Apostrophe S

It took me damn near 2 months to do it, but I finally finished Tolkien’s The Silmarillion. To be honest, it really shouldn’t have taken me that long. I need to better my reading habits. But that’s for another entry.

The Silmarillion is the old testament to Tolkien’s better-known The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings trilogy. It’s the story of everything leading up to LOTR, from the creation of the universe to the re-re-rise of Sauron. Basically, it fills out the universe of lore that Tolkien created, and while reading it you begin to realize just what the man accomplished. He created a new mythology. And a rather extensive, if incomplete, mythology it is.

The Silmarillion was published after Tolkien’s death, and was actually pieced together by Tolkien’s son, Christopher, from his father’s scattered notes. The book is less of a casual novel and more of a serious study into the history and legends of Middle Earth. Which I didn’t mind.

The book is really a series of tragedies in which good eventually overcomes evil, but not without a price. Characters fall in love only to be separated by death. Others create places of beauty only to have them destroyed. And while many of the stories are interesting in and of themselves, they are of particular interest to me because they are the foundation for LOTR. The stories are remembered and referenced by the likes of Aragorn and Elrond, the latter of whom actually took part in some of the events in The Silmarillion.

Some highlights that will provide insight into Middle Earth for you:

The story of creation, in which Iluvatar, that is, God, creates Arda, that is, the world, by creating a symphony of sorts. To help him make his musical creation, he creates the Valar, a race of everlasting and for the most part invulnerable beings. These can roughly be compared to the Greco-Roman gods of old. Under them are the Maiar, a race comparable to the Valar, but on a lesser scale. They are the servents of the Valar.
But Iluvatar also creates the immortal Elves, called the Firstborn, and later on mortal Men, called the Secondborn. (The dwarves also are created separately, but that’s a long story.) So now we know where everyone came from.

There are two basic places in Arda: Valinor, the Undying Lands, which is where the Valar live and where many Elves lived for a long time, and Middle Earth, which is where Men and many Elves live. In the first age, there’s a whole other section of Middle Earth called Beleriand which is to the west of the Middle Earth maps that we’re all familiar with. After a great war, it sank into the ocean. So it’s not there anymore. There’s also Numénor, which is where the ancestors of Aragorn are from.

But there is of course a not-so-good Valar, named Melkor (later called Morgoth, whose servent is the maia Sauron) who is always causing trouble. Other maiar who serve Melkor are the Balrogs. Remember them? Anyway, Melkor stirs Elves and Men to rebel against the Valar and each other. So begin the tragedies that befall them.

One particularly skilled elf named Feanor creates three jewels called Silmarills which contain light of two important trees in Valinor. Feanor is very proud of his creation, and this pride leads to his eventual downfall and departure from Valinor after Melkor steals the Silmarills and places them in his dark crown.

One of my favorite stories from the book is the tale of Beren and Luthién, the first romantic relationship between Men and Elves, to which Aragorn and Arwen’s relationship is compared in LOTR. (And actually, it turns out those two are kind of related, which is a little weird.) For the love of Luthién, and to prove to her father that he’s worth a damn, Beren travels to the land of Morgoth to challenge him in combat and cut a Silmaril from his dark crown. It’s a tale of sadness and eventual joy, but reads like a real life legend. You couldn’t find a better story on a Dead Sea Scroll.

Eventually, Morgoth (aka Melkor — everyone has 4 or 5 names in this book) is overthrown and tossed out of the universe, and so his servent Sauron becomes the new Enemy, and you probably know what his eventual fate is.

But hey, you’re probably starting to get bored. I just like stories that use the terms “ere” and “forever and anon” a lot.

Bottom line: If you like The Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit because they are excellent adventure tales, you’ll find some of that in The Silmarillion. If you like LOTR and The Hobbit for the intensely detailed world that they introduce, you’ll find The Silmarillion to be required reading.

Be warned: It’s no cakewalk. You will need the included glossary and map of Beleriand in the back. But it’s worth it.