Wreck-it-Ralph looks to be worth my big screen full price ticket, come November. Fingers crossed.
And now, on to the review:
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| Source: Amazon.com |
From the book’s cover:
The tales of The Silmarillion were the underlying inspiration and source of J.R.R. Tolkien's imaginative writing; he worked on the book throughout his life but never brought it to a final form. Long preceding in its origins The Lord of the Rings, it is the story of the First Age of Tolkien's world, the ancient drama to which characters in The Lord of the Rings look back and in which some of them, such as Elrond and Galadriel, took part.
The title Silmarillion is shortened from Quenta Silmarillion, "The History of the Silmarils," the three great jewels created by Feanor, most gifted of the Elves, in which he imprisoned the light of the Two Trees that illumined Valinor, the land of the gods. When Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, destroyed the Trees, that light lived on only in the Silmarils; Morgoth seized them and set them in his crown, guarded in the impenetrable fortress of Angband in the north of Middle-earth. The Silmarillion is the history of the rebellion of Feanor and his people against the gods, their exile in Middle-earth, and their war, hopeless despite all the heroism of Elves and Men, against the great Enemy.
The book includes several other, shorter works beside The Silmarillion proper. Preceding it are "Ainulindale," the myth of Creation, and "Valaquenta," in which the nature and powers of each of the gods is set forth. After The Silmarillion is "Akallabeth," the story of the downfall of the great island kingdom of Numenor at the end of the Second Age; completing the volume is "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age," in which the events of The Lord of the Rings are treated in the manner of The Silmarillion.
Synopsis:
The cover materials (above) do better in explaining the content of The Silmarillion than I could. If I were to summarize it myself, I’d say that The Silmarillion takes a grand mythological/historical view of Tolkien’s Middle Earth (and then some, such as the Eastern/Western Countries, Valar, etc...). We get a vast overview of where everybody in Tolkien’s mainstream novels come from, all the way from the beginning of the world and then down to the conclusion of The War of the Ring that is the climax of The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
The book is written in a distinctively mythology-slanted way. That being said, this is not an easy book to pick up and read. At least it wasn’t for me, though I am not a deep follower of the genre. Reading The Silmarillion felt very much like I was reading a book on the mythology of ancient Greece or the ancient Norse myths, or perhaps a combination of the two. We’ve got gods, demigods, heroes, maidens, great battles, fearful quests, tragedies, twists of plot, mighty councils, dragons, villains, treasures, landscape... Tolkien encompasses the collective background of his whole fable herein. It’s quite an experience.
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| The author, J.R.R Tolkien / Source: BiographyOnline.net |
What I liked about it:
Tolkiens’ genius - and his curse - is his ability to write such complex and believable myth that the reader is almost entirely swallowed up in it. I found myself marvelling at how much detail he could include in the book, and yet still write more. This was a bright minded man, there is no doubt of that.
I’d say that of all the mythology in the book, my favorite was the Tale of Beren and Luthien. In brief summary, Beren is a mortal man, and Luthien an Elven princess. They fall in love by chance meeting, but Luthien’s father says Beren can’t marry her unless he can bring back one of the sacred Silmaril gems that are in the crown of Morgoth (he stole them, as they are holy and he is definitely not, but he can get away with such things as he is pure evil and all). Everybody expects this to be a one way trip, but Beren says “no problemo” and goes out to get himself a Silmaril. There is a great adventure, and a surprise ending. It is, in my opinion, the closest thing we get in the book to a tale resembling Tolkien’s mainstream works. More than that, it’s just a cool story.
Want a better explanation of The Tale of Beren and Luthien than I've given? Wikipedia to the rescue!
Another thing I liked was that unlike both of his more mainstream works, there is less actual quoted song in The Silmarillion. It still plays a major role; the world is created by song, which I find a fascinating take on the creation myth. I respect Tolkien’s reverence for and ability to create song, but I never liked those parts of his other books because... well, quoted verses with only the author writing about how beautiful the melody was does not do it for me. Without hearing a song, the words are just pretty poetry. I am not one who has much of a bend for poetry. I’ve always preferred well-crafted prose to poetry. So that is my own bias, I suppose.
