I read the Silmarillion after watching this and it helped so much. I put the audiobook on, I put a map up on my iPad, and read along at the same time. 100% immersed, and felt like I would get a 5/5 on a AP Beleriand History exam.
How to do you search the maps? Or where can I find them? I read the Silmarillion four years ago and I remember just a few things so I wanted to read it again
Haha my first exposure to the Silmarillion was audio book then later I read it. And then I randomly listen to sections of the audio book when I do chores. Do the same with Tolkiens other works just easier sometimes because I can always sit and read even when I want to.
Is the audiobook actually any good? I feel like, when I read it I make very slow progress trying to look up places and names. If I were just to breeze trough with an audiobook I think I would miss a lot. Now come to think of it, perhaps 2x a quicker audiobook runtrough might be faster than a single drawn out slog 🤔 dunno
The real eye-opener for me, upon finishing The Silmarillion, was seeing the entire Lord of the Rings tale condensed into less than three pages in the typically terse Silmarillion style. It made me realize that any given three OTHER pages throughout The Silmarillion might represent similar condensations and could be expanded like LotR was.
@@yw1971 Not exactly. If it's not written by Tolkein it's not Tolkein. Anything else, as we see now, is a shoddy attempt which will just end up as another of Melkor's twisted shadows of something pure and true.
I read one chapter a night and that was a beautiful experience. Take each chapter as a self-contained short story that is interconnected through the book.
excellent approach. if there's one thing pretty much all tolkien fans can agree on, it's *dense*. even for someone like me who reads shakespeare for fun, the silmarillion was not something i could absorb in one reading. not only should you read it slowly, i would suggest all new readers to assume you'll have to read it more than once to fully grasp it. if you enjoyed it the first time, it gets richer with every re-read as you grasp the names and places more intuitively and then gain an emotional resonance as they come and go throughout the story.
This is the way. It's not a novel. Most (especially those many who claim to struggle through it and its density) need to understand this, to not approach it like a novel. No one reads the Eddas or the bible or the greek myths from start to finish. We didn't need to read Voluspa in order to understand the story of Thor trying to get his hammer back while wearing a dress. In the forward to The Silmarillion, Christopher Tolkien makes note: "Moreover, my father come to conceive The Silmarillion as a compilation, a compendious narrative, made long afterwards from sources of great diversity (poems, and annals, and oral tales) that had survived in agelong tradition; ... and it is to some extent a compendium in fact and not only in theory. To this may be ascribed the varying speed of the narrative and fullness of detail in different parts..."
I started with the Silmarillion before reading Lord of the Rings and it's worked for me. It's like a history book or the Bible but it's outstandingly well-written. Understanding all of those little stories makes the trilogy a much better experience. HOWEVER, I love history and I commonly read history books. The Silmarillion is closer to a book about the Peloponnesian War or the Illiad than it is Lord of the Rings.
I think mentioning the Illiad is really good. Yes, Ainulindalë and Valaquenta are basically Genesis (Tolkien was a devout Catholic after all), but even these two books of The Silmarillion and the rest even more so are myths akin to the Illiad, Beowulf, Theseus and the Minotaur, and (especially with Túrin Turambar and his counterpart Kullervo) Kalevala. The book is not a novel, it's a collection of myths of several different types, from creation myth to monster-slayer myths to rise and fall of hidden civilisation (both Gondolin and Númenor) myth, etc. etc. It's a fictional history of a mythic age for the English language (as well as for the languages Tolkien was developing from a young age) to complement the myths actually collected from folklore (such as Beowulf). It reminds a little of the Manuscripts of Dvůr Králové and Zelená Hora - two 19th century literary hoaxes alleged (for patriotic/nationalist sentiments) to be genuine literary artefacts in Old Czech, containing epic, lyrical epic, and lyrical poems describing a mythic history of the Czechs. Of course, the difference is, among other things, that Tolkien was upfront that his works are his inventions made out of love for (the) language.
I read the LoTR first but I tore up the Simarilion when I got to it because it was so much like my history and myth books that I had been reading since I was a little kid. Growing up I had a huge illustrated history book that I read every night from like 7 to 14. Read the Odyssey when I was 12 and Silmarilion when I was 13.
Beautifully explained! Tolkien's style here is that of the sagas he loved: eg the Norse Eddas, and much of his language deliberately is archaic (even obsolescent) to evoke a different state of consciousness, like that of age-old storytelling of oral histories from before mass literacy became the norm. The beauty of the diction, phraseology & cadences in the descriptions ... the flow & pacing that changes to suit the narrative & descriptions are mesmerisingly affecting - especially when hearing the tales so mellifluously & beautifully read by Samuel & TImothy West in the Audible reading. A wonderful collection of 'ancient legends' & aetiological tales embodying what Tolkien saw as profound Truths: Myths in the true sense. @@vojtechjanda9684
Growing up, in the early 70's I watched the animated version of The Hobbit, and instantly became fascinated by Tolkien's imaginary world. I will never forget going to B. Dalton's bookseller in 1977 at Eastridge Mall in San Jose. I was 12 years old at that time, and loved to read. Right inside the bookstore was a large tower made of The Silmarillion, laid out in circular form. I stared in amazement and became transfixed by my find. It was the first hardback book that I bought, and I read it all the way through that night. It captivated me completely, and became the one book that I re-read every 5 years or so, finding new things to amaze me each time. It's a classic!!!
I was 13 when I read The Silmarillion the first time, I was hooked! I never loved it quite as much as Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit, but it was such an immersive world that made going back to LotR and The Hobbit that much more enjoyable and fleshed out. I had a similar experience to you when I read The Hound of the Baskervilles the first time, I stayed up until the crack of dawn because I had to know what was happening!
I like to think of The Silmarillion as a mythological book that existed in Middle Earth itself, that people there could read to learn about Middle Earth's history. It's quite meta in that respect in a way that LOTR isn't, and as a result feels like an artefact directly from that world, which is a fun thought
this is exactly the way i thought of The Silmarillion going into it head-first, and the reason i was inspired to start there first to get into Tolkein's works. i've never been much a fan of fiction or fantasy but i've always loved reading about history/mythology. i'm most excited to get into the Nature of Middle Earth next and read about the metaphysical aspect of the tolkein universe. but then you can also think of the hobbit and LOTR in the same way only those were historical accounts from the point of view of hobbits in the form of the red book. whereas the silm you can think of as being written from elven accounts, and children of hurin from man's accounts, etc..
The german audible version is read by the german voice for Gandalf in the movies. It makes it so much better as you can imagin these stories are read by Olórin to you. Definetly feels like in world mythos.
I’ve started listening to it as an Audiobook and it’s completely changed the way I experienced it from the first time around. Also, being a little more familiar with the layout of middle earth and not having to flip back and forth to the map is a game changer.
Martin Shaw's narration is superb. I have it on my iPod and listen to in the car. Probably listened to the book the entire way through at least 15 times. it never gets old.
What got me into the Silmarillion after LOTR was watching Nerd of the Rings videos, and watched some videos on Morgoth and the first age, where I saw a reading suggestion from him. He said to read "The Children of Húrin" first, as this helped acquaint the reader with Beleriand, and using this and the knowledge from his videos, I was able to read the Silmarillion very easily. One thing I'm not sure people know about is the maps, genealogies, charts to show the sundering of the elves and their divisions, and the list of almost all names with definitions in the back of the book.
It's a History book. Read it like a historical tale. Focus on Lineage, characters succession, developments, dates of important milestones, success, tragedies. Referring to Genealogies is helpful. Unfortunately, the one in the book are inadequate, and it is better to find detailed charts on Tolkien websites online. I tackled it by making my own in a Journal. I found reading the illustrated edition by Ted Nasmith helpful in absorbing the world of Arda. It helps in mental visualisation, a construct that some readers may find themselves challenged with. Finally, using the Tolkien Atlas of the middle Earth by Karen Waynn alongside makes the whole experience exhilarating. Hope this helps.
I was given The Hobbit to read first and I loved it! Then I got the Silmarillion, read the first page, then read it again and continued very slowly and coukdn't stop. I took my time and enjoyed it. I read LOTR after, then read the Silmarillion again.
When you went back and re-read Lord if the Rings, weren't you stunned at all the things you didn't notice the first time, things that are in the Silmarillion?
I read the whole thing in two weeks when I was 19. Had a headache for days afterwards, and I can relate to the idea of not having a clue what the heck I had just read. Decided to rest on my laurels there and didn't think much of it afterwards. Then, about 4 years later I picked it up again an reread it. I couldn't believe how much easier and far more enjoyable it was the second time around. Now that I knew what to expect, I could grasp the material far better than before. The story flew by and I was genuinely sorry when it ended. It has since remained one of my favorite books!
