The Silmarillion

Mar 16, 2011 Manny rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, linguistics-and-philosophy, transcendent-experiences

How To Build A Truly Convincing Fantasy World

1. It's all about the language. Make sure your world's language is convincing, and you're pretty much there. Conversely, if your language sucks then everything else will.

2. Your book can't include more than a few sentences in your invented language without losing your audience. But it can include plenty of names. So what people will really judge you on is the quality of the names.

3. In fact, a world with only one language is implausible. You should ha...more

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May 10, 2011 Chris rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 popular c...more

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 popular culture that far too often rendered the Devil a ridiculous figure: a wild-eyed and beastly fornication ringmaster cavorting with naked acolytes; a scarlet-skinned, pitchfork-wielding fashion model for forked-tails and forehead horns; or slyly smiling traveling salesman, pitching his gimcrack wares backed by loosely-enforced contracts claiming lien upon some drink-tossed wastrel's dubiously-valuable soul. But Sauron—the dude fell, the dude schemed, the dude was scary, whether donning the raiments of a beautiful, translucent ring-wise man or an unbearably, searingly abhorrent humanoid vessel of the void.

There exists no other book that I've read as many times as The Silmarillion. Much more than the questing, heroic storyline of The Lord of the Rings was I drawn to the background of all those tumultuous events, the grand personages and royal lineages that stretched back into the mists of primordial time. Where did Sauron come from? From what pit originally arose the Balrog? What order was Gandalf exactly a member of? Who were Beren and Luthien, and what relevance did their own story have to this ultimate chapter of the War of the Rings playing out on the pages before me? Immediately that I finished the trilogy I rushed into the Silmarillion; and though at that time I was still too young to appreciate the allusions to other great mythologies, to the wonderful intricacies of the languages that Tolkien had constructed for his Middle-Earth races, to the powerful theme of tragedy—always linked with a hubris of the striving spirit—that was enjoined to the Noldorin rebellion against the Valar and their heroic-but-doomed struggle against Melkor, He Who Arises in Might, Morgoth Bauglir the Black Enemy—Radical Valar Renegade, Spawner of the Orcs, Dark Lord of the Balrogs, Tutoring Patron of Sauron; in toto, Supreme Badass Motherfucker of all Middle-Earth—still I was held spellbound by these glimpses into the Great Creation, the Dawn of Elves and Men, the Noldorin Exile and the fate of the Silmarils, which ended with such a perfect balance, the priceless jewels at rest at the bottom of the sea, the deepest of earthen chasms, and the highest heights of the heavens. What's more, after the breaking of Beleriand the reader is presented with the awesome arc of the founding and the doom of Númenor, in which Sauron gloatingly laughed atop the Island's mountain temple and lustfully defied the punishing lighting strokes that sizzled through the nighttime air; and the concluding overview of the War of the Rings, in which much is explained that makes The Lord of the Rings even more enjoyably complete than when the trilogy—and its prequel The Hobbit—were the only source for the incredibly deep history that Tolkien had woven from his lifelong love of language.

These annals, with their brilliantly-etched admixtures of beauty and short-lived heroic triumphs set against an overpowering sense of futility and tragic defeat at the hands of an enemy whose cunning is as deep as the infernal pits of his cavernous dungeons and whose malice engirds the star-kissed world, whose very corruption has been bled into the core of creation itself, were just what were needed to spark a young imagination; Tolkien's private amusements and delights mirrored my own in their fledgling form, and inspired me to tributary tasks of creation that nobody else could understand or appreciate but which gave me immense personal satisfaction. They awoke within me the powerful demiurgical desire to craft worlds, populate them, endow them with their own gods and mythologies, formulate a history, laden it with political systems, the whole works, all in the service of a time-bound fate that culminates in an apocalyptic showdown betwixt the dark and the light. At that point in a person's life, when the complex and inscrutable mathematical rituals and hierarchical causality of all-powerful modern science have immense appeal but few handholds, the prismatic and primal allure of myth and magic, the intuitive interconnectedness of nature with the sorcerously creative will of man, even at that tender age a force struggling to avoid restraint and desperately endeavoring to draw power from those spiritual furnaces deep within, the font of dreams, such tales of heroism and fortitude in the face of the supernatural are, for many, very hard to resist. What's more, the channeling of natural phenomenon into organic spirits with anthropomorphic features and forms offers another intuitively-appealing means to understanding a vast material world that otherwise seems awesomely inexplicable and frighteningly unpredictable. Stories that tap into our innate desire both to be entertained and be edified by human theatre set within the panoramic vistas of a horizon-hid past—Tolkien delivered in spades.

