The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Silmarillion
Book Review: Great Background Info for Die-hard Tolkien Fans
Summary: 4 Stars
For those who have gobbled up Tolkien's novel "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit" and are wondering where to look next, this is the obvious first choice. However, the buyer should be cautioned: this is not a "novel" in the way that Tolkien's other two books are. Rather, it is more like an extension of the appendices at the end of "The Return of the King." If you were bored by those appendices, you probably are not so interested in the pre-history of Middle Earth and maybe you do not want to buy this book. You could turn elsewhere to "The Book of Lost Tales" instead. However, if you loved all that pre-history, then this book is for you and will open your eyes further to the incredible world and mythology Tolkien created.As to this edition: I would recommend it over the others. It is slightly large and therefore easier to handle than standard trade paperbacks (most of which are too small for my taste), with good thick paper (slightly beige - not that awful shiny white stuff), well bound with an appealing cover and good taste. You will like having this book lying around. Also, it is part of a series edited by Christopher Tolkien, so if you end up buying the other books in the series (I hear they are quite good), then you'll want matching editions. So, it may be worth paying a bit more for this one.
What do you get? Well, first you get a story about the creation of Middle Earth, which for the first time clearly lays out the religious underpinnings of Tolkien's mythology. The One God, Eru, and his angels (the Valar) are hanging out. Eru gives them a song to sing, and they sing it, but one bad angel (a Satan-figure) rebels and starts singing his own tune, creating dissonance. Some angels follow him, and soon the song is cacophanous. Eru introduces a new melody, but the bad angels rebel again. Finally Eru says "Stop!" and it all ends. He then says: "What you have sung, you will now see created" (I'm paraphrasing horribly), and their song becomes Middle Earth -- the forces of good and evil, etc. Amazing concept.
We then get a long narrative about how the Valar came down to Middle Earth, how the first-born (Elves) were created, then the dwarves and Men. How Sauron came out; who the Numenoreans were; what "O Elbereth! Gilthoniel!" refers to; how Galadriel got to Middle Earth; how Sauron became evil; why the elves go off to the Blessed Realm; how the rings of power were made; etc. If you've wondered about all these questions - the answers are all here (or most of them, anyway). Apart from the opening story about creation, the writing is not easy; it is dense and not very story-like at times. Often it feels like a poorly written history book. But if you survived (and liked) "The Lord of the Rings", then no doubt you can handle Tolkien's writing and you'll be fine (Believe me - I think he writes beautifully at times, but not always in this book!).
Book Review: Great but only under the right circumstances
Summary: 3 Stars
Most fantasy works can be read by the general populace, especially the genre specific populace and easily enjoyed. This is not true of "The Silmarillion""The Silmarillion" is one of those books that gains GREATLY from rereading - this cannot be said enough. At first read it is a confusing selection and notes and names with little real story. Later sections (especially Beren and Luthien but also Turin) have a more connected story, are closer to the Tolkien we have all grown to love.
This disjointedness is the Silmarillion's greatest weakness and one of the reasons I cannot give it five stars (although I would rate it that way for myself). The other is that only true Tolkien afficando's are going to enjoy it. Anyone who loves Tolkien will probably love this - they will enjoy an opportunity to see the back history of Middle Earth, to some of the legends and Elder Days mentioned in the Lord of the Rings. Thus for those that have read Tolkien, this will be a great book.
My other complaint with this book is that I doubt Tolkien would have ever published it. He spent such effort polishing his work, I do not think he would have published something as disjointed as this. And although I am glad to see it, that also detracts from the pleasure.
Anyhow, the Silmarillion is an interesting collection of myths and legends of the Elder Days of Middle Earth - of the War of the Jewels. It is tragic and reminiscent of Norse mythology and great for those interested in the Lord of the Rings. For everyone else though I would say don't bother.
Book Review: Great stories, less so in presentation.