@@chrisandreas3142 The Valinor, Galadriel, Elrond, Yavanna, Beren and Luthien, who not only have a beautiful love story but face Morgoth together and independently and overcome him, Elendil, The Teleri, even Illuvatar. Seriously @Chris Andreas did you actually read the book? There are many more I could add...Melian, "she gives up the splendor, joy, and privilege of eternal life in Valinor to dwell in the middle-world, a world of shadows as well as light, out of a vast, unreasonable, powerful love. " Is that a good enough protagonist? She gave up eternal life!! And then there's "Celebrian" Galadriel's daughter who is imprisoned and never recovers mentally but still manages to survive her physical imprisonment by the Orcs. Isildur fights until his last breath even if he fails, he still tries throughout his story arc. Then of course we have Aragorn of the Dunedain - Isildur's grandson and then there's Arwen. So, unless you didn't bother to read a single page of the book, I can name about 5 antagonists. Melkor, Morgath, The Balrogs, Ungoliant, Sauron and Sauron and Feanor and his band...perhaps The Noldor. But even Feanor's brother Finrod was just a plain nice guy who was given the name "wise" for his help in teaching. In essence there's a lot of protagonists in The Silmarillion. The question is why you couldn't even name one. I mean how hard is Galadriel to name? How hard is Elrond? Eyeroll...your comment is a failure.
Something I'd like to add, is that you really do need to read it more than once. Certain characters sound like they'll be important then end up not being important. Once you've read it once and remember the key points, you'll have a better idea of which characters to devote your memory to your second reading.
I have been a fan of Tolkien for over 30 years. I first started reading The Silmarillion when I was about 22. After reading a few dozen pages, the book threw me off. I was overwhelmed by the huge amount of names and land names. At that point, I decided not to read any further. I put the book aside for a few years, then picked it up again. I guess I had to grow up to it, because the second time the number of proper names didn't bother me at all. And at that moment I felt more or less as if I had been run over by a road roller and pressed into the ground. My mind refused to accept that a single person could come up with something so brilliant. The world he created struck with its vastness, but also with details that worked together perfectly. Even then I knew that I had just read the greatest story ever created by man in history. In my opinion, there are two factors that make The Silmarillion so great. It is the coherence of the created world and the Tolkien dry and sparing prose style that gives the reader a lot of room for imagination. It's hard to find at least two people who imagine the same way the Music of the Ainur, the creation of the two Trees, the birth of the Elves, the creation and appearance of the Silmarils, the duel of Fingolfin with Morgoth, the War of Wrath, and especially the duel of Earendil with Ancalagon the Black. All these events stimulate the reader's imagination and this is the greatest joy and reward that the reader gets after reading this book. Throughout the reading of The Silmarillion (especially the part concerning the struggle of Elves and Men with Morgoth in the first era) there is an indefinable sadness, a sadness into which Tolkien has wove an undying hope for a good ending. And even though Morgoth is finally defeated, the sadness of the lost things does not leave us.
I've read it several times and it's still difficult. I don't retain information well, so every time I re read it it's nearly a fresh experience. Absolutely one of my favorite books ever
I picked-up The Silmarillion in high-school (35+ years ago) after becoming entranced in the Tolkien universe. I re-read The Lord of the Rings and kept The Silmarillion by my side. As soon as a new character or landmark popped-up I would search the name in The Silmarillion. What a wonderful series of rabbit holes that led me through. I then went back and read The Silmarillion from front to back. I think it's time to do that again.
Nice video! I read the complete Silmarillion and I did not really enjoy it nearly as much as Tolkien's far richer and more vivid novels and short stories. But my curiosity kept me going because I wanted to know more about the history of that wonderful place called Middle Earth. The comparison with the Bible - especially with the Old Testament - has actually a lot of merit. My favorite story of Fingolfin's fight against Morgoth might well have been inspired by the story of David and Goliath, although Fingolfin unfortunately did not win 😞 If the Silmarillion is Tolkien's Old Testament, The Lord of The Rings trilogy is a bit like the New Testament, which covers a much shorter time span. Frodo and to a certain degree Gandalf are Christ-like characters who through their personal sacrifices save Middle Earth from being conquered by eternal evil. Gandalf even dies and is resurrected! And Frodo is willing to die in order to accomplish his mission. The ring which gets heavier and heavier is the cross which he has to carry. However, maybe you should have mentioned that Tolkien did not write the Silmarillion as we know it today. Tolkien had assembled a huge amount of story outlines and facts about Middle Earth, and he constantly tinkered with his creation. But he never published this material, because he assumed that no one would want to read it. If he would have decided to publish his material, he would have presented his material in a more refined shape, and his heroes and villains would have been less cardbord-like. The Silmarilion as we know it today has been selected, shaped and then published by Christopher Tolkien who painstakingly went through his dead father's material. We have to be very grateful, because without Christopher Tolkien's monumental efforts we would have never learned more about the history of Middle Earth, and that would have been truly sad. But we have to keep in mind that Tolkien had just left the raw material. Everybody who has read The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings knows that Tolkien was a consummate and skillful story teller. If he would have decided to publish his Silmarillion material he most likely would have presented these stories in a very different shape.
it took me 25 years to get through it. but what helped me greatly is the narration of the book read by Martin Shaw I was able to appreciate it and have read it 20 times since. Tolkien's masterpiece.
I was drawn to learning about the lore and reading the books due to my curiosity of Morgoth. I'm currently on the Fellowship of The Ring and am really looking forward to when it's time for the Simarillion. This video helped give a sigh of relief for reading it and with anything in life to enjoy the journey and adventure.
I read it at 16, right after Lord of the Rings, said 'what' ?, then a few months latet tried again, with a certain determination. Deliberately went slow (I tend to read very fast), I frequently re-read a page before turning it, looked up every name if I wasn't sure who it was (seems nearly character has 5-6 names). Ended of loving it! It's an incredible story.
THANK YOU! I needed this! As you said, so many people lament and wax poetic about how difficult it is to read this darn thing. But not many people can articulate very well how to approach reading it. You accomplished something few people have and that is to convince me and to prepare me to read The Silmarillion. 🥳❤
You did a great job explaining how not only to read the Silmarilian, but how to appreciate it as well. I wish someone was around in the late '80s to have told me this when I read it for the first time. Much like your experience I had no idea what I had read and didn't get it. It was only going back to it a second time a few years later that it all clicked for me. And after some 30 years it is one of my go to books to re-read periodically. I hope this video can make it more accessible to more people up front. Nice done, Prof. Craig! PS - Looking forward to that video on why Tolkien values grief and suffering so highly in his works.
I first read The Silmarillion when I was 13. Every summer my stepmom would get us passes for the local pool and take us there to swim every day. My 13th summer I had gotten badly burned across my stomach so I wasn't able to swim. I still had to go though, since my stepmom didn't want to leave me at home alone. I had read Lord of the Rings the first time a year prior and wanted to try reading The Silmarillion. Luckily, there was a library across the street from the pool so I checked out a copy of The Silm and every day for a couple of weeks I would sit on the poolside and read while my siblings swam. Honestly, besides the burn, one of the best summers I ever had. There were a few pages here and there that I struggled with reading, but for the most part I was completely engrossed. The story of the Sons of Feanor, Beren and Luthien, Turin Turambar, I thought it was all fascinating and made the rest of Tolkien's world that much more colorful and complete. Last year I finally reread The Silmarillion, 14 years after my first read through, and enjoyed it immensely once again. Just started The Unfinished Tales and am enjoying that read as well.
I was given 3 books Fellowship of the ring The Two Towers The Return of The King I'am almost finish with the 3 On April I'll be getting The Silmarillion Thanks for the Information or advice Sir.
Grit your teeth through the first 50 or 60 pages or so and then you’re all good. Just read it recently and absolutely loved it. Beren and Luthien being my personal highlight.
I read LoTR at age 16 and the Silmarillion at age 17. In my native language, which is not english. It was ok, and not nearly as intimidating as I though it was gonna be. Then I read The Children of Hurin, The fall of Gondolin and the adventures of Tom Bombadil in english at age 31. Now. Not only am I an avid reader, but despite beeing swedish, I also read at least 90 percent in english. Frankly, if a book's originally written in english, I am likely to read it in english, evan old classics, such as Frankenstein. But Tolkien really was a challenge in english. A real challenge, evan as a 30 + year old.
I remember, after I read the Lord of the Rings in french, pulling out phrases that French people definitely thought were funny because they were so old.
My first time reading the Silmarillion was COMPLETELY different from the second time. First read-through took ages, and in the end I barely understood anything. Second time, however, spanned over about two and a half days, and it didn't even feel difficult.
Wow. That quote about the fountain is so deep! 😍 Something tells me I may actually like this very much 😁 (Came back to edit, because I realized the unintended pun 😄 )
Great video! I read The Silmarillion several years ago, and enjoyed it quite a bit. History was one of my favorite subjects back in school, so that may have been part of it. I hope to re-read it sometime. Thanks for sharing this :)
I am listening to the audio book read by Martin Shaw and loving it. He really does a great job. Well I only got to the part where Feanor leaves for Middle Earth for now, then I kinda go back to the beginning and start all over again. For like four or five times in the last month or so xD Ainulindale and Valaquenta are still my fave. I will eventualy get further, when I feel comfortable enough with me knowing current characters.