I don't care that it was edited by Christopher Tolkien and Guy Gavriel Kay and, thus, can't be declared canonical. Who gives a shit? Some complain that it reads like a Middle-Earth bible, that its archaic style and portentous prose are a labor to struggle through, and provide nothing as satisfying as the great trilogy he had wrought. Ah, tell it to the judge. They read like the annals composed from the mythological strains that wend across a mysterious, fate-bound history that they, in fact, are: it's just that this particular history was played out solely within the mental confines—a rich cerebral theatre—of the author, and possessed a coherence and potency to rival the mythologies of the Greeks or the Northmen. What more could a reader want? If Tolkien's labour of love, crafted and edited, reworked and rewritten, was of such an amazing expressiveness and beauty and power that it both upheld the Ring Trilogy and lit its mythological intimations with a fulgent blaze that only served to augment one's appreciation of the latter's depths, then why not put it out there for that multitude of fans who were dying to sample more of the mystical marvels from one of the greatest and most uniquely imaginative minds of the past century?(less)

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May 20, 2012 Gundula rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: serious fans of Middle Earth

Shelves: fairy-tales-fantasy, tolkien, book-reviews, folklore-myth-religion

I had tried to read The Silmarillion multiple times in the past and had basically given up, but I finally realised that I was attempting to read this book the wrong way; I was trying to read The Silmarillion like I read and reread LOTR, as a story, an epic story of course, but still a story. Now, while The Silmarillion is partially a story, it is (at least for me) first and foremost a religious type document, a biblical, mythological account of the Elder Days of Middle Earth. So this time, I rea...more

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Aug 24, 2012 Forrest rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Though I had many near-misses with The Silmarillion throughout the years (having been introduced to Tolkien's universe by discovering The Hobbit in my school's library in 5th grade), I finally slogged my way through it during the summer after my sophomore year of college. The first two years of my undergraduate degree were rather gruelling, and I wanted, more than anything else at that time, to just read a bunch of books I wasn't required to read. After making my way through The Complete Sherloc...more Though I had many near-misses with The Silmarillion throughout the years (having been introduced to Tolkien's universe by discovering The Hobbit in my school's library in 5th grade), I finally slogged my way through it during the summer after my sophomore year of college. The first two years of my undergraduate degree were rather gruelling, and I wanted, more than anything else at that time, to just read a bunch of books I wasn't required to read. After making my way through The Complete Sherlock Holmes, I decided to revisit Tolkien.

I had read The Hobbit twice before and the Lord of the Rings once (and a half). As I've stated, I dipped my toes in The Silmarillion, but never let myself dive in. This time, in the interest of reading something other than required reading, I jumped in with both feet.

It was cold. And deep. And dark. It took a while to feel my limbs. It took even longer to get my arms and legs moving, but I soon found I was OK: Still breathing and able to dog paddle.

As I worked my way into it (and it was work!), I discovered that certain tidbits in the myths and legends of middle earth rang familiar. I knew that much of The Silmarillion had been "back-written" after the fact, which might strike people as some sort of disingenuous act on the part of the Tolkiens. I was thrilled. Here I learned who Elrond was, the significance of the fall of Saruman, and the true nature of and relationship between Gandalf and the Balrog. This was a revelation.

I plugged my way through and finished. No, I didn't remember everything and I probably never will. That summer was a unique opportunity for me, to read almost interrupted for such a long stretch. I followed up by reading The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings in succession, immediately after finishing The Silmarillion. Then, and only then, did I appreciate the full magnitude of Tolkien's brilliance. It was a whole new world. I had already visited it, but now the scales fell from my eyes and I saw it in a whole new light. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings were transformed, for me, from great books to epic.

Rather than being caught up in complaining about how difficult The Silmarillion was, I felt richly rewarded. I had worked for the glittering prize and it was even more beautiful than the time when I first laid eyes on it in that musty school library in Nebraska. Can nostalgia be forward-looking? It was for me that summer. I was caught in some sort of blissful time-loop that only released me when the urgency of school set upon me again that fall. But something joyful was sparked in me that hasn't ever fully left, thanks to The Silmarillion.(less)

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Oct 31, 2009 Zero Restrictions Alfonso rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: swords-magic-aliens-nerdy-shit, my-top5

