people lived in Eriador in the late Third Age; was it really as desolate as the books imply, and if so how did Aragorn refound the North Kingdom if nobody except the inhabitants of the Shire, Bree and a handful of Rangers lived there?But if he doesn’t have time for that, a simple question. Would you prefer your readers to treat the totality of your writings as if they were a collection of primary sources from the ‘Elder Days’, of varying provenance and reliability, and make their own choice about the version they prefer? Or do you wish you’d created a single, final and definitive version of your stories, and perhaps even burned all the previous drafts and earlier attempts?