This is a treat. Love the gentle approach you have, I think you will succeed in your goal to encourage people to give The Silm a try. It made me want to set aside my current TBR and reread! Also, love that your camera angle is positioned just enough to show you are indeed wearing pants to complete the whole get up. Now that's a man I could trust.
I read it when I was 14 years old and it was best experience ever. I read it all over again and again, every time I learned new things. I didn't read it in English. I read Polish version, and it wasn't translated to match archaic Polish. I suppose that allowed me to understand everything pretty well. I might give it a go in it's original language and see how I do!
I'm actually in the process of attempting it for the third time lol. I think the biggest challenge for me is that even though most chapters are mercifully short the sheer volume of characters and information is so big I typically have to consult the index at least once every chapter.
you shouldn't feel like that's a difficulty unique to you. i read shakespeare for fun; i love studying language as an exercise in human history, and even for me the silmarillion was not an easy journey. once i read the frst chapter i knew for sure i'd be rereading it to more fully grasp it. i also kept a pinky wedged into the index while reading to consult the names and places that i couldn't remember. but i promise you it gets richer with every re-read as you remember the names and places and they resonate emotionally with you as you pass by them in your journey.
@@oldfrend I'm actually almost done, just have the section on the third age and the rings to go. Definitely is! I actually flipped back to the map of Beleriand in the middle so many times I think the spine is a little bent in that spot and I would consult the index multiple times a lot of chapters to make sure I knew what was going on, the not feeling like I didn't get it which is good lol.
Thanks Craig. Your take on how to approach this made sense for me. I had read the Hobbit at the age of 8, and the LOTR by 9. The Silmarillion I started when I was 14 and bored with school. I always understood it to be olde English and historical in nature and was very pleasantly surprised when you highlighted the fact that it should be read as such. I was a reasonably talented landscape artist from around 7 onwards and drew/painted my own versions of how I imagined Middle-earth. The Silmarillion, with all its descriptions and now basic but beautiful artwork by Ted Naismith, has become my go to Tolkien read (plus the Histories of Middle-earth) in picturing the vistas and characters, but also appreciating the subtleties of Tolkien's imagination and writing. My thanks again.
Thanks. Have tried multiple times since the 70's. Your discription is a real help. It also inspired me to use my Shakespeare method. Read the sparknotes/cliff notes, learn character and chapter info, language etc and then read the book/play. Listen to an audio book and/or watch movies. It's kinda involved, but you can get a pretty deep understanding in a relatively short amount of time. Thanks again
I guess I'm different 😉. I started to read Brothers Grim, H.C Andersen and other fairy tales when I was 4 years old. I read every volume of encyclopedias we had at home and a lot of fact books about Nordic, Greek and Roman mythology. I read a lot of Shakespeare's works and ofc The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King, The Hobbit and The Silmarillion when I was between 8-10 (I've read them many times since then). I guess the language can be tricky, but having read Russian folklore as well as old archaic English, I didn't find it too difficult. 😊
Well put. I feel you first have to churn through and love the hobbit/lord of the rings several times to build a curiosity for that history. It also took me a few reads of those earlier works to appreciate the sub themes that aren’t as obvious. Teenage me gave up quickly so I think maturity/ appreciation for poetry and spirituality helps too. Knowing what you’re in for helps a lot, like making sure you keep track of the various names and places, which is why this video is so good.
haven't read any of Tolkien's other books yet, but I just started reading the silmarillion today. this video definitely helped reset my expectations, so thank you!
You are absolutely right. The Silmarillion is actually the first piece of Tolkien I've ever read and I'm listening via audiobook. I look up a chapter summary on TH-cam from time to time to check I have understood it and help extract the important names from the lists. I studied classics at school a decade ago and with that foundation of language it is much more understandable. If you come to it expecting a modern epic in structure and language, it's much more digestible and enjoyable!
My mother bought me a copy when it was first published and it took me 25 years to get through it. But ahen I bought the recorded books version of it narrated by Martin Shaw it was a big help and I've read it five times since it's a history of Middle-earth.
Thank you for giving us ideas on how to read the works of J.R.R Tolkien. I read about Beren and Luthien and my thoughts were hard to understand the story it's because of the prose style. Now I am ready to re-read the book and I am still looking for The Silmarillion book for me to fully understand the story of this entire franchise. Your videos are very helpful and also give us a better understanding.
English isn't my first language - and I struggled to read Middlemarch before giving it up - but the sentence you gave at 7:22 seems pretty straightforward to me. What's difficult to understand for native English speakers in it?
I first read LOTR, then all the stories of the ancient world, and in that order it was such an enlightment of deep endless discoveries. Tying to match old and new world's maps was such a delight!
Indeed, expectations play a big role! I was expecting another novel when I read The Silmarillion, and found something entirely different. I liked it anyway, but it took some adjustment on my part to get in synch with the book as it is instead of as I was hoping it to be, hahaha. :) This was very interesting, as all of your videos. THANK YOU! :)
Thanks for the kinds words! Yeah, I had no idea what I was getting into when I read it the first time. Luckily the prose was actually a major draw for me, rather than a drawback. So it helped me come back for a second try at actually understanding it. 😂
I see it as a mixture of mythology and history of the creation of Arda, or Middle-Earth. I’m a huge fan of Greek mythology and have read Ovid’s Metamorphoses, which has also fleeting protagonists, many different names and it explains the creation of the earth, it’s basically a huge short story collection with an underlying thread, in Ovid’s case the Metamorphoses of different characters, to connect it all. I suppose because I’m used to and enjoy such books it was never particularly hard for me to get through.
When I read it I loved that it was written in that way. I found it to be beautiful. It was also amazing to unfurl the depth of the history of the ones that came before the LOTR character and gave me a better understanding of who they were and where they came from. I now understood them.
As someone who has been reading since the age of three and was devouring classic literature by the age of eight, I can say that for me personally, the Silmarillion was and remains the hardest read I have ever encountered in my native tongue. 😅😂🤓 And it is my favorite too.
I'd recommend starting with the Akallabeth. This gives the significant events of the Second Age and serves as an extensive prologue to LOTR. It's relatively short but very condensed so take your time and don't get too bogged down, just follow the overall sweep. It's like reading the entire history of Rome in which significant events such as the Punic Wars, rise of Caesar Augustus and career of Marcus Aurelius flash past. It often involves differing theories about what happened, stressing that nobody knows which is correct - very a propos for a fictional history. What follows this section is a brief summary of the Third Age including the events of LOTR, which you probably won't need but does fill in some minor details. What precedes it (the bulk of the book) is a lengthy mystical creation myth and an exhaustive history of the time of the elves which you may find interesting but won't enhance your enjoyment or understanding of LOTR. Although some elves from this period survive into the Third Age they rarely speak at all about the events of the time, and present more as "living legends". The First Age is measured by years as beginning 1,600 years before the Second but who's to say what a year meant during the early formation of creation? Bear in mind that the founding of Numenor and the events of LOTR are 6,000 years apart - as historically removed from each other as early Mesopotamian civilisation is from us. As Aragorn puts it "For not we but those who come after will make the legends of our time" - the elves appear to respect that it should be so. Galadriel is unworthy of passage to the West due to her past deeds millennia ago. Her line to Frodo "I pass the test, I shall diminish and go into the West and remain Galadriel" in part refers to her redemption for these deeds but her fortitude in resisting the temptation of the Ring is all we need to know. She and the other elves only remain in Middle Earth as guardians but with the bulk of their power usurped by Sauron's rings. Melkur/Morgoth was the great ancient evil overcome and banished long ago but leaving many evils behind, including his lieutenant Sauron, but that's really all we need to know about him. The few that remain in the Third Age of Numenorean descent (including Aragorn) are treated by mortal men as lords and kings and the Akalabeth explains their superhuman longevity and the ruination of their great civilisation as they succumbed to envy of the elves' true immortality. LOTR summarises this merely in that "the men of the West" are the noblest but diminished survivors of a once great race. And Numenor itself is ancient history to them as well.
1) Pick up book. 2) Open book to first page. 3) Begin reading from the top, left to right, to the bottom of the page. 4) Turn page and repeat until book is finished.
Last year, I searched "order of reading of LOTR books" on the internet and clicked on the first link. It gave me a chronological order, with The Silmarilion on top. I bought the book, without knowing anything about it. But as soon as I started, I fell in love with it. It took something around 2 and a half months to finish it, and I did find it difficult in some parts, but never boring. After that, I read The Children of Húrin, Beren & Lúthien and The Fall of Gondolin. Loved all three, specially The Fall of Gondolin, mostly by the descriptive and poetic character of the book. It really feels like you're on a journey through a magical world. It is my favourite book of all time. Now, I'm reading The Hobbit and can't wait to put my hands on the LOTR trilogy.
The first time I read the Silmarillion, I was a bit confused by the names of all the levels of angelic order, and by the fact that there were 2 or more names for each character and station. I had The Complete Guide to Middle Earth by Robert Foster with me, and referring to this as I read made some things clearer. Now after many many rereads over the years, The Silmarillion is my favorite of all Tolkien's works. Seeing this video, I realize that I do indeed enjoy the stories with protagonists better, but there is nothing in the Silmarillion that I dislike. It's so obviously Tolkien that it's not possible for me to not enjoy reading any part of it.