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 found on his dumb litt...more 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 found on his dumb little island… but that wasn’t going to stop our little afro hero… he looked and looked, he went to used bookstores, he ordered 5 times in the expensive ones, he looked online, on the streets, even on the flea markets… but they were not to be found… one day after wating for 2 hours for his translator to finish translating and E-copy of The Lord of The Ring: The Fellowship of The Ring. Into Spanish and realizing that it made no fucking sense once translated… our little afro hero went into the internet and founded the only bookstore with most of Tolkien’s work on stock… in Spanish! But there was only one problem… the fucking bookstore was in freaking Spain… the cost of the books + S&H was way more of what our hairy friend had on his piggy bank… so he did the unthinkable… his parents had been bitching about his afro for months…. So he proposed to them that in exchange of his fro they should give him the books he wanted… and they accepted… in an act of self mutilation* our fuzzy friend shaved his head to show his parent’s his anger over making him lose his fro… after that the money was given to him… he could order now (his parents weren’t as stupid as he always thought) and that day.. That day the curse was born!!! It was like the curse of Feanor… but lame, the books took an entire year to arrive… now imagine our froless hero waiting and waiting and calling and emailing and checking and re checking for a whole mother fucking year with his shaved head… (for those of you who wonder this is why I will never again buy a book from the internet, I’m fucking traumatized) but when they got there… how to put it into words… I read the first book (600 pages) in one day… the second in 3 days, the third in 2 days, the fourth on a day and a half… and then it was time for the Silmarillion…

I didn’t know nothing about the Silmarillion… I left it for last cuz I thought it would be the most boring one… and boy was I wrong! The first part The Music of the Ainur was such a mind blowing experience to me to the point of I cannot talk about anything else but how metal it sounded that my friends started complaining (somebody got to the point of threaten me that if said something else about Melkor being the coolest I was going to get punch in the balls) I mean if you ever read this book you should know how Melkor invented heavy metal on it… then it was the lamps and all the gay stuff that I didn’t like… that’s when I used to think Melkor was the coolest… then came The Trees… and I was just fascinated of how beautiful everything was… I know it sounds mad gay! But it was!!! And then Melkor did something that made me stop thinking of him as the coolest… he killed The Trees… is not like I cried or anything like that… but you know that was fuck up! The guy is cool and all but I know it sounds stupid… but I did like those Trees man… =( by this time I was so lost in this book that one could actually call it an obsession… I was walking while reading, talking to the characters… (if I were to get a penny for every time I told a character on this book “turn back you fool” I’d be rich by now!)… look I don’t wanna ruin anything to anybody I could honestly talk for hours about how fucking awesome Feanor is…. Or how big Fingolfin’s balls are (bigger than Steven’s) or how beautiful Luthien was and how I wished she never met Beren, or how fucking sick and twisted Morgoth gets… I mean the man was sick! But I need to stop! Cuz if I don’t I’ma be here for ever… I wanna say is that Tolkien was the mother fucking greatest of all times man… this is just such a beautiful book…

*:(even tho the paper don’t agree with me on this… it was self mutilation!!! She has no idea how “attached”
I was to that fro!!!!)

(less)

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Jan 01, 2009 Terence rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sf-fantasy, tolkieniana

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

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May 12, 2007 Francis rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 Old...more

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Jul 02, 2007 Elf rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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-and-so..."

The rest of it was...more

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Dec 19, 2012 sj rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It's not really a review, more of an extra long recap (way spoiler heavy) links to each post are here.
Heavy Spoilers below.

Look. Here's the deal with The Silmarillion.

If you're not a huge Tolkien nerd, you're probably going to throw your hands up in disgust, swearing and tearing your hair out after the first two pages.
Even if you are a huge Tolkien nerd, if you generally skip past the songs in LotR and the Hobbit or can't handle creation myths - you will probably end up like the people in th...more

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Jun 12, 2012 Stefan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: stefan-dusty-bookshelf-2012

Let me start off by saying that I thoroughly enjoyed my overall experience with The Silmarillion. So, you might ask, why not give it a perfect rating? Hopefully, I can explain that in the rest of this review.

The Silmarillion is a beautifully written book. It is actually a collection of several works of J.R.R. Tolkien edited and combined into one book by his son, Christopher, and published posthumously. The five works combined in this book are Ainulindale, Valaquenta, Quenta Silmarillion, Akallab...more Let me start off by saying that I thoroughly enjoyed my overall experience with The Silmarillion. So, you might ask, why not give it a perfect rating? Hopefully, I can explain that in the rest of this review.

The Silmarillion is a beautifully written book. It is actually a collection of several works of J.R.R. Tolkien edited and combined into one book by his son, Christopher, and published posthumously. The five works combined in this book are Ainulindale, Valaquenta, Quenta Silmarillion, Akallabeth, and Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age. The Ainulindale and Valaquenta are more of a story of creation and come across very Biblical in tone and scope while the other three works combine to give a pretty complete history of the peoples of Middle-Earth. Throughout the book, the language is skillfully crafted into beautiful prose and everything flows together nicely into one fairly cohesive text so that it does not really feel as if you are reading separate works.

