A review by sonofatreus
The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien
3.0
I am of two minds on The Silmarillion. The creation story of the world is really something. It has a logic to it and is unlike the more standard creation stories (Genesis, Greco-Roman, etc.). I could have read this and been totally satisfied.
After that, it just meanders around with the first Dark Lord (Melkor/Morgoth) who is a fun villain. The problem is that the characters opposing him are so equally powerful that it seems unlikely that they could not band together and defeat him. In any case, the only truly valuable aspect of this part of the book was in establishing some groups of Elves and a few lineages that become important later.
Finally, the last 1/3-1/2 of the book gets much better. This is when figures that play some part in the LOTR trilogy finally start to show up. Before that, the only familiar figures are Sauron (a lieutenant of Morgoth), Galadriel (basically only named), and the eagles (because the eagles ALWAYS show up). At this point, the threads finally start to come together and the events leading into LOTR start making more sense.
Unfortunately, there is simply not that much time spent in this era. Many of the events that I thought would be covered in The Silmarillion are abbreviated dramatically. For example, the fall of Numenor gets one chapter, and the entire creation of the Rings of Power is left to the final chapter, with all of LOTR summed up in two pages. So there were some things that I enjoyed — certainly the writing — but almost half the book just seemed like set-up to the set-up to LOTR.
One note: I've heard this compared to Hesiod's Theogony. This isn't unfair, but it also isn't quite right. It would be more like the Theogony if the Theogony spent another 1000 lines explaining the Titans and their interactions before getting to Zeus and his lot.
After that, it just meanders around with the first Dark Lord (Melkor/Morgoth) who is a fun villain. The problem is that the characters opposing him are so equally powerful that it seems unlikely that they could not band together and defeat him. In any case, the only truly valuable aspect of this part of the book was in establishing some groups of Elves and a few lineages that become important later.
Finally, the last 1/3-1/2 of the book gets much better. This is when figures that play some part in the LOTR trilogy finally start to show up. Before that, the only familiar figures are Sauron (a lieutenant of Morgoth), Galadriel (basically only named), and the eagles (because the eagles ALWAYS show up). At this point, the threads finally start to come together and the events leading into LOTR start making more sense.
Unfortunately, there is simply not that much time spent in this era. Many of the events that I thought would be covered in The Silmarillion are abbreviated dramatically. For example, the fall of Numenor gets one chapter, and the entire creation of the Rings of Power is left to the final chapter, with all of LOTR summed up in two pages. So there were some things that I enjoyed — certainly the writing — but almost half the book just seemed like set-up to the set-up to LOTR.
One note: I've heard this compared to Hesiod's Theogony. This isn't unfair, but it also isn't quite right. It would be more like the Theogony if the Theogony spent another 1000 lines explaining the Titans and their interactions before getting to Zeus and his lot.