Summary: 4 Stars
The published Silmarillion is not what J.R.R. Tolkien wanted for most of his adult life to be published as the Silmarillion. It's a short compilation of much of his epic-length work, not necessarily the best tellings of any of his stories, that was culled together in the years immediately following his death.The principal problem is that Tolkien crafted beautiful stories, but most of his efforts at writing them as full-length novels ended in failure. The figures of the Silmarillion loom large, but always have a human side to them. I think the Silmarillion's cast of characters is at least as intriguing as that in The Lord of the Rings, but lacks the time for the sheer depth of subtle shading that made LotR a brilliant read.
The highlights of the Silmarillion are unquestionably the stories that center around its titanic characters - the clash of egos in Fëanor and the theft of the Silmarils, the rapturous love story of Beren and Lúthien, the operatically dark Túrin Turambar, and the epic Fall of Gondolin all would have made for novels that would blow any other written fantasy out of the water. As it stands, as stories, they are still gripping enough in the Silmarillion that they'll be more than worth reading. Some of the exposition between can get tedious if you're not yet into Tolkien's world, or if you're expecting yet another Lord of the Rings.
The Silmarillion, as a whole, is an epic worldbuilding and mythology that no fantasist after Tolkien ever came close to. It has a definite, but by no means simple, view of the world that makes it quite relevant as literature (as opposed to the normal Manichaean dualism that dominates Tolkien-derivative fantasy). The morality of Tolkien is interesting and challenging, and if you really think about it very little fantasy even comes close.
Get, read, and enjoy the Silmarillion for what it is: a mythology, complete with great tales. If you hunger for more of these stories afterward, volumes 1-5 and 10 and 11 of the History of Middle-Earth series are dedicated to them - they are more scholarly, but the re-approach to many of the stories can be enlightening and thrilling. I heartily recommend it all to anyone who can't get enough of Tolkien.
Book Review: History 101 for Middle-Earth
Summary: 4 Stars
This book is essential reading for any serious Tolkien fan. Be prepared for a slow start though. The first 130 pages are rather like going through a very dense textbook - there are too many names, places, and events crammed into too tight of a framework, allowing for little or no character development. Because of this it can be rather hard to get into the earlier stories, and even harder to retain the information afterward. After about 80 pages I was sincerely beginning to reconsider my decision to read the book, but I'll tell those who may be having similar problems - keep going! It does get better, I promise.
The Silmarillion begins with a shorter sub-book, the Ainulindalë, which is the Creation story of Middle-Earth. It tells how Eru, or Ilúvatar, the god of Tolkien's mythology, created the Ainur, holy beings who shape the world through their song. The Ainulindalë goes on to speak of the Ainur who went to dwell in Arda, the earth, and became known as the Valar; the two races created by Ilúvatar to inhabit Arda - the immortal Firstborn (Elves), and the mortal Followers (Men); and also of how the first evil came to be, as the Ainu known as Melkor and later Morgoth challenges the will of Ilúvatar and falls out of favor, eventually to become the first Dark Lord of Middle-Earth.
Next is the Valaquenta, a short section which defines and describes the Valar, the Maiar (the slightly lesser "servants and helpers" of the Valar), and the Enemies (namely Melkor and those he manipulates to do his will).
The main body of The Silmarillion, the "Quenta Silmarillion," is the history of the Silmarils, sacred jewels created by the elf Fëanor, and all the events that take place around them. It is divided into chapters which take the form of short stories. As I mentioned earlier, the first several of these can be rather difficult to wade through - the abundance of character and place names alone will throw the reader for a loop. These early stories cover topics such as the shaping of the world by the Valar, the coming of the Elves into Middle-earth, the creation and loss of the Silmarils, the unleashing of the evil of Melkor, the rebellion of the Elves against the Valar, and the general layout of Middle-earth at that time.