Overall, the book reads a lot like a very beautifully written history text. The reader is presented a LOT of information about people and events in a relatively short span of pages (for example, the entire events of the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings is summarized in less than three pages!) There are a lot of names and places to keep track of and to make this even more difficult, some people and places have 2 or more names associated with them. Christopher Tolkien has included a comprehensive name index, maps, family trees and other appendices that aide the reader a lot in sorting these things out, but several times while reading I felt a little lost due to the sheer amount of information presented and this caused me to feel that reading it occasionally became more of a chore than a passion.

I think that this is a book that will improve upon further readings. Hopefully, I'll be able to sit down with it in a few years and read through it with less work and even more enjoyment. I love the tale that is told through this presentation of history and I would love to see more of the chapters broken out into novel length versions as with The Children of Hurin.(less)

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Mar 16, 2013 Kristalia rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 6-stars, dark-so-daaark, unique-stories, all-time-favorites, own-physical-copy, reviewed, best-couple-award, be-my-hero-plz

Final rating: ★★★★★★/★★★★★

So, i finally finished Silmarillion. I thought it would take me longer than 5 days, but i have never been so wrong. What had driven me to read this was the movie adaptation of Hobbit, and since i have never read anything of Tolkien before, i decided to do it now :D. I am glad i did, because this book is epic - really epic and amazing.

The history of Middle Earth was full of tragic stories and tragic families, and especially tragic love stories. Most of them ended trag...more

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Jan 03, 2013 Christopher H. rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: adventure, british-authors-translators, british-literature, fantasy-scifi, favorite-rereads, favorites, modern-literature, my-western-canon, mythology-mythopoeia, read-in-2011, j-r-r-tolkien, read-in-2012, faerie-folkloric

I originally read The Silmarillion shortly after it was first published in 1977, and while I remember enjoying it, I don't remember being terribly impressed. Clearly, I am a different reader now than I was then. This is an amazing book on so many levels, and I actually believe that I have read it at just the perfect time in my life. First, I have always enjoyed Tolkien-the-poet, and this extensive mythology that he has created with The Silmarillion just sheds ever so much light on his poetic inf...more I originally read The Silmarillion shortly after it was first published in 1977, and while I remember enjoying it, I don't remember being terribly impressed. Clearly, I am a different reader now than I was then. This is an amazing book on so many levels, and I actually believe that I have read it at just the perfect time in my life. First, I have always enjoyed Tolkien-the-poet, and this extensive mythology that he has created with The Silmarillion just sheds ever so much light on his poetic influences, style, and his poetic voice. Second, I have come to very much appreciate and admire Tolkien-the-linguist, and The Silmarillion is a linguist's dream-come-true, as he brings the cultures of his world alive through his writing and careful attention to language(s). Finally, if you truly want to fully experience his monumental saga, The Lord of the Rings (LotR), then a close and careful reading of The Silmarillion is a prerequisite. Even after reading the LotR some half-a-dozen times over the course of my adult life, I was stunned at how many "ah, so that's what happened", or "oh, that's the back-story of so-and-so" moments I had as I read The Silmarillion. For the first time in my life, I think I can finally put the LotR in its proper context, as I am sure that J.R.R. Tolkien desired for his readers.

I have to say too, that I think my time spent reading much of the classic ancient Greek, Norse, and Celtic mythology and literature also lent itself to a more enjoyable experience for me as I read The Silmarillion. While certainly not required by any means, it made me very comfortable in allowing myself to effortlessly become completely immersed in the mythology and characters of Tolkien's world. Just as understanding the cosmogony and mythology of the ancient Greek world has illuminated my reading of the poetry of Homer, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, so has The Silmarillion illuminated and informed my reading of The Children of Hurin and the LotR. In fact, I realize that I now need to reread both of these works again in the near future. Finally, because of my reading of The Silmarillion, I became aware of and have just ordered a hard-bound copy of Tolkien's "History of Middle Earth--Volume 3", The Lays of Beleriand, as this volume contains his two long epic poems, the Lay of the Children of Hurin and the Lay of Leithian. These are both supposed to be simply brilliant poems.(less)

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Feb 07, 2012 El rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: late20th-centurylit, fantasy

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 fantasy,...more

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Oct 04, 2008 Chad Warner rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, fantasy

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 Middle-Earth, the...more

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Nov 21, 2008 Carly rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-i-own

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 reader you might want to st...more

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Mar 18, 2012 Phillip rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: weird-books, favorites-among-favorites, fantasy, linguistics, literature, science-fiction, tolkien, anglo-saxon, my-visionaries

I have read this book at least 6 times.

I had been avoiding it since it came out in 1977. I always really wished Tolkien had written more. But, I could not get into this particular book.

About 15 or 10 years ago I started reading Tolkien criticism. Particularly Verlyn Flieger's "Splintered Light" and John Garth's "Tolkien and the Great War" which warmed me to "The Silmarillion".

About 6 years ago I listened to "The Silmarillion" as an audio book while I was working on a long stained-glass project...more I have read this book at least 6 times.

