The Silmarillion by JRR Tolkien
Paradis | October 19, 2009
‘In the beginning Eru, the Supreme One, created other beings like himself (The Valar) Then he began creating Middle Earth by singing a song, which formed into reality…
…The Valar sang in harmony with him, and all was good. But Melkor (also sometimes called Morgoth) began to sing his own song out of harmony with Eru’s. Eru sang more powerfully, drowning out Melkor’s song’.
There are those that would say, reading the Silmarillion is as much fun as chewing cardboard, or watching paint dry, but I found it fascinating and beautiful, and although I have always loved LotR, it is the Silmarillion that sets Tolkien apart. The Silmarillion is a far better work of imaginative fiction than LotR and The Hobbit combined.
It is very dense and difficult at times, more like a history book than fiction, but the stunning imagination in some of the scenes are far more than anything found in the LotR, rather like finding some ancient tome, that describes the very beginning of time itself.
I think you really have to be a Tolkien fan to appreciate the Silmarillion, but it isn’t the hard book that people think it is. I guess it just depends what you are expecting from it. Yes, the first 40 or 50 pages are tough to digest, and that is where most people will give up, but if you persist with it, it does get better and I am sure you will like it a lot. It is more like an epic encyclopedia, full of myth and legend, but with small stories embedded in it, that unravel the mystery of Middle Earth. It is a touching epitaph of Tolkien’s imagination and took him all his life to finish, and with the help of his son Christopher, after Tolkien’s death, the book became a reality.
The great thing about the Silmarillion, is the fact that all the stories and events that are recorded in it, give the history to LotR, so that suddenly it all comes together and you understand everything in LotR far more. It was his life’s work and it contained the tale that meant the most to him, Beren and Luthien.
The book starts by describing the beginning of the world, involving an omnipotent god who ruled the universe. Lesser gods who created the music which brought Middle Earth into existence, served under him, and the greatest of the lesser gods was Melkor, who became envious of his master’s works.
The rest of the Silmarillion is all about Melkor, later renamed Morgroth, and Sauron, his strongest underling and the creation of the rings of power and Middle Earth, not forgetting the home of the gods, Valinor. The book focuses on the elves and their expulsion from Valinor, for Kin slaying (Elves killing other Elves) We also get a brief description of the Istari (The Wizards) and see how a rift develops between the elves and the dwarves.
The Silmarillion is about the creation of the first age of Tolkien’s world, a world shaped by both good and evil gods and is set before the Lord of the Rings.
Do you want to know why the Balrogs were created, who Elrond really was? How Gandalf got his power or how Sauron came to power and what the land of Valinor is?
Well, I am not going to tell you, the answers are in the book, read it. There are so many little tales about the First Age, the elves, and their battles against Morgoth the original Dark Lord (Who makes Sauron look like the local vicar by comparison), and his Balrogs and Dragons. if you persevere through those opening pages, you won’t regret reading it. But be warned, it is not a happy book, in fact it is quite a tragic works. You really need to read LotR first, before ploughing into this work, but having said that, the stories contained in The Silmarillion do not clash or run into those in LotR.
My only nit with this book, is there are far too many characters to keep up with, so many tales, so much information, such a long time span, that it all gets a little overwhelming. Whole centuries can disappear in a sentence, due to the vast scope of time covered in this book.
My last word on the book is; Feanor, (the Elf who made the Silmarils, thus causing all the trouble) has a whole lot to answer for.
Paradis
