The Silmarillion

I finished reading The Silmarillion yesterday, completing my Return of the King-induced book binge. It's fun but very different from The Lord of the Rings, as everybody who has read it knows. It lacks a central narrative focus or main character, like Hobbits or Aragorn. It feels a lot like the Bible -- very stately and "begat-y". The number of characters, mostly Elves, is overwhelming, and family members often have similar names: see if you can distinguish Fingolfin, Fingon, Finarfin, Finrod, and Finduilas.

Still, there are moments of wonder and beautiful writing. The book starts with a cool creation myth: the world is made out of music. There's the origin of the sun and the moon. You find out why there's all that fuss about the White Tree in Gondor. The story of Beren and Luthien is neat and foreshadows Aragorn and Arwen (who are also their descendants). You hear a lot about Morgoth, who taught Sauron everything he knows. You get the origin of Aragorn's race and find out why the world is round (it wasn't always). If you get totally lost, there's a wonderful index of names so you can refresh your memory.

Eventually the story catches up to the end of The Lord of the Rings. I really love the very end of the book, which is also one of the last scenes in LOTR:

And latest of all the Keepers of the Three Rings rode to the Sea, and Master Elrond took there the ship that Cirdan had made ready. In the twilight of autumn it sailed out of Mithlond, until the seas of the Bent World fell away beneath it, and the winds of the round sky troubled it no more, and borne upon the high airs above the mists of the world it passed into the Ancient West, and an end was come for the Eldar of story and of song.

Beautiful. So am I a full-on Tolkie now?

Comments

[markd2]

I always knew reading too much of that stuff could be hobbit-forming.

[Scott]

Yikes!