recomend it?

[Ainaethir]

greetings!
i was wanting to know if anyone would give me a breif description of the simerillion....and would you recomend buying it?
thanks!
Ainaethir

[Coney]

Your already in the perfect (and almost concise!) forum........have a browse:)

Oh, and welcome to the madhouse;)

[Andúril]

The Silmarillan
By Andúril

I like the Silmarillian because it is nice I read it a while a-go and it took a long time because it was hard at first and there are lots of charachters and it is quite complex and confusing and it reads like my ensyclopaedia and I finally got through it and smiled and put it down and then I read the Lord of the Ring and I got new insites into who was everybuddy was and there historys and liniage and I think the Silmarilian is wonderful and brilliant and excellent and darn cool and it also has a lot of nice stuff inside like all about how the universe was created and the Vallar and Mayar and the dark lord Sauron and also Melkor and morgoth and Ingwe and all the types of Elfs and strange creatures like ungoliants and I would recommend this book to anyone who liked the Lord of the Ring and also the Hoppit but if you have only read the Hoppit then I advise you to go read the Lord of the Rings first before the Silmarrilan also you might want to practise reading your encuclopaedia before starting so that you won't be de-terred

The End

[BeardofPants]

Which reminds me: it's spelt Silmarillion. Not to nitpick or anything. :p

[Dunadan]

Hello and welcome

I'd recommend it if you have a thirst for more knowledge of why the Elves went about so wistful all the time, where they were going when they sailed into the West, who the Wizards were and why the likes of Sauron were able to wreak such devastation by the power of his will alone.

On the down side, it's pretty turgid stuff style-wise; much harder to read than LOTR, but worth the effort, I think. It'll make you view that story in a completely different light.

cheers

d.

[johnnyrod]

See the above for descriptions. If you enjoyed the Lord of the Rings then you really should read the Silmarilion. It's not a long book, but has so much in it - war, betrayal, love, deception, all the things of myths and legends, all in one smallish volume. Great stuff.

[The Lady of Ithilien]

Originally posted by Ainaethir
greetings!
i was wanting to know if anyone would give me a breif description of the simerillion....and would you recomend buying it? Hail and well met!

I couldn't top Christopher Tolkien's foreword to the 1977 paperback edition (excerpts follow):

"The Silmarillion, now published four years after the death of its author, is an account of the Elder Days, or the First Age of the World. In The Lord of the Rings were narrated the great events at the end of the Third Age; but the tales of The Silmarillion are legends deriving from a much deeper past, when Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, dwelt in Middle-earth, and the High Elves made war upon him for the recovery of the Silmarils....throughout my father's long life he never abandoned it, nor ceased even in his last years to work on it. In all that time The Silmarillion...was far indeed from being a fixed text, and did not remain unchanged even in certain fundamental ideas concerning the nature of the world it portrays; while the same legends came to be retold in longer and shorter forms, and in different styles. As the years passed the changes and variants, both in detail and inlarger perspectives, became so complex, so pervasive, and so many-layered that a final and definitive version seemed unattainable....

"On my father's death it fell to me to try to bring the work into publishable form....A complete consistency....is not to be looked for....Moreover, my father came to conceive The Silmarillion as a compilation, a compendious narrative, made long afterwards from sources of great diversity (poems, and annals, and oral tales) that had survived in agelong tradition....To this may be ascribed the varying speed of the narrative and fullness of detail in different parts....The book, though entitled as it must be The Silmarillion, contains not only the Quenta Silmarillion, or Silmarillion proper, but also four other short works. The Ainulindale and Valaquenta...are indeed closely associated with The Silmarillion; but the Akallabeth and Of the Rings of Power, which appear at the end are (it must be emphasised) wholly separate and independent. They are included according to my father's explicit intention; and by their inclusion the entire history is set forth from the Music of the Ainur in which the world began to the passing of the Ringbearers from the Havens of Mithlond at the end of the Third Age...

So, yes I'd recommend it, as it was JRRT's life's work, and also because once you get it all, you will understand much of the historical parts that are mentioned in The Lord of the Rings (Westernesse, or Numenor, whose tale in full is told in Akallabeth, Gil-Galad, the people who lived in Eregion, who according to Legolas during the Fellowship's brief journey through there, were still lamented by the hills and stone, etc.) But read The Lord of the Rings first, and don't approach Silmarillion looking for more of the same -- it is quite different in tone. It's sort of the real-life equivalent of Bilbo's book that he was working on in Rivendell, as Frodo shaped it afterwards.

