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The SilmarillionFollow

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#27 Dec 01 2004 at 9:00 PM Rating: Decent
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His son Chris just compiled the most complete of his dad's stories and put them together for publishing.



I believe that Guy Gavriel Kay was the talent behind the compilation of Tolkien's notes. Son Chris merely provided them, while Kay smoothed out the rough spots and made it all more palatable. Or so I have heard, can't provide any source to back it up though.

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#28 Feb 28 2005 at 9:35 PM Rating: Good
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I was put off after reading the first 100 pages. At that time I had just finished The Two Towers and had a difficult time with all the references and names. After reading RotK I went back to The Silmarillion from scratch and enjoyed it. After that I went for Book of lost tales 1 and 2 then on to Unfinished tales before reading The Sil once again.
I've now read The Silmarillion 6 times. The depth and detail, coupled with the book's tie-ins to Lost tales and unfinished tales makes it more and more enjoyable every time I read it!
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#29 Mar 10 2005 at 5:10 AM Rating: Decent
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Read first time when I was 13, read it a couple times since then. Unfinished tales was decent, read that about 3 years ago.
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#30 Mar 12 2005 at 6:44 PM Rating: Decent
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Imho his greatest work. Not an easy read at times but a superb effort at creating his own mythology.
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#31 Mar 30 2005 at 5:28 PM Rating: Decent
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I don't think anyone should have to apologize or fear being ridiculed for being "into" a book series. We don't look wierdly at the guy who can rattle off the life time stats of his favorite football player.


boohoo, if i want to take the **** out of people (which i actually wasn't, then), then i fu[i][/i]cking will, shut up

Back to the subject

I definately need to read the lost tales, i'm not sure i could endure reading a book more than once in a short space of time, i read the silmarillion once about 6 months ago, and once about 4-5 years ago, any closer together than that, i'd remember every detail 2 paragraphs before it happened, no fun at all
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#32 Mar 31 2005 at 1:34 AM Rating: Good
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Read the Silmarillion and liked it a lot. It sure beats the crap out of Mythology and anything Homer wrote. If you think The Silmarillion is a tough read try The Odyssey only add 2xs the amout of dull boring details and inter reflections of behalf of the main character. I seriously couldn't stay awake reading the Odyssey my Freshman year in High School, so I didn't try and looked up the Cliff Notes and Spark Notes ^^.

And yeah I too have issues with the LOTR movies. Sure they're great and very entertaining movies, but they had to leave so much out and alter the story line for Theatrical purposes it made me realize why no one had successfully made LOTR movies before. Some of my biggest issues were:

-Arwen fiding Aragorn and Frodo after Frodo was stabbed by the Witch King (why would an Elven princess be riding that far off on her own?)Instead Glorfindel finds Frodo & company and Arwen didn't summon the water to wash away the Nazgul at the river, Elrond and Gandolf did

-Elves at Helm's Deep (remember the Elves wanted no part of the war because they were on the brink of leaving Middle Earth forever and WOULD NOT have risked their bodies in a battle)Instead Eomer and his men went with the rest of Rohan and Gandolf set out to find Erkenbrand and his riders to save Helm's Deep (and why did they add that part with Aragorn falling over the waterfall? That was stupid)

-Sauron's Orcs entering Minas Tirith when that did not happen! The Gondor armies held them outside the gates during the entire battle and they ruined one of my favorite scenes, Gandolf's confrontation with the Witch King of Angmar

-The Rohirrim also weren't as effective as was displayed in the movie, they only delayed Sauron's Forces for a little while while Aragorn sailed to Minas Tirith with the Army of the Dead.
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#33 Jun 15 2005 at 4:41 PM Rating: Excellent
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I find it ironic that my favourite of the J.R.R Tolkien books was in fact not written by him. I am speaking of the Silmarillion, of course. As everyone knows he had reams of notes that were pieced together by his son and a ghost writer to form the work nw known as the Silmarillion.

I am sure that had he lived longer Tolkien would have written more tales of wonder and suspense set in his Middle-Earth. We would have gotten the Full story of each of the chapters that make up the Silmarillion.


I like the other books by Tolkien, however, The Silmarillion is the best for so many reasons. The #1 reason is the wide range it covers in terms of thematic elements. This is not one book but a collection of books; each one unfinished. It is almost as if we get to step into Tolkiens mind and see the process he used in his composition.

Much of the text of the Silmarillion was cleaned up by a ghost-writer who mimicked Tolkien's style, but we all know the text in the book is not Tolkien's composition entirely. I love the fact that my favourite Tolkien book wasn't actually written by him... I am weird I guess.
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#34 Jul 01 2005 at 9:40 AM Rating: Decent
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Honestly I found I had a hard time getting into it and had put it down for other Fantasy novels.
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#35 Aug 04 2005 at 4:46 PM Rating: Excellent
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I couldnt help but necro-post this thread

This was one of the most spectacular and wonderful books I have ever read! Added together with the Lord of the Rings series and The Hobbit and you have something that very well may never be surpassed in the literary world. The depth of mythology as well as the shear realism of a world with so many aspects which we have been taught are quite unreal; it almost, no, it DOES make you believe that they DO exist! Magic, super powers whether you call them gods, the powers that be, or transcended beings, elfs, orcs, and dwarfs; yes J.R.R. Tolkien is a master in his art.

