The Silmarillion: by J. R. R. Tolkien (Author, Illustrator)

Product Information

The book explores a wide array of themes inspired by many ancient, medieval, and modern sources, including the Finnish epic Kalevala, the Hebrew Bible, Norse sagas, Greek mythology, Celtic mythology, and World War I. For instance the Valar, the angelic beings of Ëa, mirror the Olympian Gods of Greek Myth. The archaic style and gravitas of the Ainulindalë resembles that of the Old Testament. The island civilization of Númenor is reminiscent of Atlantis — one of the names Tolkien gave that land was Atalantë, although he gave it an Elvish etymology. But after watching the first part of The Hobbit I became aware of this booked titled The Silmarillion and was very intrigued by it. I had read that it tells of the origins of things and people like Sauron – who he was and how he came about. All these things just captivated me and I felt I just had to read this book (since there was no movie counterpart). Silmarillion tells the tale of the making of the world by Eru, the God of Middle-Earth and all that followed through the first two ages of creation, up until the events described in The Hobbit and LOTR. Christopher Tolkien did a great job of connecting his father’s writings on the subject, so we have a nice and chronological story. But it is not a novel exactly, for it covers countless years.

Chris Smith, deputy publishing director, said: “The art that complemented and enhanced these tales would only be seen in fragments over the following years, in calendars or in academic works, and it was not until the record-breaking exhibitions of 2018 that a new global audience would finally be able to appreciate J R R Tolkien’s extraordinary artistic achievement. Regular flat paper, not glossy. More standard book-shaped, whereas the 2004 version is more square, like a coffee table book. Mine was used and did NOT include a fold-out map, but the colorized Christopher Tolkien Beleriand map is in the front plate and endplate (inside the cover, both ends). This overwhelmingly positive response resulted in the first ever edition of The Lord of the Rings illustrated by its author, which proved hugely popular with readers around the world, and it is with great pleasure that we are now able to accompany this with an edition of The Silmarillion, at last presented with a wonderful selection of J R R Tolkien’s paintings, drawings and designs that capture the beauty and drama of the First and Second Ages of Middle-earth.” These five parts were initially separate works, but it was J.R.R. Tolkien's express wish that they be published together. Because Tolkien died before he could complete a full rewrite of the various legends, his son Christopher used material from his father's older drafts to fill out the book. I had heard and read that this book is basically The Bible as it talks about the start of creation and things of that nature. For example, the antagonist is compared to being Satan (fallen angel and all that). I’ve never read The Bible so I can’t really compare them but I can see where these POVs come from.For the first time ever, a very special edition of the forerunner to The Lord of the Rings, illustrated throughout in colour by J.R.R. Tolkien himself and with the complete text. The Annotated Hobbit · The History of The Hobbit · The Nature of Middle-earth · The Fall of Númenor The tales of the First Age when Morgoth dwelt in Middle-earth and the Elves made war upon him for the recovery of the Silmarils to which are appended the downfall of Númenor and the history of the Rings of Power and the Third Age in which these tales come to their end." Overview [ edit | edit source ]

Might also be handy if one is into LARPG and wants to impress the hot elves with nerdiness so concentrated that it takes control over the brain applying it, whispering to the mind about seductive levels of fandom indistinguishable from complete loss of perception of reality.J.R.R. Tolkien; Humphrey Carpenter, Christopher Tolkien (eds.), The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 124, (dated 24 February 1950) The Silmarillion was not an easy read and the first half of the book was completely not fun at all to read. Due to the nature of writing style, there were also a lot of events that could’ve worked so much better rather than making me feel so distant. However, this book clearly shows Tolkien’s capability as a pioneer in fantasy world-building. I didn’t even know how rich the lore and history behind Middle-Earth was until I’ve read this one. I highly recommend this book for patient readers and obviously, fans of Tolkien. If you’re not a huge fan of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, I really think that it’s not mandatory for you to push through this book if it’s not working for you. Don't get me wrong, there were a lot of great scenes that really shows Tolkien's imagination at its highest level. But overall, I think I'm left wanting more out of the stories than feeling completely satisfied. If you're expecting something like The Hobbit (or even LotR), this will be a surprise - but an enriching one, I hope. The closing chapters also talks about Numenor and the rise and fall of the that great island nation and how this society led to the line of kings of whom Aragorn was one.

