N.E. Brigand
Half-elven
Jul 3 2008, 8:11am
Views: 2408
|
|
Links to earlier LotR discussions.
|
|
|
Some discussion leaders in this, our fourth discussion of The Lord of the Rings, have asked that links to earlier Reading Room discussions of LotR be posted here for reference.
The first LotR discussion ran from March 2000 (approximately) through July 30, 2001. This was before my time, but I believe the discussion began on Main, and that the Reading Room was created in 2000 to separate the discussion from the other activity on that forum. Unfortunately, posts made before January 2001 to the old forums cannot be accessed. However, most of the first LotR discussion was transcribed and saved to the Lasselanta Archive (preserved courtesy of the internet archive). Some chapters are missing from the archive: the Prologue (if it was discussed); Book I, Ch. 1-5; Book I, Ch. 10; Book V, Ch. 3; Book VI, Ch. 5-9; and the Appendices. The earlier missing chapter discussions are probably unrecoverable, but the later missing chapter discussions can now be found in this thread indexing the Reading Room for 2001, 2002, and 2007. This was the schedule:
-Book IV, Ch. 8-10 -- Jan. 7-26, 2001
-Book V -- Jan. 29-Apr. 7, 2001
-Book VI -- Apr. 9-June 8, 2001
-Appendices, Summary -- June 11-July 30, 2001.
The second LotR discussion ran from Sep. 2, 2002 through Feb. 15, 2004. Links to all threads can be found using hatster's great Reading Room index of links for every RR post from May 10, 2002 through Dec. 22, 2004. Here are the dates to search for each book:
-Book I -- Sep. 2-Nov. 23, 2002
-Book II -- Nov. 25, 2002-Feb. 22, 2003
-Book III -- Mar. 2-May 9, 2003
-Book IV -- May 12-July 20, 2003
-Book V -- July 20-Sep. 28, 2003
-Book VI -- Sep. 29-Nov. 30, 2003
-Prologue, Appendices, Summary -- Nov. 30, 2003-Feb. 15, 2004.
Note that the Prologue was discussed after Book VI, not before Book I. Also, there was no discussion of Book II, Ch. 1, "The Departure of Boromir", because the discussion leader was ill.
The third LotR discussion ran from Feb. 7, 2005 through June 30, 2006. Thanks to the tremendous efforts of squire, all threads from that discussion can easily be found using his LotR Footerama.
(For reference: the subjects of all official Reading Room discussions have been, in this order: LotR, The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, LotR, The Hobbit, Leaf by Niggle, The Silmarillion, Smith of Wootton Major, Farmer Giles of Ham, "The Lord of the Rings 1954-2004" conference, LotR, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia (selections), Unfinished Tales, thematic views of Tolkien, illustrations of Tolkien, The Children of Húrin, and LotR, in that order.)
My recommendation to discussion leaders is that you not read the previous discussions until after you have formulated your own plans, so that you feel no pressure to compete with the earlier work. Your discussion should be based on your interests. Only after you have at least an outline and a list of your own questions might it be worthwhile to examine what others have already said. But that's just a suggestion, and not one that I myself have always followed.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
We're discussing The Lord of the Rings in the Reading Room, Oct. 15, 2007 - Mar. 22, 2009!
Join us Jun. 30-Jul. 6 for "The Passage of the Marshes".
(This post was edited by Kimi on Jul 5 2008, 6:29am)
|