I’ve never tried the book but I’ve listened to the audio by Martin Shaw which I believe to be the superior way to enjoy that material. My first time I was lost, the second time I totally understand everything. It is godly, amazing. I now prefer it to LOTR as far as the stories go, it’s just on another level. But the audiobook read by Martin Shaw feels and sounds exactly like an ancient collection of Elvish myths. He gets the pronunciation of everything down perfectly.
Excellent video, I will recommend it to a stubborn friend. I myself have read and listened to it many times. The first read was the toughest but I found it better with each repeat.
I read it with "The Atlas of Middle Earth" by Karen Wynn Fonstad as a reference to follow along. A glossary of names comes in handy too when you fforget who is who.
I had only seen the movies before reading The Silmarillion and it blew my mind. I loved the depth it gave to the world of Tolkien, and I do understand why people find it intimidating. It has a very tough start to get through the vague 'creation of the world' narrative. But it fascinated me to learn how this world was made through music all the way up to the distruction of Beleriand. After this I took a break, and continued a month later with the numenor story. Still intriguing but not as much as the stories of the first age had been to me.
Also, the Silmarillion is basically split into 5 parts: *Ainulindalë* - the Creation Myth; *Valaquenta* - the history of the Valar; *Quenta Silmarillion* - the main portion dealing with the mythical stories of the First Age; *Akallabêth* - the Second Age story of the downfall of Númenor; *Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age* - an account of the making of the Rings and Sauron's deception and his defeat in the War of the Last Alliance. The first two can be skipped without hindering your enjoyment of the Quenta Silmarillion - which is the meat of the thing. You can always go back to them and read them whenever. Also, the Akallabêth and Rings of Power parts can be read as standalone things whenever you want.
Great job, Prof Craig. Where Tolkien is proposing the usefulness of history runs parallel to the Catholic thought towards the Bible, where it is as much a library of stories - a history of salvation - rather than a dictated ‘word of God’ with a specific message ‘the author wants to say’. Intermingled therein, are the wills, woes and wilfulness of people, and much more. I found the Silmarillion best read beginning with whichever prose or verse draws one in.
I'm in the midst of my first read of The Silmarillion and, while I had realized early on that taking my time and reading roughly a chapter at a time was going to be the way to go, it does help to know I'm on the right track as far as how to tackle it. Great video!
First time I read it, I read the first three chapters and had to take a nap. Sooooo many names, locations, concepts. I love it. The worldbuilding is second to none. Setting the stage for the entire Tolkien Legendarium.
I think you missed a major point here.. use the index! On a first read almost everyone will get lost among the many, many names of people, places and also factions. For example you can refer to the Elves as a race, or you could speciically refer to the Eldar or the Sindar or the Noldor.. each of these branches of the Elves is different and there's a lot of them! The Index is very helpful if you feel yourself starting to get lost :D
I tried and failed to read LotR twice in my teen years. Then I read the Silmarillion and somehow I found it a little easier, and then I want back and reattempted (and succeeded) LotR. LotR is MUCH more interesting when you can see the connections to the larger lore also, finding a good family tree and a couple maps can help a ton
I can completely understand the sentiment of the new readers of Silmarillion, I had the same experience when I bought the book, I think I was fourteen. It was hard to get through. I re-read if some time later and this year, after around ten years, I read it again and I had a splendid experience. I suppose you need to know the book beforehand to fully enjoy it, after two or three prior reads you can sense the strong flow of the story, appreciate the style and delve into it - it really reads like a historical text. The only thing that is always a pity is a brief ending of Quenta Silmarillion with very brief description of the War of Wrath. I hope one day it´ll be revised and the fans will get proper ending. Edit: I fully agree on the chapter 14 and the chapter about Nirnaeth Arnoediad. The second one is probably my most favourite as well.
It will not be revised. Tolkien wrote 2 finished versions, the "Book of Lost Tales" and the "Silmarillion" from 1930. He changed many aspects and sub-stories over the decades and for every chapter, there are several versions. The last "Silmarillion" was put together by his son, the late Christopher Tolkien. The current version is like a synthesis of all these different versions. The 3 main stories (Beren and Lúthien, The Children of Húrin, The Fall of Gondolin) were published as separate books though, as Tolkien had always intended. They include much more details.
Reading The Silmarillion completely changes how you view Lord of the Rings. It taught me about characters referenced but not explained and songs in the book like the song the Elves were singing just before encountering Frodo, Pippin and Sam who were almost caught by a Wraith. Now I know who Snow White is. My personal alternate title for the book is Elves Behaving Badly. I recommend reading it in short bits and skipping about to something you are interested in learning about. And to plug another book The Fall of Gondolin is a really good read
I read the Silmarillion before reading The Hobbit and LOTR. I was pleased with this approach because it sets the "setting" and the backstory to prepare for the specific stories that chronologically followed BUT it needed to be approached with a "history" perspective. In so doing, I was able to pick up on some of the nuances in the Hobbit and LOTR stories that I otherwise would not have noticed had I not started the Tolkien experience with the grand backdrop of the Silmarillion.
Only read it once, but for me the protagonist is either the world itself, or Melkor, least from my perspective. Amazing book. Loved every tale in it. Especially love the wording and conveyances, you develop a great sense of how much meaning people afforded simple things by how they talk about them.
Thank I am listening to the silmarillion on audiobook at the moment for the first time now I know to treat it like a history book not a storybook thank you Paul
I failed three times. I always knew it wasn’t a badly written book and it was my reading of it that was the problem but I couldn’t overcome how dense it was. Succeeded on my fourth try and it was so worth it. It’s now my second favourite of Tolkien’s many works.
Recently finished reading it, including Akallabeth, Of The Rings of Power and all. Best way to think of it as each chapter is its own stand alone story. If the chapter is 'boring' then consider it mostly a lore dump, and take in the information as you will. Because that's what the book tends to be for the most part. That said there was some solid reading in the book, The Beren and Luthien chapter was an amazing read. Huan is good boi. I should mention it does help that the indexes and appendices can be helpful, if you see a name you're sure you've seen before, but don't remember much you can look it up to catch yourself up. At least I had in my copy of the book.
The first time I read The Silmarillion it really felt like hitting a roadblock or brick wall. It was THAT TOUGH. But as soon as I managed to "decode" it, reading it was such a beautiful experience. Read it five time already. My favorite would have to be The Akkallabeth. It reads like the Book of Revelation. It's quite terrifying. Like reading The End Times. And if you could read The Silmarillion, you should read Frank Herbert's Dune.
I’m reading silmarillion for the first time right now and my biggest advice? Don’t feel bad about reading it in your native language even if you know english fairly well! Trust me, it will be so much easier and then you can re read in english later on when you (possibly) have some kind of an idea of what’s happening in the book
Read it 4 times. 2 of them during my 4 years of hemodyalisis, when I had 12 hours per week to burn during treatments. I love this book with a passion and would love to some passages of it adapted,.
I read the Silmarillion during my morning commutes to work. I can say reading it helps you appreciate some of LOTR more; particularly when it comes to Sauron, Gondor, and the battle between Gandalf & the Balrog. You come to understand each thing and their motivations far better.
I read it fairly easily and even finished it in less than a month. I had a little help identifying each character, and I noticed how some chapters slightly overlap others. Ex: Tour comes across his cousin Turin while journeying to Gondolin. (After Turin defeated Glaurung the first dragon).
Great video, thanks. One reading left me overwhelmed with keeping track of all the characters and places. Trying to remember who's who, what group they belong to, and where they are, etc.. This is not a "read in bed" work. Felt like I needed three computers and a wall map open at the same time.
the first book of tolkein I read outside the LOTR trilogy was the Children of Hürin. It took a good 2 chapters to grasp his use of language. I just read through the abridged version in the Silmarillian, made much more sense that time.
Thank you for this video. I tried reading The Silmarillion a long time ago(when I was about 15) having read and re-read LOTR repeatedly but I just could not do it. I have recently started reading The Hobbit and LOTR again with the intention of going through everything Tolkien related with The Silmarillion up next on the list.(I know there will be repetition between The Silmarillion and Beren and Luthien for example)
I usually don’t comment on videos. But I cannot thank you enough for this video. So happy I watched it before reading, it allowed me to be in the right mindset for the book. Thank you for the work you put into this.
The Silmarillion was the first Tolkien's book I read, and have loved it ever since. I re-read it, or listen to the audiobook with Martin Shaw, every couple of years or so.
typically i prefer to read histories in physical book format so that i can write notes in the margins or highlight stuff, but for The Silmarillion, i have found that the best way for me to engage with it was through audiobook and i could easily skip around and re-listen to sections easily.
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I read the Silmarillion after watching this and it helped so much. I put the audiobook on, I put a map up on my iPad, and read along at the same time. 100% immersed, and felt like I would get a 5/5 on a AP Beleriand History exam.
Love this.
How to do you search the maps? Or where can I find them?