I had been avoiding it since it came out in 1977. I always really wished Tolkien had written more. But, I could not get into this particular book.

About 15 or 10 years ago I started reading Tolkien criticism. Particularly Verlyn Flieger's "Splintered Light" and John Garth's "Tolkien and the Great War" which warmed me to "The Silmarillion".

About 6 years ago I listened to "The Silmarillion" as an audio book while I was working on a long stained-glass project. I listen to books that I am interested in but know I will never get around to reading when I work on glass. It gives my mind something to do while I am working with my hands, I chose books that I don't mind if I space out occasionally while listening to them because I am only interested in finding out what they are about, not in absorbing them with any depth.

The narrator was a classically trained Scottish actor. First, his performance took away that discomfort I felt about the question of how names were supposed to be pronounced. But more important, I found that I could appreciate the book when presented orally. It makes sense because Tolkien was a poet and his work was designed to mimic histories from another time. The history he wrote would have been shared via. oral singing.

So, I was won over. Before the first 100 pages were done I had stopped working on the glass and just sat in my garage listening to this beautiful presentation. As soon as possible I bought a copy of the book and read while listening. When that was done I turned the library's copy in and immediately read the book again.

As I wrote at the beginning of this review I have read "The Silmarillion" about 6 times to date. During that time I read Verlyn Flieger's "Interrupted Music" which turned me on to the mythology in "The History of Middle Earth". I have read through to the volume that describes the writing of "LOTR". I love these books and will probably reread them as often as it is possible to do among my other interests.(less)

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Jul 09, 2008 Jake rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, epic, series, favorite-titles, favorite-authors

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 something...more 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 something like that. He can come in here and explain himself better, if he wishes.

I’m not sure I can go that far, but the Silmarillion is a damn fine piece of work. In essence, it is the Bible of Middle-Earth, telling the history of the creation of the world, and it’s long history up to the rise of Sauron, and the events of the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings. Technically, it even covers those, though it does so in about a paragraph, so it hardly counts. Mostly, it occurs as series of shorter works that detail particular events and moments in the life of Middle-Earth as a whole. There is something of a coherent narrative to the story, but it’s a historical narrative, not one that follows any one particular character or group of characters throughout the entire work.

The Silmarillion, arguably, plays to many of Tolkien’s strengths, while covering many of his weaknesses. Tolkien is an excellent world builder and myth-maker, and the Silmarillion is nothing but world building and myth-making in narrative form. These are not small stories; they are stories of great men and women doing epic deeds. As with all good epics, the characters do not always succeed, nor are they always good people. The theme of corruption and fall from grace runs pretty heavily through the book, and there are a number of characters that come to unfortunate ends. Which is as it should be; after all, epic does not mean heroic, or even successful.

Because many of the stories are shorter, the Silmarillion also avoids two of the things that most Tolkien detractors (and even some Tolkien fans) tend to dislike about his writing. The first is Tolkien’s tendency (mostly in the Lord of the Rings) to describe the environment in great, sometimes excessive detail. Because Tolkien is mostly painting with broad strokes, there is not the same kind of loving detail given to each vale or field; instead, we get brief glimpses, followed by details of the things that are truly important to the story. Some of those descriptions are glorious (the woods where the Dark Elf lives…yes, Tolkien has a Dark Elf, but he does not wield scimitars, nor does he have a pet panther), but readers who disliked the detailed wanderings of Frodo and Co. in Lord of the Rings may find this more palatable.

Second, there are those who believe that Tolkien doesn’t do characters well, or at least, not with depth. I happen to disagree with this assessment, but for those who do, the Silmarillion…well, it doesn’t necessarily have more depth, but there’s less of a sense that the characters are meant to. They are, for the most part, epic archetypes as much as characters, filling in their roles in the story that is the world, and so a reader may feel less cheated by the lack of in-depth characterizations.

As a fan of the epic in general, I loved the Silmarillion. It’s rich, it’s fun, and it is epic. It also paints a very clear picture of Tolkien’s world, and anyone who wants a much clearer picture of the events of the Lord of the Rings would do well to read it.

The $20,000 question of course is, which one of Tolkien’s works to I like better? Honestly, that’s hard to answer. The Lord of the Rings is a childhood favorite—I remember sitting with father when I was maybe eight years old, listening as the Ringwraiths chased Frodo towards the ferry, and wondering if Frodo would make it. It’s a book (and let’s face it…it is one book) that’s shaped my consciousness throughout my entire life. It is at the top of my desert island list. I’m not sure anything can topple it.