You will learn of the story of Beren and Lúthien, which is very briefly mentioned by Aragorn in LOTR. We see much of heroism, strength and courage. We also see the weaknesses of the Elves – something which we don’t really see in LOTR. You see how the Elves became different factions and their relationship with Men and even Dwarves. Things which are only briefly mentioned in LOTR are fully detailed in this book. It consists of five parts. The first, Ainulindalë, tells of the creation of Eä, the World that Is. The second part, Valaquenta, gives a description of the Valar and Maiar, powerful beings of Eä. The next section, Quenta Silmarillion, which forms the bulk of the collection, chronicles the history of the events before and during the First Age, including the wars over three jewels, the Silmarils, that gave the book its title. The fourth part, Akallabêth, relates the history of the Downfall of Númenor and its people, which takes place in the Second Age. The final part, Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age, is a brief account of the circumstances which led to and were presented in The Lord of the Rings. Before saying I am crazy, hear me out (actually, if you have nothing better to do, then read this review; if you have, then I gave this 5 stars, so you know my opinion anyway! See, you can’t say I don’t care for your time!). The character building in this book is just absolutely amazing. It really gives so much density and depth within it. You begin to really feel the emotions of everything that happens throughout the story. Why Sauron was such an evil character and where this stemmed from in the beginning of things. You even find out the origin of Aragorn’s ring and its origins (the ring with the two serpents, one devouring the other). Seeing the relationships between characters build and even fall apart is executed so well by Tolkien. The way Tolkien has merged the three books into one overall story really is just nothing short of incredible.

Customer reviews

So I was asking myself - Jen, how do you review the Silmarillion? How do you review the events of thousands of years of heavily condensed material and make it palatable that this is in fact, a classic and a must for all Tolkien fans? The Silmarillion gives a clear and comprehensive history of the mythological world Tolkien created to set his Lord of Rings trilogy. In five parts, he describes the world of which Middle Earth is a part, the spirits who rule the world (who the Men called gods), the making of Elves, Men, and Dwarfs, and the events that took place in the world, especially on Middle Earth from the First Age to the Third Age. In short, The Silmarillion can be safely described as a forerunner to the Lord of the Rings trilogy. En esto creo que también tiene mucho que ver el transfondo social, histórico y moral del propio Tolkien, del cual toda su obra es también deudora, bebiendo ampliamente de estas circunstancias. Nada del otro mundo, estos contextos influyen, para bien o para mal, en todos los escritores. La gracia está en ver en cómo lo hace. En el caso de Tolkien no solo vemos una historia que habla sobre la humanidad. También podemos comprobar la forma en que la Primera Guerra Mundial influyó en él, ya que de joven estuvo en el frente (Por cierto, hay un libro que habla de las experiencias en este conflicto junto a las de su amigo C. S. Lewis, creador de “Las Crónicas de Narnia”, y de como les influyo a ambos en sus celebres obras. Libro que tengo, desde hace mucho, ganas de leer también, como no). El sinsentido de la guerra y la capacidad inherente de las personas para realizarla a sangre fría, y para matar a sus semejantes es algo muy presente en todo este libro de una forma descorazonadora. Otro aspecto que también me ha parecido muy interesante es la preocupación del escritor por la ecología y el medio ambiente, la forma en que habla de cómo la industrialización y la falta de cuidado están destrozando los espacios naturales y la tierra. Ideas muy avanzadas para la época en que Tolkien vivió y que demuestran la gran sensibilidad y perspicacia de este autor.

You probably shouldn't read this before reading The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings. I think it would be too confusing and just a bit too much as a starter to this world. Tolkien could not publish The Silmarillion in his lifetime, as it grew with him, so he would leave it to his son, Christopher, to edit the work from many manuscripts and bring his father’s great vision to publishable form, so completing the literary achievement of a lifetime. This special edition presents anew this seminal first step towards mapping out the posthumous publishing of Middle-earth, and the beginning of an illustrious forty years and more than twenty books celebrating his father’s legacy. I will probably do it that way, just as I like to read my sci-fi and fantasy extra, outsourced exposition explanations about characters, chronological timelines, maps, fandom, etc., to get the flow better started.But Tolkien never fully abandoned The Silmarillion which he regarded as the most important of his works, seeing in its tales the genesis of Middle-earth and later events as told in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The influence was too big while writing, and as he said in the Foreword, "the story was drawn irresistibly towards the older world"; while starting as a sequel of The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings became the continuation and completion of his legendarium. [3]