All five books from the begining of a whole,...for lack of a better word, "existance" where we learned the story of how the world would unfold, seen only in the quick blink of an eye, followed through until the destruction of the last evil super power and the coming of peace in Middle-Earth and Valinor tells a story which no other human ever could and in a way that truly, not just in our imaginations, but in reality, creates that world.

One man once said that "the world [Tolkien] charts was there long before him, ... He is a great enough magician to tap our most common nightmares; daydreams and twilight fancies, but never invented them either: he found them a place to live" I don't know if this was true but if it wasn't it definitly is now, somewhere out there constantly being called upon as each of us turns the next page there is a place called Middle-Earth filled with all those things we most wish were real and the others we'd rather leave in the pages of these beautifully enchanting books. That is something I firmly believe.

The Silmarillion as well as any of Tolkien's amazing books are not only worth reading they are worth knowing, loving, and immersing yourself in!

Edited, Thu Aug 4 20:06:28 2005 by Pandorra
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#36 Aug 05 2005 at 2:21 AM Rating: Good
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I have this book in a box in storage right now, but it's getting pulled out a finally read. I tried to read it a few times, but couldn't get into it. It's about time I did. I know I will enjoy it. His works have alot of thematic elements that I really enjoy.
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#37 Aug 05 2005 at 7:40 PM Rating: Decent
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I read the first couple chapters and just got sick of it. hes basically saying "Oh yes I wrote this great book about magic but really I'm still a christian because theres only one god in the world and hes the same one we have in this world"
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#38 Aug 06 2005 at 9:57 PM Rating: Excellent
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I've read it but this was kind of hard to understand for me :-( I liked all the elfs :) they were cool
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#39 Aug 16 2005 at 1:25 AM Rating: Good
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I tried to read it, but stopped at page 90. There's just too much to keep track of, and the way it's written puts me to sleep.

Tolkein has a habbit of being too descriptive. Not my type of book.
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#40 Sep 22 2005 at 4:25 PM Rating: Good
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Laktor, I hope you come back and read this. Try this book again, try to think of it as a very delicious buffet. Take your time, nibble a bit and rest, then nibble a bit more and rest again. If you take your time you will see the value of this book. See the reading of this book as a challenge that will improve you as a human, and improve you as a reader. To give up so early in the meal is only doing yourself a disservice. Please give it another shot. If you get through it you will feel the rewards.
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#41 Sep 30 2005 at 6:10 AM Rating: Good
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I hate to sound stupid but, is this book before The Hobbit/LOTR?
By before I mean in the storys' timeline.
I didn't read alot of the previous posts so I could avoid spoilers in case I do read it.
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#42 Oct 03 2005 at 1:39 AM Rating: Good
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Yes its based in the times before the LOTR Books/movies.
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#43 Oct 10 2005 at 12:22 AM Rating: Good
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The thing that makes it so difficult to "read" is the that unlike LotRs and Hobbit, there are no anchor characters for the audience to realate with.


Notice in the HObbit, it's Bilbo who is seeing al the new wonderous things and having everything explained to him....
and in LotRs there are an entire set of hobbits to that are bening lead through new lands and adventures (Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin).


Not to mention Silmarillion insn't really a novel persay. it reads more like a referance book, or a history text.
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#44 Dec 15 2005 at 1:20 AM Rating: Decent
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The truth about this book is that it actually encompasses all of his work. It is about the creation myth of middle earth. It goes through events leading up to LOTR and The Hobbit. It also takes the reader beyond those stories.

As well, rather than having characters to anchor it, it has archetypes that characters are modeled after. I wont go into details, but there are themes which knit the stories contained herein together as a cohesive whole.

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#45 Jan 05 2006 at 8:45 AM Rating: Decent
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Way back in the dim and misty when I was in school, my band was all into the basics of geek-dom; Tolkien, D&D, drinking and chasing skirts (what else do you do at college, study?). Anyway, only one of us had read the Silmarillion, but it was considered borderline text-book, and therefore untouchable. The one guy who did read it was a Tolkien zealot, and insisted that we all read it through, so to entice us, he went out, bought everyone copies, and loaded his apartment with enough food and booze to feed everyone for the weekend. It was the free booze that did it, but once everyone got into it, we really started enjoying it. Eventually, we would all read about a section or two, take a break and chat about what we read. There were other minor distractions along the way (a rugby game, my girlfriend, etc...) but all in all a great read and a great weekend to look back on while stuck in my office, trying to look like a manager, whilst, and at the same time, surfing Alla!
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#46 Jan 21 2006 at 4:04 AM Rating: Good
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lol..this so reminds me I need to reread this book. The first time it was so overwhelming to read that I know I didn't process half of it. Its very ...intensive...IMO but great none-the-less.
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#47 Jan 23 2006 at 5:25 AM Rating: Decent
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yeah this book kicked ***. my favorite part was when I forget his name fights the army of Balrogs. it was so ******* cool. man i can`t remember his name though its been too long. damn its going to keep me up all night.
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#48 Feb 03 2006 at 4:44 PM Rating: Decent
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yeah this book kicked ***. my favorite part was when I forget his name fights the army of Balrogs. it was so @#%^ing cool. man i can`t remember his name though its been too long. damn its going to keep me up all night.


Glorfindal?
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