I haven't gotten to Beren and Luthien yet but The Fall of Gondolin is fantastic. It's not just the story, but several versions of the story (some incomplete) written at different times with notes and comparisons by Christopher Tolkien. It's both a great story (or at least a shell of one) and a really interesting window into Tolkien's process. It's also a bit depressing in that it's clear that there was amazing work in there -- it seems like he could have developed many of the stories in The Silmarillion into legitimate novels or novellas in their own right -- but lost heart in doing so because he despaired of them ever getting published. From The Fall of Gondolin it seems like even LotR was in doubt for a time because it was too close to the story of The Silmarillion rather than The Hobbit, which is what the publishers wanted.
If you want to scare yourself further, check out The Storm Before the Storm: The Beginning of the End of the Roman Republic. There are a lot of interesting parallels there, too.
swarmofseals t1_itgjnoi wrote
Reply to comment by Qlabalex in I just read The Silmarilion and I am speechless. by Tenorius
I haven't gotten to Beren and Luthien yet but The Fall of Gondolin is fantastic. It's not just the story, but several versions of the story (some incomplete) written at different times with notes and comparisons by Christopher Tolkien. It's both a great story (or at least a shell of one) and a really interesting window into Tolkien's process. It's also a bit depressing in that it's clear that there was amazing work in there -- it seems like he could have developed many of the stories in The Silmarillion into legitimate novels or novellas in their own right -- but lost heart in doing so because he despaired of them ever getting published. From The Fall of Gondolin it seems like even LotR was in doubt for a time because it was too close to the story of The Silmarillion rather than The Hobbit, which is what the publishers wanted.