captaind's Full Review: J. R. R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien, Ted Nasmith...
The Story
The Silmarillion deals with the first 2 ages of Middle Earth (that is, the time before the events of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings LOTR). It goes right back to the beginning, dealing with the Middle Earth myth of creation, to the emergence of evil, the retaliation of good, the birth of the various races, and the legendary characters that you might remember in passing being mentioned in LOTR.
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 our Melkor’s song.
But a rift was formed in Middle Earth. Eru sent The Valar (including Melkor) to live on Middle Earth so see how the song worked itself out. Melkor was tolerated for a time, sometimes apparently reformed, and other spirit creatures joined his side (the most well-known examples of this being Sauron, and the Balrog that battles Gandalf in LOTR). But eventually he is cast out of Valinor, and this has a lot to do with The Silmarils (from which the book’s title is taken) – beautiful jewels created by Feanor, an Elf. In fact, these jewels, and the grievous deeds that surround them, are the focal point of the whole book – many of the events in the book centre around them, and not just those confined to the time period near their creation. Among the results of these events are the expulsion of the Elves from Valinor, the fist “Kin-slaying” (Elves killing other Elves), and the seemingly irrevocable rift between Elves and Dwarves.
Because the time periods covered in the different sections of the book overlap at times, so do the characters and events. This can at times be a little confusing, and at times I found myself having to look back in the book to find out what happened to a character in the early part of the book to explain their actions in a later part. Personally I find this rather interesting (albeit time-consuming), but beware if that sort of thing annoys you.
The overall plot is immense, as it deals with the whole first 2 ages of Middle Earth (it touches on the third right at the end of the book, but obviously that’s dealt with in detail in The Hobbit and LOTR), so it would be pointless to tell you any more of the plot – it’s just too big to describe!
The Characters
Some of the characters are basically “mini-gods”, such as The Valar and Melkor (also called Morgoth). These are portrayed as having similar thoughts and emotions to humans, as indeed do all the races, though they have their own individual racial tendencies (and prejudices). The individual characters didn’t particularly stand out to me after reading, just while I was doing so. In fact, the only characters I really remember are Melkor, Sauron, Manwe (Lord of the Sky), and Feanor, the Elf who made the Silmarils and thus unwittingly started a whole heap of trouble. The problem is there are just so many characters, and there are few who are consistently referred to throughout the book. (And, of course, the humans and dwarves have a tendency to die just as they’re getting interesting…) Some of the characters you may remember from LOTR are there – Celeborn and Galadriel, for instance.
It’s not really a problem as the book is more action based than character based. Still, the characters do well for their part of the book, and the races aren’t stereotyped – whether it’s and Elf, Dwarf, or Human, they will have their own personality, which is defined by the upbringing and experiences more than simply their race.
Locations
The locations differ somewhat from Middle Earth, and show the changing face of the earth (again showing Tolkein’s keen awareness of the results of industrialisation on the environment, which the more I see of it, the more I feel that he was decades ahead of his time). They’re interesting but not particularly outstanding, but they don’t need to be. They’re more of a background to the story rather than part of the story itself, as in LOTR.
Plot Development
The individual plots develop very quickly, with an overall theme emerging slowly through the course of the seemingly isolated incidents. It isn’t as such a story, though, rather a history made up of many different stories that sometimes interlink. Not all of the stories have to do with the Silmarils, not all are to do with the battle against Melkor / Sauron, not all feature the Valor, not all feature the Elves. It’s just brilliant story-telling, and although set before LOTR seems more a compliment of it than the other way round. (Indeed, if I’m right, The Hobbit was written first, then LOTR, then The Silmarillion… though I could be wrong). Action seekers who found LOTR rather too slow for their liking will find this much more to their liking, and if you like LOTR, I’m sure you’ll like this too. I’ve never met anyone who hasn’t liked it after reading its more illustrious forebear beforehand.
The Writing
Because its scope is so large in terms of both time and area, the writing is very fast-paced. It’s like a whirlwind tour of history with a few close-up views – centuries can go by with little happening, but then along comes a great evil / hero / heroine / catastrophe etc, and we’re zoomed into the thick of the action, panning out again to take a broader view once it’s done. In many ways I actually think it’s better than LOTR, although because you don’t spend as much time with any individual characters, you don’t really get to care about them very much. I suppose the main difference is that LOTR is written more or less in present tense, while The Silmarillion is ancient history and knows it.
Overall it’s as interesting as anything Greek mythology ever produced, and in many ways more as it’s not something anyone’s ever supposed to actually believe in, apart from the characters in the book itself. I notice that on epinions there’s a book comparing Middle Earth to biblical events – there are indeed many similarities, off the top of my head the fact that Melkor was initially an angelic creature turned bad (Satan), Sauron was evil but could (at first) appear to be beautiful and good (Satan again), Gandalf was sent from another land (Valinor) to help save mankind, appeared to have been defeated but returned in a glorified state (Jesus), the Elves being cast out of Valinor (Garden of Eden), etc… I’m not really sure how intentional / coincidental these similarities are, but I don’t think it would really affect your enjoyment of reading this book either way. It adds another angle of interest if you have a knowledge of the bible, but in reality the book stands up as a story to be read and enjoyed, and not as a biblical commentary. It’s not a fiction-oriented Vine’s Expository. But it’s interesting comparing events, all the same.
(Since originally writing that paragraph, a knowledgeable reader has posted a comment on my LOTR review stating that Tolkein was a Christian apologist, so I guess the many similarities between biblical events and those set out as Middle Earth’s mythology are not merely coincidental).
Tolkein overall shows just as much flare for creative prose and description as he does in his other books, and his versatility shows through in the fact that, while all enjoyable, The Hobbit, The Silmarillion, and LOTR are completely different in style. The Silmarillion is very fast, a completely fictional mythology (with most others you never quite know how much is fact and how much is fiction), and it’s breathtaking stuff. It doesn’t particularly matter which order you read the books in – I’ve read all of them more than once anyway, it doesn’t spoil any of the stories to know what happened before or after them.
The Bottom Line (before the Bottom Line)
If you liked LOTR, you’ll love this
If you found LOTR too slow, you’ll probably like this a lot more
If you like fantasy and / or action-oriented adventure stories, you’ll like this.
If you’re looking for something a bit out of the ordinary, you may well like this too.
Tolkein considered The Silmarillion his most important work, and, though it was published last and posthumously, this great collection of tales and le...More at Christianbook.com
Majestic!...readers of THE HOBBIT and THE LORD OF THE RINGS...will find THE SILMARILLION a cosmology to call their own...medieval romances, fierce fai...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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