And yet, the Silmarillion is a damn fine piece of work, and in many ways, it’s got a lot of the best of Tolkien’s writing (despite some slightly shoddy editing by his son), without a lot of Tolkien’s flaws. At the end of the day, I think I prefer the Lord of the Rings, because it contains some more human elements that the Silmarillion lacks, but I’d happily read either one.(less)

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May 18, 2008 Brandon Pearce rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Everyone over the age of 14

Shelves: inkling

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 inklings and a...more

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Apr 12, 2011 Peter rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 Tolkien convey...more

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Mar 16, 2012 Peter Meredith rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Warning, this book is for Tolkien junkies only. It is not for 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.

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Sep 12, 2007 Paul Callister rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: everyone

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.

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Aug 20, 2012 Jim Syler rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Always wanted to read The Silmarillion, but can't seem to make it through? Read on.

A large part of the romance and epic feel of The Lord of the Rings is the sense that you are embedded in a larger story, of which the current saga is only a part. This feeling shows itself in many parts of the story, with Aragorn singing fragments of songs of the Elder Days, Frodo calling out Aiya Eärendil Elenion Ancalima! as he faces Shelob, and various references to the revered West, among many other examples,...more

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Apr 02, 2010 Tristan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-read-2010

This is a wonderful, wonderful book, obviously written by the same mind that wrought The Lord of the Rings, however it does not quite do the same thing as that masterpiece.

The Silmarillian is, basically the Bible of Middle-Earth. It recounts the creation of the world, the descent of many godlike beings (Valar and Maiar) from God (Ilúvatar). The way the world is constructed is basically a myriad of Tolkienized versions of pagan European mythologies combined under an umbrella of the Christianity...more This is a wonderful, wonderful book, obviously written by the same mind that wrought The Lord of the Rings, however it does not quite do the same thing as that masterpiece.

The Silmarillian is, basically the Bible of Middle-Earth. It recounts the creation of the world, the descent of many godlike beings (Valar and Maiar) from God (Ilúvatar). The way the world is constructed is basically a myriad of Tolkienized versions of pagan European mythologies combined under an umbrella of the Christianity that, ultimately, encompasses all.

The magnitude of this book is so epic that it simply produces emotional clout on every page. The stunning precision with which all the stories fit together can make ones jaw plummet to the floor. Somehow J.R.R. Tolkien (with no small help from his son Christopher, and the wonderful author Guy Gavriel Kay) was able to create a majestic mythology that seemed to expand in all ways, encompassing all these different branches of folklore and mythology, humanity, elves, gods, dragons, magic, battles, love and greed, and yet SOMEHOW he managed to keep it linear. The scale of the book may seem like it spews forth names like an angry volcano, but there is always a pattern to it, a meaning, there is never a wasted word, and I'm sure Tolkien would appreciate those who recognized such emotional dedication to his creation. Modern authors that write cheap copies of Tolkien's work such as Terry Brooks like to mask their work to look similar but it's all just a mask and if a kid enjoys the Shannara works of Terry Brooks, let them, but as the child's mind matures so to will he look for work more mature, and I'm confident that their more inquisitive mind will find that there is more to see, hear, taste and LEARN from Tolkien's work than from something like Brooks, which is what makes Tolkien so incredible. Brooks may have an elf character that simply appears to deliver a message then is gone forever, but Tolkien always kept in mind a greater thing, he made his art more than just aesthetics. One can therefore study what Tolkien wrote and interpret, while ultimately coming away with something, a piece of wisdom to utilize in life. That is what makes him the master and no one can touch his ass.

That all said, I think The Silmarillion is perhaps just as wonderful a thing as The Lord of the Rings, but the two things go about telling their stories very differently, and I don't think those who fell in love with The Lord of the Rings will necessarily enjoy The Silmarillion. The Silmarillion is packed with characters that are mostly two-dimensional and appear and disappear within three pages, their part all played out. Most characters do not develop and we do not watch as they learn lessons, grow old and die, usually Tokien settles with, "Then Elendil departed from Nümenor, fought many wars against Sauron and was thrown down dead." (<- not a real quote) so we never get the chance to grow attached to them.

Make sure you come to this book with the proper expectations and be prepared for a longer read than The Lord of the Rings, for it's scale and depth is several times the size, but don't expect to love the characters very much (except perhaps Morgoth, HE IS AWESOME! (and has remarkably good characterization compared to the rest)).

So to sum up the character issue, The Silmarillion doesn't dwell on any particular ones, it has bigger fish to fry, and I like to picture each character being a simple scale on this metaphoric fish. In The Lord of the Rings, each character gets to be his own fish and gets their own fry time. So don't expect that.

