Scan barcode
A review by lizziestudieshistory
The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien
5.0
The Silmarillion infamous for being a difficult book to read, and for the most part it lives up to this reputation. It's narrative spans thousands of years, contains as many characters, and is more like an epic poem than a modern novel. Yet, The Silmarillion is my favourite of all Tolkien's works. It's the book I come back to time and time again, it tells the stories of my favourite characters, and poses the most interest for the imagination. Something about this sprawling epic is captivating and it hasn't lost its charm from when I first read it almost 8 years ago.
Parts of this book are still a struggle to get through, in particular the 'names' chapters that introduce lineages and rattle off long lists of names and relationships which you're never going to remember on your first time around. However, they are important and later on these characters become central to events surrounding the Silmarils and the Rings of Power.
I would recommend reading The Silmarillion if you've read The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings and still want more from Middle Earth. Just be aware this isn't a traditional novel and it doesn't follow a single storyline, set of characters, or even genre.
Instead, this is the story of the Silmarils and Middle Earth itself, everything in it tells the story of how the world came to be and what happened to the three Silmarils. There are reoccurring characters and some traditional stories. However, the story isn't about the characters, it's about the jewels themselves, as such it's told through snippets of lives and tragic events that happened due to greed (usually from elves, hence my fond nickname for the book 'Elves Behaving Badly')
Parts of this book are still a struggle to get through, in particular the 'names' chapters that introduce lineages and rattle off long lists of names and relationships which you're never going to remember on your first time around. However, they are important and later on these characters become central to events surrounding the Silmarils and the Rings of Power.
I would recommend reading The Silmarillion if you've read The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings and still want more from Middle Earth. Just be aware this isn't a traditional novel and it doesn't follow a single storyline, set of characters, or even genre.
Instead, this is the story of the Silmarils and Middle Earth itself, everything in it tells the story of how the world came to be and what happened to the three Silmarils. There are reoccurring characters and some traditional stories. However, the story isn't about the characters, it's about the jewels themselves, as such it's told through snippets of lives and tragic events that happened due to greed (usually from elves, hence my fond nickname for the book 'Elves Behaving Badly')