Unfinished Tales was a great read, but The Nature of Middle Earth does make me want to buy ALL the Tolkien. By and large confirms what I suspected about the philosophy behind the story but that's for another time. Anyway, not much narrative here but tonnes of interesting ideas. In classic Tolkien fashion, this varies from ultra-nerdy pedantry on the life cycles of elves to meditations on the nature of mind and matter that could have been lifted straight out of Locke or Berkeley; an insightful discussion on why the Valar have a moral duty to give Melkor the benefit of the doubt gives way to... the friendly dances of the honey-loving Numenorean bears and why chopping the legs off squirrels is evil. Yes, really.
Man was a fuckin' genius. Definitely went a bit nuts from time to time but that's part of the charm.
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