I hope you buy (or borrow) this book and enjoy it very much!(less)

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Jan 01, 2009 Terence rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audio-books, sf-fantasy, tolkieniana

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

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Melissa McClintock This is one that I need to read. It's just that everytime someone tells about it, it sounds more interesting than when I try to get started on it.
I ha...more
Jan 06, 2009 07:48am

Terence I'm always hesitant to recommend this book or any of the edited papers of Tolkien since they're very, very different from his novels. In fact, from wh...more
Jan 06, 2009 09:34am

Melissa McClintock I also wonder if his ideas of this whole other world was constantly evolving and it all had to fit together. I have the Lost Tales and I liked that be...more
Jan 07, 2009 11:46pm

Feb 11, 2008 Robert Beveridge rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: defenestrated, owned-and-gave-away

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 is) is "something t...more

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Sep 24, 2007 michael spencer harmon rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: those who are fans of: Mythology, Epic, and/or Fantasy (in that order).

Shelves: unquestionable-favorites

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 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 poignant explanations to that which he created gives cause for wonder, but also no surprise given his extensive background in this kind of material.

9/20: Quite inspired because of this book, I decided to see what I could find to read later about one of his influences and a part of my own heritage - Celtic myth and history. On top of this, I've also decided to try to actually use my linguistical aptitude for finally learning Gaelic.

9/21: Finished it! All I can say afterwards (other than already mentioned) is the following:

Exquisite and intricate pieces of storytelling, these tales flow with a hint of the unknown so that one finds himself lost in it. This book is, for how well it fulfills its own genre, perhaps even better than the Trilogy. If one is a fan of Tolkien, or of epic myth in general, one must receive this book. It becomes obvious to the reader that a book is worth hanging onto when one fears the act of finishing it; there really is no debating such a feeling with this work. However, it is wise to read it as a group of independent tales, not as a continuance from one to another directly. Also, make good use of the helps in the back concerning pronunciation of the main languages, and family trees.

9/24: You know a book will be a classic favorite when you still think of situations in your life in the elemental terms used in the story days later.

***
It came upon the reading list, thanks to the generosity with which it was offered to me, free of charge.

Thank you, kind Sir Joseph!
***
(less)

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Carl Way to go! I actually may have enjoyed this better than LOTR-- at least, it came as a breath of fresh air, totally different from anything I'd ever re...more
Sep 17, 2007 06:43pm

michael spencer harmon Oh, Carl. Worry not my old friend, I too have been stuffy and prone to blind allegiances in the realm of literature for many years and found where mos...more
Sep 17, 2007 09:20pm

Joe I practically forced Mike to read this. I love this book amazingly! The new Turin novel is great; I don't know if I'd call it a novel either: the stor...more
Sep 18, 2007 09:51am

Jan 18, 2008 St-Michel rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 1996, own

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 only the f...more

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Apr 22, 2012 Andrew rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

This book is not for everyone. But it is most certainly for me. I used to go back and forth on whether I liked this more than The Lord of the Rings. Usually it just had to do with which of them I was reading at the time. So I gave up trying to rate them against each other. So many great stories that hit you in the gut or blind you with splendor. I wish I could paint with words to a tenth of Tolkien's ability.

Most recent read: It still amazes me... Every time I read it it is better than I rememb...more

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Apr 01, 2013 Morgan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: awesome-series

If I had to describe this book in one word.... I would kill myself because that would be cruel and impossible. But this was a great book. As with most prequels I'm glad I read The Hobbit, and The Lord of The Rings trilogy before this one.

Oh my goodness there were SO MANY CHARACTERS! I can just imagine that meme with Xzibit saying, "Yo dawg I heard you like characters so I put characters in your characters so you can get really freaking confused." Okay, maybe that's not how the meme goes, but you...more If I had to describe this book in one word.... I would kill myself because that would be cruel and impossible. But this was a great book. As with most prequels I'm glad I read The Hobbit, and The Lord of The Rings trilogy before this one.

Oh my goodness there were SO MANY CHARACTERS! I can just imagine that meme with Xzibit saying, "Yo dawg I heard you like characters so I put characters in your characters so you can get really freaking confused." Okay, maybe that's not how the meme goes, but you get the gist of it. Towards the end of the book I was beginning to become more familiar with most of the characters, but it really isn't easy when everybody's name starts with the same dang letter, every father fathers 5 children with relatively the same name as himself, everybody is constantly dying so as soon as you become familiar with a character he exits the story, and ESPECIALLY when every freaking character has 5 different names! There's his Man name, his Nordor name, his Grey-Elves name, his nickname, his second through fourth nickname, his Westernesse nickname, etc. If you haven't figured it out yet, there are a lot of names to remember in this book, and each character having a list full of names just for his/herself doesn't help.

My first impressions of the book was that it was the Bible of The Lord of the Rings.... Which for a while it sort of was. Especially the first story before The Silmarillion began. That was the Genesis of TLOTR. I thought it was interesting at first, but I quickly became bored and yearned for the story.

