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Dec 16, 2009

Alfonso rated it:

Ever since I joined GR I’ve been putting off the writing of this book’s review… but since I’m high as fuck on cold medicine I feel like I can do it so here suffer thru it!:

Along long time ago a little 3rd world kid with an afro became fascinated of what he read on the internet about some British writer named Tolkien… he wanted his books… it became his obsession… so he embarked on a quest to find his books and read the shit out of them… but alas! The book was no where to be foun More...

21 comments like (49 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Francis rated it:

The first fantasy book I ever read and still my all-time favorite. That said, it's not for everybody. It's been compared to the Old Testament, and that's still the best analogy; if you think that Moses leading his people out of Egypt is the stuff of grand drama, then this is the book for you, Tolkien fan or not. If you don't, then you probably ought to give The Silmarillion a pass, no matter how much you liked Tolkien's other work. This is not Lord of the Rings Plus; it's quite literally the More...

3 comments like (21 people liked it)

Aug 13, 2011

Elf rated it:

This book was probably not the way to be introduced to the LotR world. I'd never seen any of the animated movies. The new movies hadn't come out yet. I'd never even picked up any of the books. Then this book was assigned as part of the course I was taking.

The prolgue about the creation of the world was beautiful and amazing. And it fooled me into think the rest of the book would be just as good.

Parts of it read like the Bible. "And so-and-so begot so-and-so. And so More...

3 comments like (8 people liked it)

Feb 07, 2012

El rated it:

This is one of those books that I'm sort of surprised I never read sooner. Like back in the day when I was reading The Lord of the Rings, or later when I went to see the movies in the theater (multiple times), or even later when I owned the movies (both the fancy extended versions and the regular versions, viewed multiple times). I think Tolkien did alright for himself, but my experience with his writing has gone only so far as The Lord of the Rings. Then again, I'm not a huge reader of fanta More...

6 comments like (5 people liked it)

Aug 13, 2011

Chad rated it:

This book is essentially The Bible for J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-Earth. It's the first book Tolkien started working on in 1917, and he continued working on it until his death. It was actually edited and published by Tolkien's son Christopher Tolkien.

The book is not nearly as prosaic as The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings, but it does explain many aspects of Middle-Earth that enhance those other stories, including the creation of the universe, the origins of the races that inhabit Middl More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Aug 13, 2011

Terence rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Aug 13, 2011

Carly rated it:

A lot of people complain about the complexity of this book, but I think they just need to grow up and/or learn how to read more effectively.

I found it to be one of the best books I have ever read. The back story it provided to the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit books was highly entertaining, and the style of writing was so beautiful it could have been poetry.

I highly recommend it to anyone that can take something a little more complex, but if you are a less advanced rea More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Aug 13, 2011

Jake rated it:

The Silmarillion is one of those books that I’ve meant to read for years, literally. It is, according to some, the book that separates casual Lord of the Rings fans from truly hard-core Tolkien lovers. My first girlfriend confessed to preferring the Silmarillion over the Lord of the Rings, which she was unable to finish.
[info:]murpheyslaw likewise holds that the Silmarillion is the preferable work, being more true to Tolkien’s desire to create an epic that the Lord of the Rings is. Or somet More...

1 comment like (8 people liked it)

May 18, 2008

Brandon rated it:

A must read for any Tolkien fan. This one lays out the foundations of Tolkien's amazing world. Here are a few thougths on Tolkien's theory and purposes.
When Owen Barfield read poetry, he would at times come across a passage which would impress him very strongly. It would cause what he called a “felt change of consciousness”. As he began to make an in depth inquiry into this phenomenon, it grew into an epistomology: a theory of knowledge, and meaning. Barfield was a member of the More...

3 comments like (6 people liked it)

Apr 12, 2011

Peter rated it:

I read J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings in 1976 and have prized it above all since then, yet I didn't finish reading the Silmarillion until 2007, 30 years after having received the first edition as a gift from my freshman English professor.

All that I valued about LOTR was multiplied tenfold by Tolkien's history of the creation if Eà, and early ages of Arda, the world in which Middle-earth exists. If you read the Lord of the Rings and particularly enjoy the sense of history that More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Paul rated it:

Tolkien thought this was his greatest work, and I agree. In it he develops not characters but millennia of history and an entire cosmology as well as some very touch individual stories (love stories really). The Simmarillion is really an acquired taste, but so worth the effort and so deep.