If after this the reader is a bit overwhelmed, don't despair! I found that, beginning with Chapter 16 "Of Maeglin" which begins on page 131, the stories really begin to pick up. From here on the tales are easier to follow and the characters are more fully developed and easy to identify with. Subsequent chapters deal with the coming of Men into Middle-earth and their migration westward, the continued malice of Melkor and the battles between his followers and the Elves and Men that remain good, the famous love story of Beren and Lúthien (the first joining of man and elf), the tragic life of Túrin Turambar, the ruin of the realm of Doriath, the eventual overthrow of Morgoth, and of how the Silmarils came to their final resting places in the earth, the sea, and the sky.
Following the main body of the text are two more sub-books, the first of which is the Akallabêth, which tells the story of the Númenóreans, the race of men that dwelt on the island of Númenór, closest to the sacred realm of Valinor in the far west. Ultimately the temptation to seek out Valinor overcomes them, and in punishment a rift is opened in the sea, swallowing Númenór and forever cleaving Middle-earth and Valinor apart. A few of the Númenóreans survive and dwell in Middle-earth, and from these is descended Aragorn, who appears in The Lord of the Rings.
The final section of the book is entitled "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age," and concerns just that. It speaks of the rise of Sauron, who had been Morgoth's primary servant and ally, and who comes into power of his own following Morgoth's downfall. The book provides a brief overview of the battles between Sauron and the peoples of Middle-earth, which come to a temporary halt when Isildur cuts the One Ring from Sauron's hand. The events thereafter are picked up in the stories of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
This second edition of The Silmarillion includes at its beginning a letter written by author J.R.R. Tolkien to good friend Milton Waldman in 1951. I found the letter very interesting, as it provides a nice overview of the material covered in the book, tying it all together in condensed form and helping to provide a framework that holds the stories together as the reader goes along. At the end of the book are supplementary materials that are equally valuable, including lineage tables of the key characters, a brief treatise on pronunciation, and an extensive index that also serves as a useful dictionary of names, places, and other Middle-earth terms. At the very end there is a map of Middle-earth as it looked at the time of these stories.
The Silmarillion is not what I would call an easy read, but for an attentive and interested reader, it should not be overwhelmingly difficult either. The information within provides a very detailed background for the events of Tolkien's most famous work, The Lord of the Rings. Some of the stories in The Silmarillion are excellent, self-standing short tales even without benefit of the rest of the history, and could probably have made very engaging books in and of themselves had Tolkien decided to develop them to that extent. Overall I would highly recommend this book to anyone wishing to learn more of the history of Middle-earth, though I strongly suggest finishing both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings beforehand.
Book Review: In the beginning there was The Silmarillion
Summary: 5 Stars
The Silmarillion is a journey through the imagination of J. R. R. Tolkien. It begins with the creation of Arda (Middle Earth) and gives us a history of the world up to the Lord of the Rings. The novel is split into four main parts; The creation, The First Age, the Second Age, and the Third Age. The Creation sets the stage of our story by telling the story of how Arda, Elves, Men, Dwarves and all living creatures came to be. We see how the land and sea are formed and we are told of the fallen that bring evil into the world.
The First Age tells the story of the many Wars between the Elves and the Evil One (and all of his Orcs/Goblins). We also see the transition between the old world of the past and the new world of Middle Earth from LOTR.
The Second Age revolves around Men and their growing influence in the world. The live on an island called Numenor aka Atalante (sound familiar). Here they live and prosper for generations as we read of their exploits. The Second Age ends with tragedy as you can guess from the Numenor's other name.
Finally, The Third Age tells stories regarding the Ring of Power. We learn more about the Ring and how it was forged, and we are given insights from the perspectives of various characters concerning the forging of, search for, and destruction of the Ring.
All in all, this is a GREAT history of Middle Earth. This is Tolkien's real life's work, as he started writing it in his early teens and worked on it until his death. We are given insights into history and language and we are transported to another world that seems that it could have really existed.