I read the Silmarillion four years ago and I remember just a few things so I wanted to read it again
Haha my first exposure to the Silmarillion was audio book then later I read it. And then I randomly listen to sections of the audio book when I do chores. Do the same with Tolkiens other works just easier sometimes because I can always sit and read even when I want to.
@@PapolloDraws check out The Atlas of Middle-earth by Karen Wynn Fonstad!
Is the audiobook actually any good? I feel like, when I read it I make very slow progress trying to look up places and names. If I were just to breeze trough with an audiobook I think I would miss a lot. Now come to think of it, perhaps 2x a quicker audiobook runtrough might be faster than a single drawn out slog 🤔 dunno
The real eye-opener for me, upon finishing The Silmarillion, was seeing the entire Lord of the Rings tale condensed into less than three pages in the typically terse Silmarillion style. It made me realize that any given three OTHER pages throughout The Silmarillion might represent similar condensations and could be expanded like LotR was.
You got it. Tolkien himself said something close in one of his letters
LoTR was actually written by Tolkein. Anything else isn't Tolkein.
@@yw1971 Not exactly. If it's not written by Tolkein it's not Tolkein. Anything else, as we see now, is a shoddy attempt which will just end up as another of Melkor's twisted shadows of something pure and true.
@@bigguy7353 it was editited by his son, if he trusted him, we should trust him
@@anotherhappylanding4746 sadly he is now dead
I read one chapter a night and that was a beautiful experience. Take each chapter as a self-contained short story that is interconnected through the book.
excellent approach. if there's one thing pretty much all tolkien fans can agree on, it's *dense*. even for someone like me who reads shakespeare for fun, the silmarillion was not something i could absorb in one reading. not only should you read it slowly, i would suggest all new readers to assume you'll have to read it more than once to fully grasp it. if you enjoyed it the first time, it gets richer with every re-read as you grasp the names and places more intuitively and then gain an emotional resonance as they come and go throughout the story.
This is the way. It's not a novel.
Most (especially those many who claim to struggle through it and its density) need to understand this, to not approach it like a novel. No one reads the Eddas or the bible or the greek myths from start to finish. We didn't need to read Voluspa in order to understand the story of Thor trying to get his hammer back while wearing a dress.
In the forward to The Silmarillion, Christopher Tolkien makes note:
"Moreover, my father come to conceive The Silmarillion as a compilation, a compendious narrative, made long afterwards from sources of great diversity (poems, and annals, and oral tales) that had survived in agelong tradition; ... and it is to some extent a compendium in fact and not only in theory. To this may be ascribed the varying speed of the narrative and fullness of detail in different parts..."
I started with the Silmarillion before reading Lord of the Rings and it's worked for me. It's like a history book or the Bible but it's outstandingly well-written. Understanding all of those little stories makes the trilogy a much better experience. HOWEVER, I love history and I commonly read history books. The Silmarillion is closer to a book about the Peloponnesian War or the Illiad than it is Lord of the Rings.
I think mentioning the Illiad is really good. Yes, Ainulindalë and Valaquenta are basically Genesis (Tolkien was a devout Catholic after all), but even these two books of The Silmarillion and the rest even more so are myths akin to the Illiad, Beowulf, Theseus and the Minotaur, and (especially with Túrin Turambar and his counterpart Kullervo) Kalevala. The book is not a novel, it's a collection of myths of several different types, from creation myth to monster-slayer myths to rise and fall of hidden civilisation (both Gondolin and Númenor) myth, etc. etc. It's a fictional history of a mythic age for the English language (as well as for the languages Tolkien was developing from a young age) to complement the myths actually collected from folklore (such as Beowulf). It reminds a little of the Manuscripts of Dvůr Králové and Zelená Hora - two 19th century literary hoaxes alleged (for patriotic/nationalist sentiments) to be genuine literary artefacts in Old Czech, containing epic, lyrical epic, and lyrical poems describing a mythic history of the Czechs. Of course, the difference is, among other things, that Tolkien was upfront that his works are his inventions made out of love for (the) language.
I read the LoTR first but I tore up the Simarilion when I got to it because it was so much like my history and myth books that I had been reading since I was a little kid. Growing up I had a huge illustrated history book that I read every night from like 7 to 14. Read the Odyssey when I was 12 and Silmarilion when I was 13.
Beautifully explained! Tolkien's style here is that of the sagas he loved: eg the Norse Eddas, and much of his language deliberately is archaic (even obsolescent) to evoke a different state of consciousness, like that of age-old storytelling of oral histories from before mass literacy became the norm. The beauty of the diction, phraseology & cadences in the descriptions ... the flow & pacing that changes to suit the narrative & descriptions are mesmerisingly affecting - especially when hearing the tales so mellifluously & beautifully read by Samuel & TImothy West in the Audible reading. A wonderful collection of 'ancient legends' & aetiological tales embodying what Tolkien saw as profound Truths: Myths in the true sense. @@vojtechjanda9684
Pirate 1: "You know you can't read."
Pirate 2: "It's the Silmarillion. You get credit for trying."
Your editing is killing it my friend!
And this from the TH-cam editing master.
^*You are killing it on the editing my friend.
There, fixed it. The editing can’t kill it but your friend can.🤦♂️
Growing up, in the early 70's I watched the animated version of The Hobbit, and instantly became fascinated by Tolkien's imaginary world. I will never forget going to B. Dalton's bookseller in 1977 at Eastridge Mall in San Jose. I was 12 years old at that time, and loved to read. Right inside the bookstore was a large tower made of The Silmarillion, laid out in circular form. I stared in amazement and became transfixed by my find. It was the first hardback book that I bought, and I read it all the way through that night. It captivated me completely, and became the one book that I re-read every 5 years or so, finding new things to amaze me each time. It's a classic!!!
Kristy Yamaguchi the olimpic ice skater trained at Eastridge
I doubt very much you read it all the way through that night.
Want to actually check out the book & then you’ll understand why I doubt you.
I was 13 when I read The Silmarillion the first time, I was hooked! I never loved it quite as much as Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit, but it was such an immersive world that made going back to LotR and The Hobbit that much more enjoyable and fleshed out. I had a similar experience to you when I read The Hound of the Baskervilles the first time, I stayed up until the crack of dawn because I had to know what was happening!
🙌⭐️
I like to think of The Silmarillion as a mythological book that existed in Middle Earth itself, that people there could read to learn about Middle Earth's history. It's quite meta in that respect in a way that LOTR isn't, and as a result feels like an artefact directly from that world, which is a fun thought
this is exactly the way i thought of The Silmarillion going into it head-first, and the reason i was inspired to start there first to get into Tolkein's works. i've never been much a fan of fiction or fantasy but i've always loved reading about history/mythology. i'm most excited to get into the Nature of Middle Earth next and read about the metaphysical aspect of the tolkein universe.
but then you can also think of the hobbit and LOTR in the same way only those were historical accounts from the point of view of hobbits in the form of the red book. whereas the silm you can think of as being written from elven accounts, and children of hurin from man's accounts, etc..
The german audible version is read by the german voice for Gandalf in the movies. It makes it so much better as you can imagin these stories are read by Olórin to you. Definetly feels like in world mythos.
I’ve started listening to it as an Audiobook and it’s completely changed the way I experienced it from the first time around. Also, being a little more familiar with the layout of middle earth and not having to flip back and forth to the map is a game changer.
Right? The map, and the family trees, and the glossary, and so on... 😂
I did enjoy the Appendixes on audiobook , after reading TLOTR a couple times i kind of knew where everything was 😂
Martin Shaw's narration is superb. I have it on my iPod and listen to in the car. Probably listened to the book the entire way through at least 15 times. it never gets old.
What got me into the Silmarillion after LOTR was watching Nerd of the Rings videos, and watched some videos on Morgoth and the first age, where I saw a reading suggestion from him. He said to read "The Children of Húrin" first, as this helped acquaint the reader with Beleriand, and using this and the knowledge from his videos, I was able to read the Silmarillion very easily. One thing I'm not sure people know about is the maps, genealogies, charts to show the sundering of the elves and their divisions, and the list of almost all names with definitions in the back of the book.
It's a History book. Read it like a historical tale. Focus on Lineage, characters succession, developments, dates of important milestones, success, tragedies. Referring to Genealogies is helpful. Unfortunately, the one in the book are inadequate, and it is better to find detailed charts on Tolkien websites online. I tackled it by making my own in a Journal. I found reading the illustrated edition by Ted Nasmith helpful in absorbing the world of Arda. It helps in mental visualisation, a construct that some readers may find themselves challenged with. Finally, using the Tolkien Atlas of the middle Earth by Karen Waynn alongside makes the whole experience exhilarating. Hope this helps.
To me it was so immersive just because of that. Everything is stated as a reality of times past, and it felt as if the events really happened.
It's kinda like the Bible for Middle Earth. Creation, myth and prehistory.
As a mainly non-fiction reader, The Silmarillion is the only fantasy book I'm willing to read again. The best modern epic in the English language!
I was given The Hobbit to read first and I loved it! Then I got the Silmarillion, read the first page, then read it again and continued very slowly and coukdn't stop. I took my time and enjoyed it. I read LOTR after, then read the Silmarillion again.
