I read this when it first came out and I was a know-it-all teenager. Blah blah blah elves, I thought. Interminable begats. What a snooze. Ahem.In retrospect, I was the snooze, asleep or so rapt with my own navel that I failed to recognize some of the most complete and powerful world-building since, well, humanity's own. Clearly influenced by any number of ancient sagas, yet entirely free-standing. The level of internal consistency is breathtaking for a world this detailed. So yeah, I was so wrong. I wonder if this means I'm going to have to wade through all the other Middle Earth history Christopher Tolkien edited and pumped out?