0 comments like (9 people liked it)

Sep 16, 2010

Terence rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

3 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 11, 2008

Robert rated it:

J. R. R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion (Ballantine, 1977)

In the sixties, something changed. Perhaps Mother Church realized that people were turning away from her; perhaps a cadre of teachers decided the younger generation needed to get in touch with its cultural roots; whatever. We ended up with a course in either the religion, literature, or both departments at many universities: The Bible As Literature. Seems they decided that the definition of "literature" (as it all too often More...

4 comments like (4 people liked it)

Sep 24, 2007

michael spencer rated it:

9/18: It appears I am through one-third. The book is dense, and its nature is to make one want to pay as close attention as is possible. So far, I am impressed with the skill for continuance and weaving Tolkien possesses here. It is indeed something for those lovers of fantasy, or myth, or high olden language, but it does in fact reveal characters to whom the reader may attach and not realize it until the story turns in some unforeseen emotional way. The intricacy with which Tolkien also gives p More...

3 comments like (3 people liked it)

Aug 13, 2011

St-Michel rated it:

Now this is my favourite book by Tolkien. LOTR is incredible, but in my opinion, the war of the ring just doesn't hold up to the stories inside The Silmarillion. The heroes inside these pages are so much more mythic, audacious and awe-inspiring than those of the latter age. In the grand scheme of Tolkien's regime, this IS Middle Earth.
Basically, what LOTR did for me for reading in general, this book did the same for the fantasy genre. This is the book that really opened my eyes to not More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Aug 30, 2011

César rated it:

Al principio se hace muy pesado de leer, en poco tiempo se presentan muchos personajes y razas y no te enteras de quienes van a ser importantes y quienes no.

A partir del capítulo 5 aproximadamente ya cambia y es soportable, hasta un punto en el que, al igual que los de la saga de El Señor de los Anillos, es imposible dejar de leerlo. Es imprescindible leerse este libro si hemos leído ya El Hobbit y los 3 posteriores. Se aprende el origen de las razas, sus relaciones, la creación de p More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 10, 2011

Chris rated it:

Sauron was become now a sorceror of dreadful power, master of shadows and of phantoms, foul in wisdom, cruel in strength, misshaping what he touched, twisting what he ruled, lord of werewolves; his dominion was torment.

Ah, Sauron, Maia of Aulë—beyond doubt the singularly most enthralling antagonist whom I encountered as a young reader, possessing all of the malevolence and dark charisma and naked power of Satan, but unhobbled by the multi-aspectual morphology of Christian theology and More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Aug 13, 2011

Dan rated it:

This book has already become one of my favorites. When all the "Lord of the Rings" movies came out, I picked up the first of the novels, but only got through the first hundred pages, finding the prose kinda flat and elementary, albeit well wrought. The voice of the Simarillion, however, is a much different animal. Strung with archaic verbs, biblical turns of phrase, and utterly epic in scope, this book reads more like scripture than fiction. And the story of "Beren and Luthiel More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Aug 13, 2011

Isil rated it:

Le Silmarillion est une œuvre posthume. Bien qu’il soit la base de l’œuvre puisque Tolkien en avait commencé les brouillons bien avant Le Hobbit et Le Seigneur des Anneaux, il ne l’avait jamais terminé et c’est son fils qui a achevé la mise en forme du texte à partir des nombreux brouillons. Le livre se compose de cinq parties (sans compter les appendices, au demeurant passionnantes pour les fans).

Les deux premières parties, l’« Ainulindalë » et le « Valaquenta » présentent la cosm More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 12, 2011

Dulac3 rated it:

I’m somewhat dubious of my ability to review this work, but I’m going to do my best. _The Silmarillion_ is the work of Tolkien’s most often viewed with apprehension by readers and, I think, the one most unjustly maligned. It has the reputation of being the most difficult of his published works and I guess this is not without reason, though I think it is often a position based more on preconceptions than due to the inherent value of the work itself.

I’ve read _The Silmarillion_ many t More...