When you went back and re-read Lord if the Rings, weren't you stunned at all the things you didn't notice the first time, things that are in the Silmarillion?
@@gmansard641 Hell yes!!! Ended up nerding out about it with friends too, lol.
I read the whole thing in two weeks when I was 19. Had a headache for days afterwards, and I can relate to the idea of not having a clue what the heck I had just read. Decided to rest on my laurels there and didn't think much of it afterwards. Then, about 4 years later I picked it up again an reread it. I couldn't believe how much easier and far more enjoyable it was the second time around. Now that I knew what to expect, I could grasp the material far better than before. The story flew by and I was genuinely sorry when it ended. It has since remained one of my favorite books!
The Silmarillion might not have a protagonist, but it has one of the greatest antagonists of all time.
It has several protagonists.
@@bigguy7353 which?
@@chrisandreas3142 The Valinor, Galadriel, Elrond, Yavanna, Beren and Luthien, who not only have a beautiful love story but face Morgoth together and independently and overcome him, Elendil, The Teleri, even Illuvatar. Seriously @Chris Andreas did you actually read the book? There are many more I could add...Melian, "she gives up the splendor, joy, and privilege of eternal life in Valinor to dwell in the middle-world, a world of shadows as well as light, out of a vast, unreasonable, powerful love. " Is that a good enough protagonist? She gave up eternal life!! And then there's "Celebrian" Galadriel's daughter who is imprisoned and never recovers mentally but still manages to survive her physical imprisonment by the Orcs. Isildur fights until his last breath even if he fails, he still tries throughout his story arc. Then of course we have Aragorn of the Dunedain - Isildur's grandson and then there's Arwen. So, unless you didn't bother to read a single page of the book, I can name about 5 antagonists. Melkor, Morgath, The Balrogs, Ungoliant, Sauron and Sauron and Feanor and his band...perhaps The Noldor. But even Feanor's brother Finrod was just a plain nice guy who was given the name "wise" for his help in teaching. In essence there's a lot of protagonists in The Silmarillion. The question is why you couldn't even name one. I mean how hard is Galadriel to name? How hard is Elrond? Eyeroll...your comment is a failure.
@@ramblinrose8 do you know what is protagonist?
Eru Ilúvatar is the protagonist on your reading
Something I'd like to add, is that you really do need to read it more than once. Certain characters sound like they'll be important then end up not being important. Once you've read it once and remember the key points, you'll have a better idea of which characters to devote your memory to your second reading.
I have been a fan of Tolkien for over 30 years.
I first started reading The Silmarillion when I was about 22. After reading a few dozen pages, the book threw me off. I was overwhelmed by the huge amount of names and land names.
At that point, I decided not to read any further. I put the book aside for a few years, then picked it up again. I guess I had to grow up to it, because the second time the number of proper names didn't bother me at all. And at that moment I felt more or less as if I had been run over by a road roller and pressed into the ground. My mind refused to accept that a single person could come up with something so brilliant. The world he created struck with its vastness, but also with details that worked together perfectly. Even then I knew that I had just read the greatest story ever created by man in history. In my opinion, there are two factors that make The Silmarillion so great. It is the coherence of the created world and the Tolkien dry and sparing prose style that gives the reader a lot of room for imagination. It's hard to find at least two people who imagine the same way the Music of the Ainur, the creation of the two Trees, the birth of the Elves, the creation and appearance of the Silmarils, the duel of Fingolfin with Morgoth, the War of Wrath, and especially the duel of Earendil with Ancalagon the Black. All these events stimulate the reader's imagination and this is the greatest joy and reward that the reader gets after reading this book. Throughout the reading of The Silmarillion (especially the part concerning the struggle of Elves and Men with Morgoth in the first era) there is an indefinable sadness, a sadness into which Tolkien has wove an undying hope for a good ending. And even though Morgoth is finally defeated, the sadness of the lost things does not leave us.
I've read it several times and it's still difficult. I don't retain information well, so every time I re read it it's nearly a fresh experience. Absolutely one of my favorite books ever
I picked-up The Silmarillion in high-school (35+ years ago) after becoming entranced in the Tolkien universe. I re-read The Lord of the Rings and kept The Silmarillion by my side. As soon as a new character or landmark popped-up I would search the name in The Silmarillion. What a wonderful series of rabbit holes that led me through. I then went back and read The Silmarillion from front to back. I think it's time to do that again.
I'm happy to see Prof Craig address this thorny little corner of fantasty literature. I've only read it once but hope to revisit again.
Nice video! I read the complete Silmarillion and I did not really enjoy it nearly as much as Tolkien's far richer and more vivid novels and short stories. But my curiosity kept me going because I wanted to know more about the history of that wonderful place called Middle Earth. The comparison with the Bible - especially with the Old Testament - has actually a lot of merit. My favorite story of Fingolfin's fight against Morgoth might well have been inspired by the story of David and Goliath, although Fingolfin unfortunately did not win 😞 If the Silmarillion is Tolkien's Old Testament, The Lord of The Rings trilogy is a bit like the New Testament, which covers a much shorter time span. Frodo and to a certain degree Gandalf are Christ-like characters who through their personal sacrifices save Middle Earth from being conquered by eternal evil. Gandalf even dies and is resurrected! And Frodo is willing to die in order to accomplish his mission. The ring which gets heavier and heavier is the cross which he has to carry.
However, maybe you should have mentioned that Tolkien did not write the Silmarillion as we know it today. Tolkien had assembled a huge amount of story outlines and facts about Middle Earth, and he constantly tinkered with his creation. But he never published this material, because he assumed that no one would want to read it. If he would have decided to publish his material, he would have presented his material in a more refined shape, and his heroes and villains would have been less cardbord-like. The Silmarilion as we know it today has been selected, shaped and then published by Christopher Tolkien who painstakingly went through his dead father's material. We have to be very grateful, because without Christopher Tolkien's monumental efforts we would have never learned more about the history of Middle Earth, and that would have been truly sad. But we have to keep in mind that Tolkien had just left the raw material. Everybody who has read The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings knows that Tolkien was a consummate and skillful story teller. If he would have decided to publish his Silmarillion material he most likely would have presented these stories in a very different shape.
it took me 25 years to get through it. but what helped me greatly is the narration of the book read by Martin Shaw I was able to appreciate it and have read it 20 times since. Tolkien's masterpiece.
it took you 25 years to get through 500 pages??
I was drawn to learning about the lore and reading the books due to my curiosity of Morgoth. I'm currently on the Fellowship of The Ring and am really looking forward to when it's time for the Simarillion. This video helped give a sigh of relief for reading it and with anything in life to enjoy the journey and adventure.
I read it at 16, right after Lord of the Rings, said 'what' ?, then a few months latet tried again, with a certain determination. Deliberately went slow (I tend to read very fast), I frequently re-read a page before turning it, looked up every name if I wasn't sure who it was (seems nearly character has 5-6 names).
Ended of loving it! It's an incredible story.
The Simarillion is an OUTSTANDING book. Greatest book ever.
PREACH
@Account Deleted Ten times Time for the 11th deletion?
100%
Really?
Church
THANK YOU! I needed this!
As you said, so many people lament and wax poetic about how difficult it is to read this darn thing. But not many people can articulate very well how to approach reading it. You accomplished something few people have and that is to convince me and to prepare me to read The Silmarillion. 🥳❤
Well said Panda
You just fuggin read it. What are you talking about?🧐💩
Great video Craig! My friend just finished Lotr and asked me about The Silmarillion, now I can show him this!
Please do!! Hope it helps
You did a great job explaining how not only to read the Silmarilian, but how to appreciate it as well. I wish someone was around in the late '80s to have told me this when I read it for the first time. Much like your experience I had no idea what I had read and didn't get it. It was only going back to it a second time a few years later that it all clicked for me. And after some 30 years it is one of my go to books to re-read periodically. I hope this video can make it more accessible to more people up front. Nice done, Prof. Craig!
PS - Looking forward to that video on why Tolkien values grief and suffering so highly in his works.
I first read The Silmarillion when I was 13. Every summer my stepmom would get us passes for the local pool and take us there to swim every day. My 13th summer I had gotten badly burned across my stomach so I wasn't able to swim. I still had to go though, since my stepmom didn't want to leave me at home alone. I had read Lord of the Rings the first time a year prior and wanted to try reading The Silmarillion. Luckily, there was a library across the street from the pool so I checked out a copy of The Silm and every day for a couple of weeks I would sit on the poolside and read while my siblings swam. Honestly, besides the burn, one of the best summers I ever had. There were a few pages here and there that I struggled with reading, but for the most part I was completely engrossed. The story of the Sons of Feanor, Beren and Luthien, Turin Turambar, I thought it was all fascinating and made the rest of Tolkien's world that much more colorful and complete. Last year I finally reread The Silmarillion, 14 years after my first read through, and enjoyed it immensely once again. Just started The Unfinished Tales and am enjoying that read as well.
