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Many decades ago when I first read THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING, I sat in awe with Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin as Aragorn sang the song of The Fall of Gil-galad as they sat by the campfire in the dell below the crown of Amon Sul. Who was Aragorn that he knew such things of ages past and sang of them with such regret, longing, and love?
Similarly, I wondered at Aragorn's age and his earlier life when I read he once served Gondor and Rohan under the assumed name Thorongil long before the events of The War of the Ring. I wanted to read of these adventures but, alas, I only had this brief mention of his earlier adventures.
Both the preceding examples were extraneous and unessential to the events occurring in the LOTR. Why include them?
I believe such background material provides greater story and character depth. We all have histories we carry with us. So does the world, ftm. We are the sum of all we have been, as it is said. And so are our character creations--or, at least, I believe they should be.
As a storyteller (I daren't assume the cognomen 'writer' or 'author')crafting a tale of my protagonist in a series of stories, I almost inevitably discover new (actually, old) tales about my protagonist that guide how he/she behaves currently--and thus find seeds for new stories.
While writing this evening, I realized I have created a Hall of Mirrors. I can't create an origin tale! In a prior novel and a story I've written about my protagonist, I briefly (offhandedly) reference earlier adventures per the Gil-galad Gambit discussed above, including one where my main characters all met. I am now writing that origin tale--and have discovered an even earlier one with a different group of characters associated with my protagonist. This is the song that never ends...
I think I need write a story that occurs at the Creation of the Universe! (But I'm afraid I may then discover something occurring before).
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The same thing happened to me the other night when I finally sat down and summarized the events that led up to my story! It IS a novel (or has the potential to be). It had me scratching my head and wondering if I had started in the wrong spot, but since the entire backstory, complex as it is, takes place 900 years prior to what I'm writing, I think I'm ok.
Once you start spinning a world, it's hard to stop.
I realized that also about him. I wish there were stories about his earlier life. Some of the history of Middle Earth was put in that other book with the long name. Starts with a S. But doesn't include him. Then there's that new book finished by Tolken's son or is it grandson? I forget off hand what it is about. And there are some Short stories about Middle Earth, I believe, but I don't know if any are about Aragorn.
But it works like that is it easy to include tidbits that could be expanded into full stories or novels. I think you're right those tidbits add to the story and to who the character is. Other writers have done the same type of thing so it is something that can be done.
ou ou ou Can I be the one that writes that story about Aragron?
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To my mind the difference between a great book and an epic book is just that sort of background. You notice all the epic books such as Song of Ice and Fire begin almost immediately with an incredibly detailed history woven in with myths and half-believed old stories that make the book seem real right from the get-go.
Tolkien spent 40 years on his books, and all during that time he was thinking of the entire history of Middle Earth from the beginning to long after the actual Lord of the Rings trilogy ends. He even invented some languages for it and created intricate histories for all the races.
Granted, you can have a great book without that sort of exhaustive detail, but even tidbits and hints of some past that you never bother to delve deeper into can still make a story richer.
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Well, a plausible character needs a little backstory -- but it's not a backstory to *him*. A believable character, even a secondary one, can't slavishly pursue the author's agenda. If he doesn't have some agenda and a little history of his own his actions are going to be too pat, too predictable. I see this all the time as I watch writers' MSS take shape: in early drafts characters do things in response to the nonsensical demand of the plot, but as the author labors to fix that the characters start to take on a complexity that feels plausible.
But I don't think you have to go as far Tolkien did, merging all those character backstories until they become a culture and history from which more stories emerge; in fact I think it might be counterproductive. Tolkien is frequently a beautiful writer; he is wonderfully detailed in his imagination too. But he's not what I'd call a *deft* writer. One does not look at LotR and admire it's efficiency or (especially in Fellowship of the Ring) the neatness of its organization. Admittedly and amazingly it all fits together, but it took him *eighteen years* to manage the feat, during which (he pointedly reminds us in one of his prefaces) he had other duties he could not neglect. LotR has many admirable qualities, such as grandeur, beauty, or even profundity in places; but economy isn't one of them.
And remember, LotR was the end of the line for Tolkien as a novelist.
There are lots of authors who publish many wonderful books without falling down the world-building rabbit hole. Most of 'em, in fact. Of course some of us are dangerously inclined to do just that. We know who we are.
Anyhow, the *Lay of Gil Galad* isn't Tolkien's best poetic work, in my opinion. I'd vote for the *Lament for Eorl the Young* ("Where now is the horse and rider?"), which Bernard Hill quotes so memorably in *The Two Towers* movie. For me that's one of the high points of the entire movie trilogy, along with Hill's quotation of Theoden's battle cry ("Arise, arise, Riders of Théoden!) in the third movie. The immense gulf in power between Tolkiens words and imitations the scriptwriters shows what a little poetry (well... a lot actually) can do for writer.
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It wasn't The Fall of Gil-galad, it was The Lay of Beren and Luthien---or at least one version of it. (Poems with the subject matter also known as The Geste of Beren and Luthien, or The Lay of Leithian (spelling uncertain), or Light as Leaf on Linden-Tree.)
It's important 'cause it portrays Middle-Earth as a place of depth, where a lot of history (and mythology) has happened.
On Lord of the Rings being Tolkien's "end of the line"...on the one hand, he'd already produced The Hobbit, and would also go on to put out Farmer Giles of Ham and a couple others, so he wasn't a one-shot like Harper Lee or Ross Lockridge or Margaret Mitchell...on the other hand, there are some multi-volume novelists I wish had stopped at just one or two...
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