And it is addicting....:D

[Aeryn Evenstar]

I just started reading the Silmarillion a few days ago. I love it so far, though I've taken a few notes to keep myself straight! :)

[The Lady of the Wood]

i would definitely recommend it!its confusing, but worth reading and really good!

[Imladrien]

The first time I read The Silmarillion was when it first came out. I didn't like it much. Of course, I was all alone without nice people to help me get through the difficult parts. I, also, made the mistake of not reading LotR right after. Alot of stuff would have clicked and I might have reformed my opinion. I avoided it like the plague, until roughly a year ago. I read it with others on another website. It was really great and I'm sorry I wasted all of those years. You don't have to buy it. Try taking out of the library and decide if you really want it. --Imladrien

[Getchan]

First I read the Hobbit, then LOTR. Then I picked up the Sil, and it cleared up a few things in LOTR-some names and places. After that I re-read LOTR and that cleared up some things in the Sil! For me, everytime I re-read Tolkien, some new thing comes to light that I somehow didn't catch before. It's one reason I'm such a fan!

[Beleg Strongbow]

You might want to read Unfinished Tales as well.

[Insidious Rex]

How many people out there actually read the Silmarillion first before The Lord of the Rings? Im guessing the vast majority of people come to Tolkien by way of The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings then read the Silmarillion later and had a bunch of "oh thats what that was all about" moments. I know I did.

[Sister Golden Hair]

The first time I read LotRs the Silmarillion didn't exist. The Silmarillion is by far the best book I have ever read.

[Insidious Rex]

Originally posted by Sister Golden Hair
The first time I read LotRs the Silmarillion didn't exist

When was it actually pubished? Like 76?

[Sister Golden Hair]

The first edition, Houghton Mifflin, came out in 1977. I read the LotRs about 8 years before that.

[Falagar]

The first edition, Houghton Mifflin, came out in 1977.
...and I'm the proud owner of one of them! :D

[Maedhros]

The first edition, Houghton Mifflin, came out in 1977. I read the LotRs about 8 years before that.
Wow. You are definitely a tolkien fan.

[Sister Golden Hair]

Originally posted by Falagar
...and I'm the proud owner of one of them! :D Me too. I also have the illustrated edition by Ted Nasmith, and I have a paperback, just for loaning to friends that I try to persuade to read it.

[Getchan]

You might want to read Unfinished Tales as well

I have and I loved it! 'Narn I Hin Hurin' was a wonderful story. I much prefer it to 'Of Turin' from the Sil.
I, also, have The Illustrated Sil. The beauty of the paintings is breathtaking. When I was reading and then turned to one, I almost felt like I was there! A witness to some amazing event.
......Or maybe I'm just a freak.

[Sister Golden Hair]

Originally posted by Getchan

I, also, have The Illustrated Sil. The beauty of the paintings is breathtaking. When I was reading and then turned to one, I almost felt like I was there! A witness to some amazing event.
......Or maybe I'm just a freak. Nasmith does beautiful work. I can't say that I cared for his pic of Finrod's meeting with Men though. Aside from that, the illustrated edition is beautiful.

[Getchan]

The only painting that I was iffy on, was the meeting of Ulmo and Tuor. Ulmo looked a little too alien/sci-fi. Howe or Lee(can't remember which) did a better Ulmo.

[Falagar]

Agreed. Ulmo in Nasmith's painting looked like something that could have been taken straight out of an American (no offense, but I've seen some bad American horror-movies) Horror-movie. Howe's, however (the cover on the frontpage of Unfinished Tales from 1997) looks more like a great, powerful and stern, yet sad king.

[Artanis]

Originally posted by Sister Golden Hair
Nasmith does beautiful work. I can't say that I cared for his pic of Finrod's meeting with Men though. Aside from that, the illustrated edition is beautiful. Is it Finrod's appearance you don't like? I think he looks great on that pic. He's looking very like how I picture Elves, so I readily forgive Nasmith's error regarding his hair colour. :)

Nasmith is also my favourite Tolkien artist. His works in the illustrated Sil are awesome. But the two pictures I love most of all from him is not in there, Tuor's coming to Gondolin, and Farewell to Lórien.