Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary vs The Silmarillion: Which Should You Read?

Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary J.R.R. Tolkien · 2001 ★★★★☆ 4.0 448 pages · ≈ 8 h 18 m · Challenging

From his creative attention to detail in these lectures there arises a sense of the immediacy and clarity of his vision. It is as if he entered into the imagined past: standing beside Beowulf and his men shaking out…

The Silmarillion J. R. R. Tolkien & Christopher Tolkien · 1977 ★★★★☆ 4.0 374 pages · ≈ 6 h 56 m · Moderate

A number-one New York Times bestseller when it was originally published, The Silmarillion is the core of J.R.R. Tolkien's imaginative writing, a work whose origins stretch back to a time long before The Hobbit.