Chance Norton's Book Review

The Silmarillion

By J.R.R. Tolkien

**** stars

This is a book which was purposefully written as a “myth” type of story, everything in it reads just like the bible or stories of Norse or Egyptian Gods. So yes, it is sort of slow at points and it does get tedious even for Tolkien’s work, and for anyone who has ever read The Hobbit or the Lord of the Rings, he does get wordy every now and then. But for all that slowness and similar writing style to the Bible, it is a very interesting and thought provoking book.

Well, four books actually. The title Silmarillion comes from the main book in this collection of books, the others are Ainulindale (the creation story, much like Genesis in the Bible), Valaquenta (a full accounting of all major Gods and their underlings, similar to the angels), and finally the entire story of the Rings of Power and the Third Age. The first part, the creation story is probably the most difficult part in the novel to read because it is very abstract and hard to follow unless you are locked away in your room with no distractions. Ainulindale tells the tale of the Valar, which are the Gods of Middle Earth, and how they came into being by the one True God, Iluvatar. Like I said earlier it is very abstract and Bible like. Hard to read but still interesting if you are into the whole Lord of the Rings world.

The next part Valaquenta reminded me of if you picked up a book of Norse myths and read stories about the top fifteen most powerful figures in it. It tells of the Valar’s characteristics and the First War and sundering of the earth because of Melkor’s treachery (a member of the Valar gone bad, similar to Lucifer).

And the reason I found this book most tedious is that it repeats itself in the introductions. Like the beginning of the next section, Silmarillion, does a quick overview of the last half of Valaquenta. Weird because it is literally on the next page of the book… But, Silmarillion does take the story much further, giving details of the specific battles, the why of how these things happened and the main part of the story which involves the title. Silmarillion comes from the Silmarils, jewels that housed the power of the Valar. These jewels were stolen by Melkor to hurt the chances of the Valar winning the war (of which the story of the Lord of the Rings is merely a continuation). Basically this act throws the Valar further out of contact with the Elves and Dwarves and eventually brings about the downfall of Numor (the greatest of the kingdoms of men, the Black Riders from the movies were Numorian Kings). It is all very interesting for the backstory of the Lord of the Rings and helps you to understand so much more than the average movie watcher or book reader would know. For instance, Sauron, the Dark Lord of the Rings who is the main villain of the books, was merely a lieutenant to the true evil, Melkor, and though he was considered almost as cruel as Melkor, Sauron was no where near as powerful as his master was.

The last story in this book was a retelling of the entire history of the Third Age (the setting of the original books) but in an impersonal way. Not really about Frodo’s path but about the overview of the story. Rather than say how Frodo feels throughout the course of events it would say that Frodo was almost catured at this point or that he captured the creature Gollum to serve as a guide on his travels.

I liked this book a lot. But then again I am really into the whole history of the books I like. The story was interesting enough to me that I could forge through the tedious or boring parts, much like the Lord of the Rings books. Sometimes they get tedious and boring but I still enjoy the plot. So my recommendation is that if you like the Lord of the Rings then check this out from the library. And be prepared to renew your time.