If Tolkien were still alive today, he could continue writing stories and tales larger and better even than The Lord of the Rings based simply off of the stories within this single book... Which wasn't a single book at all. I hated how all of the great and famous characters died and perished in some way, but then I had to remind myself that, well first of all if the good guys didn't die then there would be no story, and secondly that this was a book that traversed centuries. If Tolkien had written the life story of Aragorn even he too would meet his end eventually, and death only seemed to come so quickly in this book because those individual tales were not the main story and their part, no matter how large or important, could not be told in full to create the book that is The Silmarillion. Of course, I wouldn't mind reading books solely based on the lives and deeds of Fingolfin, Huon, Beren, etc. Why Tolkien decided to appoint Bilbo and Frodo for the honor of having entire books devoted to them when he had such magnificent characters just sitting in front of him I will never understand. Tolkien literally has a life-time supply of novel material within this one book. If he were to simply write the tales of these great characters in depth and at a slower rate, such as one similar to The Hobbit, or any book in that case that is covered in real time, he could have a never-ending supply of stories and books... And I would enjoy reading them all. Imagine reading a book devoted to Beren who so obviously deserved a tale of his own larger than a simple chapter, but alas, we are deprived of such tales and must simply be abated with these condensed versions.

I liked the Silmarillion, but it wasn't like, "Amazing." I feel, as stated and re-stated above, that he could have done so much more with lengthening the tales of these great protagonists into stories devoted to their lives, but that was not this book. I know everything that was told had, in a way, a hand in the overall plot of the Silmarils, but at times I seemed lost in the relevance and as a whole the book seemed far less about simply the Silmarils than it should have. I understand that everything that happened in the book was the "cause" of the Silmarils of Feanor, so in that sense the plot is more clear, but I suppose I expected more of a TLOTR type book in which the Silmarils were stolen or some such and this was the tale of how they were retrieved.... Again, in a sense it was, but in a far-fetched, larger.... MUCH larger picture sort of way. Don't get me wrong, it was a fantastic book (after getting around a few of the dull spots such as the listing of all of the names and places), but I suppose it just didn't live up to my expectations because it was something new and different than I had ever experienced before. In that way The Silmarillion doesn't seem truly as a book to me, but more of... well I'm not sure, but it just doesn't seem to contain the elements of what I would consider a book as it jumps all around and is basically setting up pretext.... but what do I know.

Overall, great book. Glad I read it and it was really great to get to know the history and story of the time before TLOTR and The Hobbit and for that I thoroughly enjoyed it. I will definitely need to re-read it however to get a better understanding. Maybe on round two I won't get so confused with all of the names.(less)

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Oct 14, 2012 Savanna rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, favourites, reviewed

If you love Tolkien, you will love The Silmarillion. If you don't, you'll hate it.

This is not a novel; best to approach it as an encyclopaedic history of the fictional Middle Earth. It chronicles the elder days from the creation of Tolkien's fantastic universe to the fall of the old Elven kingdoms and the wars over and eventual loss of the Silmarills. While The Children of Húrin reads like a recorded legend, The Silmarillion is similarly atypical in approach—taking a detached, factual tone. Ther...more If you love Tolkien, you will love The Silmarillion. If you don't, you'll hate it.

This is not a novel; best to approach it as an encyclopaedic history of the fictional Middle Earth. It chronicles the elder days from the creation of Tolkien's fantastic universe to the fall of the old Elven kingdoms and the wars over and eventual loss of the Silmarills. While The Children of Húrin reads like a recorded legend, The Silmarillion is similarly atypical in approach—taking a detached, factual tone. There is little in the way of character development because of this structure, but the plot is very interesting if you're keen to learn more about the world of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. If you've read the appendices of the latter, you'll find The Silmarillion to be more of the same. Despite its dryness, it's beautifully written and incredibly original. It showcases Tolkien's ability to create a staggeringly imaginative, consistent, and remarkably detailed world.

I disagree with the criticism I've read of this book. It's been called excessively convoluted and rife with needlessly grandiose and archaic language. I like needlessly grandiose and archaic language where it isn't nonsense, and Tolkien excels at writing in a style that's both lofty and precise. As to the convolution of the plot, for me it works because like I said, it's a fictional history. It therefore doesn't follow any conventional plot structure and the complex cast of characters (while indeed confusing at times) seem to me to strengthen the realism of the text. But if you're looking for The Hobbit II, you won't find it here.

The book is very dry and complicated, and it's a very far cry from both the joyful narrative style of The Hobbit and the epic novel style of The Lord of the Rings, but all those who are fascinated and moved by Tolkien's incredibly detailed universe and its intriguing peoples will enjoy immersing themselves in The Silmarillion. If you're not one of these people, though, there's no point.(less)

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