10 comments like (8 people liked it)

May 07, 2007

kastle rated it:

As a huge Tolkien fan, this book was like the icing on the cake after reading the Lord of the Rings trilogy. This book is a must for anyone interested in devouring more history of Middle Earth. It details the beginnings of Middle Earth, the creation of Elves, Dwarves, and Men and the subsequent relationships that develop amongst them.
While it is sometimes hard to keep the names and relationships of the various characters straight, the story enriches the reader's acquaintance with Middl More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 13, 2011

ba rated it:

I really wanted to like this book. I had devoured The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings and was in desperate need of back story. But this book did not satisfy. I got more back story by memorizing the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual. However, there must still be a void within, as I recently purchased The Children of Hurin, hoping that it might be the saga of the Age before Hobbits that I crave so pathetically. More...

4 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 09, 2008

Jesse rated it:

I first read this book my senior year in high school in 2002. It benefited me in multiple ways. Number one, due to it's complex Old English style, I gained a higher level of literacy. I made sure I understood what Tolkien was talking about. Number two, the stories were extremely compelling. Each story had a purpose. This has made things easier now, as I see the Silmarillion as a book full of short stories that intermingle wonderfully. Third, there are so many beautiful written concepts (i.e. the More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Aug 13, 2011

Callista rated it:

Uncle! Pax! I give up (at least for now). I’ve tried starting at the beginning, I’ve tried skipping around, but I find myself not wanting to finish reading this book. I admire Tolkien’s attention to detail and all the effort he put into world- and language-building, but I don’t find it a compelling read. It doesn’t grab me like Greek, Roman, and Egyptian myth or Arthurian legend. I get bogged down in all the strange names for people and places (especially since everyone and everything has more t More...

4 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 13, 2011

Peter rated it:

Warning, this book is for Tolkien junkies only. Not casual readers of Tolkien... not the Hobbit was kinda fun, wasn't Bilbo cute sort of readers. In fact I believe it might be prerequisite that in order to enjoy The Silmarillion, one must have read The Lord of the Rings a minimum of three times. I am one such dedicated dweeb so I love it.

4 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 06, 2008

Danny rated it:

I understand that the Silmarillion isn't for everyone, but I found it a fascinating read. Lacking the familiar notion of single narrative that has standard character development etc, it reads more like a historical treatment of Tolkein's world. However, I couldn't help but love the sweeping epic moments and the collection of fascinating stories. The Lord of the Rings trilogy is a small part of the collection that actually is near the end of the whole narrative. As a fan of Lord of the Rings More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 17, 2011

Duesterwald-Online rated it:

Inhalt:
Das Silmarillion beginnt mit Eru, dem Herrscher über Alles und der Musik der Ainur, der Heiligen. In dieser Musik findet die Welt, so wie deren Bewohner, ihren Anfang. Die Höchsten der Ainur sind die Valar und nach Eru sind sie somit die mächtigsten Wesen. Ursprünglich gab es 15 von ihnen, acht Valar und sieben Valier (weibliche Form).
Doch einer der Valar wandte sich dem Bösen zu, kein Anderer als Morgoth und so nahm das Unheil seinen Lauf.
Vom Ersten Zeitalter beginnend wi More...

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Mar 31, 2009

Scott rated it:

The books is five-stars for stirring philosophy and theology and for the epic richness of its setting, but it isn't for every kind of reader. Even those who love THE HOBBIT and THE LORD OF THE RINGS may not be able to make it through this book, which is a posthumous compilation of stories that Tolkien had been working on all his life. As a result, it reads more like a piecemeal ancient epic than a novel (in that it was never written as a novel). Nonetheless, it contains Tolkien's pseudo-classica More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 24, 2008

Jerry rated it:

This book isn't for every fan of Tolkien or fantasy. Tolkien had developed most of his world history before writing the trilogy. This book consists of four individual stories. None of them have a standard central character or group of characters, like the trilogy. And don't expect 'happily ever after' endings.

Here is a brief synopsis of the four writings contained within:

1. The 'creation story' and the fall of Melkor.
2. The longest story that comprises most of t More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 07, 2012

Shaun rated it:

Word to the Wise:

If you're a Tolkien fan, and loved the books, do not, I repeat do not make the mistake of *failing* to read The Silmarillion.
Let me try and put it into perspective for you.

What The Hobbit is to the LOTR TRILOGY, the LOTR TRILOGY is to The Silmarillion.

If all of Tolkien's books were the 9 rings, which one of these rings would The Silmarillion most resemble-? The answer: None. For The Silmarillion is far brighter & more beautiful than More...

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