I was given 3 books
Fellowship of the ring
The Two Towers
The Return of The King
I'am almost finish with the 3
On April I'll be getting The Silmarillion
Thanks for the Information or advice Sir.
I am almost done with the silmarillion and then after that I will move onto morgoths ring
Grit your teeth through the first 50 or 60 pages or so and then you’re all good. Just read it recently and absolutely loved it. Beren and Luthien being my personal highlight.
This was such a great video. Thanks! Here we go with Round 2 of the Silmarillion.
Round 2 is amazing, enjoy!
I read LoTR at age 16 and the Silmarillion at age 17.
In my native language, which is not english.
It was ok, and not nearly as intimidating as I though it was gonna be.
Then I read The Children of Hurin, The fall of Gondolin and the adventures of Tom Bombadil in english at age 31.
Now.
Not only am I an avid reader, but despite beeing swedish, I also read at least 90 percent in english.
Frankly, if a book's originally written in english, I am likely to read it in english, evan old classics, such as Frankenstein.
But Tolkien really was a challenge in english.
A real challenge, evan as a 30 + year old.
I remember, after I read the Lord of the Rings in french, pulling out phrases that French people definitely thought were funny because they were so old.
I need more videos from Professor Craig!
My first time reading the Silmarillion was COMPLETELY different from the second time. First read-through took ages, and in the end I barely understood anything. Second time, however, spanned over about two and a half days, and it didn't even feel difficult.
Wow. That quote about the fountain is so deep! 😍 Something tells me I may actually like this very much 😁
(Came back to edit, because I realized the unintended pun 😄 )
Great video! I read The Silmarillion several years ago, and enjoyed it quite a bit. History was one of my favorite subjects back in school, so that may have been part of it. I hope to re-read it sometime. Thanks for sharing this :)
I am listening to the audio book read by Martin Shaw and loving it. He really does a great job.
Well I only got to the part where Feanor leaves for Middle Earth for now, then I kinda go back to the beginning and start all over again. For like four or five times in the last month or so xD
Ainulindale and Valaquenta are still my fave.
I will eventualy get further, when I feel comfortable enough with me knowing current characters.
Incredible, I always recommend that. It sounds exactly like Tolkien would’ve wanted it read
This is a treat. Love the gentle approach you have, I think you will succeed in your goal to encourage people to give The Silm a try. It made me want to set aside my current TBR and reread!
Also, love that your camera angle is positioned just enough to show you are indeed wearing pants to complete the whole get up. Now that's a man I could trust.
I read it when I was 14 years old and it was best experience ever. I read it all over again and again, every time I learned new things. I didn't read it in English. I read Polish version, and it wasn't translated to match archaic Polish. I suppose that allowed me to understand everything pretty well. I might give it a go in it's original language and see how I do!
I'm actually in the process of attempting it for the third time lol. I think the biggest challenge for me is that even though most chapters are mercifully short the sheer volume of characters and information is so big I typically have to consult the index at least once every chapter.
you shouldn't feel like that's a difficulty unique to you. i read shakespeare for fun; i love studying language as an exercise in human history, and even for me the silmarillion was not an easy journey. once i read the frst chapter i knew for sure i'd be rereading it to more fully grasp it. i also kept a pinky wedged into the index while reading to consult the names and places that i couldn't remember. but i promise you it gets richer with every re-read as you remember the names and places and they resonate emotionally with you as you pass by them in your journey.
@@oldfrend I'm actually almost done, just have the section on the third age and the rings to go. Definitely is! I actually flipped back to the map of Beleriand in the middle so many times I think the spine is a little bent in that spot and I would consult the index multiple times a lot of chapters to make sure I knew what was going on, the not feeling like I didn't get it which is good lol.
Thanks Craig. Your take on how to approach this made sense for me. I had read the Hobbit at the age of 8, and the LOTR by 9. The Silmarillion I started when I was 14 and bored with school. I always understood it to be olde English and historical in nature and was very pleasantly surprised when you highlighted the fact that it should be read as such.
I was a reasonably talented landscape artist from around 7 onwards and drew/painted my own versions of how I imagined Middle-earth. The Silmarillion, with all its descriptions and now basic but beautiful artwork by Ted Naismith, has become my go to Tolkien read (plus the Histories of Middle-earth) in picturing the vistas and characters, but also appreciating the subtleties of Tolkien's imagination and writing.
My thanks again.
Thanks. Have tried multiple times since the 70's. Your discription is a real help. It also inspired me to use my Shakespeare method. Read the sparknotes/cliff notes, learn character and chapter info, language etc and then read the book/play. Listen to an audio book and/or watch movies. It's kinda involved, but you can get a pretty deep understanding in a relatively short amount of time. Thanks again
I guess I'm different 😉. I started to read Brothers Grim, H.C Andersen and other fairy tales when I was 4 years old. I read every volume of encyclopedias we had at home and a lot of fact books about Nordic, Greek and Roman mythology. I read a lot of Shakespeare's works and ofc The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King, The Hobbit and The Silmarillion when I was between 8-10 (I've read them many times since then). I guess the language can be tricky, but having read Russian folklore as well as old archaic English, I didn't find it too difficult. 😊
I love the way Tolkien writes!
Well put. I feel you first have to churn through and love the hobbit/lord of the rings several times to build a curiosity for that history. It also took me a few reads of those earlier works to appreciate the sub themes that aren’t as obvious.
Teenage me gave up quickly so I think maturity/ appreciation for poetry and spirituality helps too. Knowing what you’re in for helps a lot, like making sure you keep track of the various names and places, which is why this video is so good.
haven't read any of Tolkien's other books yet, but I just started reading the silmarillion today. this video definitely helped reset my expectations, so thank you!
You are absolutely right. The Silmarillion is actually the first piece of Tolkien I've ever read and I'm listening via audiobook. I look up a chapter summary on TH-cam from time to time to check I have understood it and help extract the important names from the lists. I studied classics at school a decade ago and with that foundation of language it is much more understandable. If you come to it expecting a modern epic in structure and language, it's much more digestible and enjoyable!
Just started my journey with Silmarillion, the video was so useful
My mother bought me a copy when it was first published and it took me 25 years to get through it. But ahen I bought the recorded books version of it narrated by Martin Shaw it was a big help and I've read it five times since it's a history of Middle-earth.
Thank you for picking my favorite quote to reference. " for if joyful...." I knew it was special when I first read it.
Thank you for giving us ideas on how to read the works of J.R.R Tolkien. I read about Beren and Luthien and my thoughts were hard to understand the story it's because of the prose style. Now I am ready to re-read the book and I am still looking for The Silmarillion book for me to fully understand the story of this entire franchise. Your videos are very helpful and also give us a better understanding.
English isn't my first language - and I struggled to read Middlemarch before giving it up - but the sentence you gave at 7:22 seems pretty straightforward to me. What's difficult to understand for native English speakers in it?
I first read LOTR, then all the stories of the ancient world, and in that order it was such an enlightment of deep endless discoveries.
Tying to match old and new world's maps was such a delight!
Indeed, expectations play a big role! I was expecting another novel when I read The Silmarillion, and found something entirely different. I liked it anyway, but it took some adjustment on my part to get in synch with the book as it is instead of as I was hoping it to be, hahaha. :)
This was very interesting, as all of your videos. THANK YOU! :)
Thanks for the kinds words! Yeah, I had no idea what I was getting into when I read it the first time. Luckily the prose was actually a major draw for me, rather than a drawback. So it helped me come back for a second try at actually understanding it. 😂
Excellent video! I also see that you have some awesome books in your collection my friend! You have good taste *bows to you*
I see it as a mixture of mythology and history of the creation of Arda, or Middle-Earth. I’m a huge fan of Greek mythology and have read Ovid’s Metamorphoses, which has also fleeting protagonists, many different names and it explains the creation of the earth, it’s basically a huge short story collection with an underlying thread, in Ovid’s case the Metamorphoses of different characters, to connect it all. I suppose because I’m used to and enjoy such books it was never particularly hard for me to get through.
When I read it I loved that it was written in that way. I found it to be beautiful. It was also amazing to unfurl the depth of the history of the ones that came before the LOTR character and gave me a better understanding of who they were and where they came from. I now understood them.
Definitely interested in a video discussing his preoccupation with grief and sorrow!
As someone who has been reading since the age of three and was devouring classic literature by the age of eight, I can say that for me personally, the Silmarillion was and remains the hardest read I have ever encountered in my native tongue. 😅😂🤓 And it is my favorite too.
I'd recommend starting with the Akallabeth. This gives the significant events of the Second Age and serves as an extensive prologue to LOTR. It's relatively short but very condensed so take your time and don't get too bogged down, just follow the overall sweep. It's like reading the entire history of Rome in which significant events such as the Punic Wars, rise of Caesar Augustus and career of Marcus Aurelius flash past. It often involves differing theories about what happened, stressing that nobody knows which is correct - very a propos for a fictional history. What follows this section is a brief summary of the Third Age including the events of LOTR, which you probably won't need but does fill in some minor details.
What precedes it (the bulk of the book) is a lengthy mystical creation myth and an exhaustive history of the time of the elves which you may find interesting but won't enhance your enjoyment or understanding of LOTR. Although some elves from this period survive into the Third Age they rarely speak at all about the events of the time, and present more as "living legends".