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| A host of the bad guys in The Silmarillion, including Glaurung, the father of Dragons. He is a pivotal part of my favorite section of the book, The Tale of Beren and Luthien. / Source: ElfWood.com, artist: Malcolm McClinton (nicely done) |
What I didn’t like about it:
To be honest, the advantage that Tolkien had in writing such a deep and immersive mythology is a doubled-edged sword. As an analogy, let’s say that the ocean is deep and vast, but if you get out away from the shore and are floating on the surface... well, there isn’t much to look at. It felt that way with some of the sections of The Silmarillion. There was so much of pure mythology and not much of storytelling art that it felt like I was just skimming the surface and not really taking it all in. I guess I’d say it was tough to penetrate if taken as light reading.
Also, and I know Tolkien wasn’t writing all this to be a gripping narrative, but there were a few places where it felt like I was reading some of the more dense genealogical sections in the bible. At one point I was sure he was going to bust out in “so-and-so begat so-and-son, who begat such-and-such, who was the son of somebody-and-somebody else...” Know what I mean?
Even worse than that was the overuse of the words “fair” and “fell.” Though Tolkien’s grasp of the English language is amazing, and rightfully impressive to modern ears, it still could get a bit repetitive at times. I suppose I felt that way more so because there were so many instances where he’d say that so-and-so (no relation to the so-and-so above... grin) was the fairest of all maidens, or such-and-such was the most valiant of all warriors. Or that this-and-that tree was the best in all the land. Or that this-and-that battle was the most terrible. I know we’re writing a mythology here and such things are steeped in greatness, but just once I’d like to have heard him say “this guy was only an average warrior,” or “this gal was real pretty, but she didn’t even compare to old what’s-her-face,” or “this battle was pretty hardcore, but it was nothing as compared to that other battle I told you about earlier.” Know what I mean?
If I understand correctly, The Silmarillion wasn’t written with the intent of being a book like The Lord of the Rings, or Tolkien’s pet project, The Hobbit. Plus, though I haven’t done much background study of the book, I get the impression that it was edited together after Tolkien’s death and therefore was left to - no offense - less capable hands to compile. Therefore some of my thoughts are written off as understandable faults of the process. Just the same, these were the problems that I encountered when reading The Silmarillion. Take my impressions with the grain of salt they come with.
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| Artwork inspired by The Silmarillion isn't all epic battles and fearsome foes. This one is actually quite beautiful, and I could see it among other pieces of fine art in a gallery. / Source: LadyElleth.Deviantart.com, artist: LadyElleth |
What I learned, if anything:
There were some very applicable parts in The Silmarillion pertaining to The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Some of the heavier stuff that Tolkien wrote about in those other books is better explained, or at least better referenced, here. I must admit, I watched the movies before reading The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and even with the shortened theater versions, there was some stuff that seemed like it was attached to something that the moviemakers weren’t telling you. The Extended Editions of the movies only made this situation worse.
In particular, the background on the Númenóreans and their descendents, the Dúnedain, is pretty useful. Remember (if you watched the movies), all that stuff about Aragon (Vigo Mortensen) being The King and all the legend stuff around that. And what about the Steward of Gondor, who wanted to burn himself and his son alive after the orcs start kicking the human’s collective butt in that big battle at that city (I’m simplifying here, I know, but if makes it easy to place my question for those who haven’t read the books, or at least not lately)? Well the reasons for these things is explained here. Too bad it had to come at the end of the book. I almost quit reading, three-quarters of the way in, due to the things I mentioned in What I Didn’t Like... But I held true. And was better off because of it.
There is also stuff about the Elves, whom Tolkien appeared to love very much, and the Dwarves, and the origins of mankind, and the Balrogs (“You Shall Not Pass” anyone?), and Sauron, and dragons, and an even worse bad guy named Morgoth Bauglir who was more akin to Satan in The Silmarillion. Really, there is a lot to gain from the book, if you can get through the fact that in some passages, every third word is from Tolkien’s own invented language of Elvish and its various offshoots. That much non-familiar speech can really put the hurt on your poor head.
Recommendation:
If you liked The Hobbit, and also The Lord of the Rings, then you probably will like this well enough, if you take it for being pure mythology and not another book in the same vein as those others. Then again, if you only liked the movies because they were exciting, and couldn’t get into either The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings trilogy books, then keep away from this one. It’s a deep swim, for sure.
Learn more about The Silmarillion, by J.R.R Tolkien and Christopher Tolkien, on Amazon.com
The parting comment:
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| Source: McDeMarco.net |
This one, of all the Tolkien humor I found when Googling, fit The Silmarillion and was pretty funny. Beyoncé: "One Ring to rule all those fellas..." I don't think that's what she had in mind, but its still pretty apropos. That last frame... Sauron could just as easily have said "Ah Snap!"
I LOVE the parting comment comic strip.
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