The Silmarilion

[witch - king]

who has read it?
what did you think of it?

[Amy Lee]

I dont think its as good as LOTR and The Hobbit.. Tolkien hasnt written about one group of characters, their lives, so it isn't as personal....

Its informative, but not really as personal as i would have liked (im reading it right now)

[witch - king]

I dont think its as good as LOTR and The Hobbit.. Tolkien hasnt written about one group of characters, their lives, so it isn't as personal....

Its informative, but not really as personal as i would have liked (im reading it right now)

Yeh i think the one thing silmarilion misses that hobbit and lotr have is the adventure side of it, you feel the same pain and suffering that the caracters feel and i felt i didnt relate or understand the caracters from the sil that well,

although i found that it is a good book in the sence that you find out alot about the back ground of middle earth and how it all started,

My personal opinion of it is that it is more like an encyclopedia of middle earth rather than a story

[Prevail in my Oblivion]

i read it, and love it, but i thinkn you need the Unfinished Tales to really understand the Silmarillion

[Lúthien Elanessë]

i read it, and love it, but i thinkn you need the Unfinished Tales to really understand the Silmarillion

I have not read Unfinished Tales, and I actually got it!   This is one that I highly recommend to Tolkien Fans!  

[Amy Lee]

i read it, and love it, but i thinkn you need the Unfinished Tales to really understand the Silmarillion

Ive read the Unfinished Tales and I understand the Silmarillion, I just think it lacks the personification of Lord of The Rings. While it is a good book, there is no set main character. The Valar are the main characters at the beginning, then it skips to Maedros, etc, Then it skips to Luthien and Beren...

It isn't all one story, more like little snippets of a story from everyones view.. It chops and changes a little too much. It doesn't flow quite as well as LOTR or the Hobbit but I would still say it is worth reading. It explains a lot about Sauron and of course, about Morgoth and the Silmarils. The Noldor too... I like reading about the Noldor, theyre proud and even though they are easily corrupted, they still (on the most part) try to stick together.

[Rune]

I have not read Unfinished Tales yet but really enjoyed the Sil.

I love its epic scale and the way you get swept along in world changing events.

LOTR while still epic is much more specfic to one time period and set of characters. Very hard to compare the two with so contrasting styles.

I like them both for different reasons

[Jezebel]

I've only read a tiny bit of it, and it took me so much to get into it.  I was so confused just by reading the first couple of words, but I'm sure it gets better as time goes by.

Shame, because I would like to read it right now, but my copy is being lent out and I won't get it back until he has read the Hobbit and all three LOTR books *sigh*

[Shadowfax]

It isn't all one story, more like little snippets of a story from everyones view.. It chops and changes a little too much. It doesn't flow quite as well as LOTR or the Hobbit but I would still say it is worth reading.

To be fair, it is acutally divided into five books so its change is justified.  I found Quenta Silmarillion flowed quite nicely and that these stories were still amazing and quite moving, but of course they just arent the same as lotr.  I think though, for me the silmarillion kinda build a noble history around lotr which only made it seem more real.

[The Seventh Witch (Me!)]

I loved it! It is definitely my favourite Tolkien book. It hasn't got the novel-feel that LotR and The Hobbit have of course but it is so interesting and gives so much in-depth history into the making of ME and the Elves. It really helps you understand lots of the stuff in LotR I think. It does take a bit of 'getting into' but once you are past the Music of the Ainur bit it gets really good! If you have just read LotR you would think the Elves a bit wimpy and soft but reading The Sil shows just how 'human' for want of a better word(!) they were before!
I just think it is absolutely amazing how one man could create years and years of History for a whole world all on his own!

[Waelith]

The Silmarillion for me was a real epic. I have read it, once. I read it last year, but I will be reading it again.
There is so many beautiful stories in this book. The story of the shaping of Arda was really beautiful, while the tragic romance between Beren and Luthien was really sad.
The story of the trees of Valinor, and how Ungoliant came to plunge them into utter darkness was truly fascinating.

All of the stories in here make really interesting reading.

I really do recommend it to everyone.

[Lómi]

I just brought it the other day, I hope it lives up to LOTR and The Hobbit for me, I read the intro bit though, very confused already!

[GG]

I enjoyed it alot more the seocnd time through, because the first time through was like hacking a path through the jungle, me trying to keep up with all the names and places and such.

Yep..it's an epic tale of Middle Earth if anything, and like all epics, the language is lofty and archaic at times.

[Precious]

However, it is this language I find that really portrays the ancient feeling that is necessary to surround some of the histories in the Silmarillion. Bear in mind that it was intended (as far as I am aware) as a collection of histories and tales surrounding many different characters and places in middle Earth-in order to give the reader a much broader view of Middle Earth as a world and not as a "story" about a small set of people.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Silmarillion, especially the second time around. Although all the names, places and language in general can be confusing I think it is a wonderful book, accounting richly so many different tales in one. It gives you the chance to get to know so many more aspects of Middle Earth that you would not necessarily have seen otherwise.

The tale of Lúthien and Beren is a firm favourite of mine as it deals with many issues-love obviously being the main one. I also find The Music Of The Ainur an extremely interesting concept and the imagery that is used to shape that particular tale is beautiful.

As has been said....The Silmarillion truly is an epic and I look forward to seeing the new extended edition.

[Martial_monk]

However, it is this language I find that really portrays the ancient feeling that is necessary to surround some of the histories in the Silmarillion. Bear in mind that it was intended (as far as I am aware) as a collection of histories and tales surrounding many different characters and places in middle Earth-in order to give the reader a much broader view of Middle Earth as a world and not as a "story" about a small set of people.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Silmarillion, especially the second time around. Although all the names, places and language in general can be confusing I think it is a wonderful book, accounting richly so many different tales in one. It gives you the chance to get to know so many more aspects of Middle Earth that you would not necessarily have seen otherwise.

The tale of Lúthien and Beren is a firm favourite of mine as it deals with many issues-love obviously being the main one. I also find The Music Of The Ainur an extremely interesting concept and the imagery that is used to shape that particular tale is beautiful.

As has been said....The Silmarillion truly is an epic and I look forward to seeing the new extended edition.

I agree, the religious aspect of the Silmarillion is rarely touched upon by Tolkien in his other works. The only references are obscure druid like worshippings of the wood Elves; but with the story of Illuvator it really for me creates a complete believable world which contains it's on theology as the backdrop to the entire story and future to come.

Call to undefined function tportal_version()