Teacher's guide to the readings and "conclusion" and "introduction" in History of the Americ... Book

This is not an easy read and should not be the first book to read if you're new to Tolkien, in fact, it should probably be last, after you've read The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, then The Silmarillion and probably Unfinished Tales.

It is an in-depth account of the First Age and the conflict between Morgoth and the elves, men and other gods. It is an awe-inspiring epic of stupendous scale, and it is hard to believe that one man and his fantastical fantasy mind created such a world. If only such tales as The Fall of Gondolin, or Turin Turumbar could be made into movies, what a film they would be!

The only slight issue I had was it was quite repetitive towards the end, a continual retelling of the same stories, just little tweaks here and there - but that's what makes it interesting to a Tolkien fan, the differences, but towards the end I was skimming pages quite often... yet I didn't mind. Because after you've read about a battle between hundreds of Balrogs, fire drakes and valiant elves you've got your money's worth ten times over.

Now onto volumes two and three.