The First Age is measured by years as beginning 1,600 years before the Second but who's to say what a year meant during the early formation of creation? Bear in mind that the founding of Numenor and the events of LOTR are 6,000 years apart - as historically removed from each other as early Mesopotamian civilisation is from us. As Aragorn puts it "For not we but those who come after will make the legends of our time" - the elves appear to respect that it should be so.
Galadriel is unworthy of passage to the West due to her past deeds millennia ago. Her line to Frodo "I pass the test, I shall diminish and go into the West and remain Galadriel" in part refers to her redemption for these deeds but her fortitude in resisting the temptation of the Ring is all we need to know. She and the other elves only remain in Middle Earth as guardians but with the bulk of their power usurped by Sauron's rings.
Melkur/Morgoth was the great ancient evil overcome and banished long ago but leaving many evils behind, including his lieutenant Sauron, but that's really all we need to know about him.
The few that remain in the Third Age of Numenorean descent (including Aragorn) are treated by mortal men as lords and kings and the Akalabeth explains their superhuman longevity and the ruination of their great civilisation as they succumbed to envy of the elves' true immortality. LOTR summarises this merely in that "the men of the West" are the noblest but diminished survivors of a once great race. And Numenor itself is ancient history to them as well.
7:18 The Silmarillion really is the fine red wine of literature and you found a perfect example for this ♥️
1) Pick up book.
2) Open book to first page.
3) Begin reading from the top, left to right, to the bottom of the page.
4) Turn page and repeat until book is finished.
Last year, I searched "order of reading of LOTR books" on the internet and clicked on the first link. It gave me a chronological order, with The Silmarilion on top. I bought the book, without knowing anything about it. But as soon as I started, I fell in love with it. It took something around 2 and a half months to finish it, and I did find it difficult in some parts, but never boring. After that, I read The Children of Húrin, Beren & Lúthien and The Fall of Gondolin. Loved all three, specially The Fall of Gondolin, mostly by the descriptive and poetic character of the book. It really feels like you're on a journey through a magical world.
It is my favourite book of all time. Now, I'm reading The Hobbit and can't wait to put my hands on the LOTR trilogy.
The first time I read the Silmarillion, I was a bit confused by the names of all the levels of angelic order, and by the fact that there were 2 or more names for each character and station. I had The Complete Guide to Middle Earth by Robert Foster with me, and referring to this as I read made some things clearer. Now after many many rereads over the years, The Silmarillion is my favorite of all Tolkien's works. Seeing this video, I realize that I do indeed enjoy the stories with protagonists better, but there is nothing in the Silmarillion that I dislike. It's so obviously Tolkien that it's not possible for me to not enjoy reading any part of it.
I’ve never tried the book but I’ve listened to the audio by Martin Shaw which I believe to be the superior way to enjoy that material. My first time I was lost, the second time I totally understand everything. It is godly, amazing. I now prefer it to LOTR as far as the stories go, it’s just on another level. But the audiobook read by Martin Shaw feels and sounds exactly like an ancient collection of Elvish myths. He gets the pronunciation of everything down perfectly.
On the style: reading it aloud often helps to clarify what is happening.
Excellent video, I will recommend it to a stubborn friend. I myself have read and listened to it many times. The first read was the toughest but I found it better with each repeat.
I read it with "The Atlas of Middle Earth" by Karen Wynn Fonstad as a reference to follow along. A glossary of names comes in handy too when you fforget who is who.
I had only seen the movies before reading The Silmarillion and it blew my mind. I loved the depth it gave to the world of Tolkien, and I do understand why people find it intimidating. It has a very tough start to get through the vague 'creation of the world' narrative. But it fascinated me to learn how this world was made through music all the way up to the distruction of Beleriand. After this I took a break, and continued a month later with the numenor story. Still intriguing but not as much as the stories of the first age had been to me.
Also, the Silmarillion is basically split into 5 parts: *Ainulindalë* - the Creation Myth; *Valaquenta* - the history of the Valar; *Quenta Silmarillion* - the main portion dealing with the mythical stories of the First Age; *Akallabêth* - the Second Age story of the downfall of Númenor; *Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age* - an account of the making of the Rings and Sauron's deception and his defeat in the War of the Last Alliance. The first two can be skipped without hindering your enjoyment of the Quenta Silmarillion - which is the meat of the thing. You can always go back to them and read them whenever. Also, the Akallabêth and Rings of Power parts can be read as standalone things whenever you want.
Great job, Prof Craig. Where Tolkien is proposing the usefulness of history runs parallel to the Catholic thought towards the Bible, where it is as much a library of stories - a history of salvation - rather than a dictated ‘word of God’ with a specific message ‘the author wants to say’. Intermingled therein, are the wills, woes and wilfulness of people, and much more. I found the Silmarillion best read beginning with whichever prose or verse draws one in.
Im going to tell you how to read the silmarillion, just how i did it:
1 open the book
2 start reading the words in it
✨AMAZING & A MUST READ✨
Audiobook helps😊
I'm on my 4th re-read and LOVE IT
I'm in the midst of my first read of The Silmarillion and, while I had realized early on that taking my time and reading roughly a chapter at a time was going to be the way to go, it does help to know I'm on the right track as far as how to tackle it. Great video!
First time I read it, I read the first three chapters and had to take a nap. Sooooo many names, locations, concepts. I love it. The worldbuilding is second to none. Setting the stage for the entire Tolkien Legendarium.
I think you missed a major point here.. use the index! On a first read almost everyone will get lost among the many, many names of people, places and also factions. For example you can refer to the Elves as a race, or you could speciically refer to the Eldar or the Sindar or the Noldor.. each of these branches of the Elves is different and there's a lot of them! The Index is very helpful if you feel yourself starting to get lost :D
I tried and failed to read LotR twice in my teen years. Then I read the Silmarillion and somehow I found it a little easier, and then I want back and reattempted (and succeeded) LotR. LotR is MUCH more interesting when you can see the connections to the larger lore
also, finding a good family tree and a couple maps can help a ton
I can completely understand the sentiment of the new readers of Silmarillion, I had the same experience when I bought the book, I think I was fourteen. It was hard to get through. I re-read if some time later and this year, after around ten years, I read it again and I had a splendid experience. I suppose you need to know the book beforehand to fully enjoy it, after two or three prior reads you can sense the strong flow of the story, appreciate the style and delve into it - it really reads like a historical text. The only thing that is always a pity is a brief ending of Quenta Silmarillion with very brief description of the War of Wrath. I hope one day it´ll be revised and the fans will get proper ending.
Edit: I fully agree on the chapter 14 and the chapter about Nirnaeth Arnoediad. The second one is probably my most favourite as well.
It will not be revised. Tolkien wrote 2 finished versions, the "Book of Lost Tales" and the "Silmarillion" from 1930. He changed many aspects and sub-stories over the decades and for every chapter, there are several versions. The last "Silmarillion" was put together by his son, the late Christopher Tolkien. The current version is like a synthesis of all these different versions. The 3 main stories (Beren and Lúthien, The Children of Húrin, The Fall of Gondolin) were published as separate books though, as Tolkien had always intended. They include much more details.
Reading The Silmarillion completely changes how you view Lord of the Rings. It taught me about characters referenced but not explained and songs in the book like the song the Elves were singing just before encountering Frodo, Pippin and Sam who were almost caught by a Wraith. Now I know who Snow White is. My personal alternate title for the book is Elves Behaving Badly. I recommend reading it in short bits and skipping about to something you are interested in learning about. And to plug another book The Fall of Gondolin is a really good read
I read the Silmarillion before reading The Hobbit and LOTR. I was pleased with this approach because it sets the "setting" and the backstory to prepare for the specific stories that chronologically followed BUT it needed to be approached with a "history" perspective. In so doing, I was able to pick up on some of the nuances in the Hobbit and LOTR stories that I otherwise would not have noticed had I not started the Tolkien experience with the grand backdrop of the Silmarillion.
Make sure you have a map of Beleriand and family tree of Finwe handy while reading it
Only read it once, but for me the protagonist is either the world itself, or Melkor, least from my perspective. Amazing book. Loved every tale in it. Especially love the wording and conveyances, you develop a great sense of how much meaning people afforded simple things by how they talk about them.
Thank I am listening to the silmarillion on audiobook at the moment for the first time now I know to treat it like a history book not a storybook thank you Paul
I failed three times. I always knew it wasn’t a badly written book and it was my reading of it that was the problem but I couldn’t overcome how dense it was. Succeeded on my fourth try and it was so worth it. It’s now my second favourite of Tolkien’s many works.
Recently finished reading it, including Akallabeth, Of The Rings of Power and all. Best way to think of it as each chapter is its own stand alone story. If the chapter is 'boring' then consider it mostly a lore dump, and take in the information as you will. Because that's what the book tends to be for the most part. That said there was some solid reading in the book, The Beren and Luthien chapter was an amazing read. Huan is good boi.
I should mention it does help that the indexes and appendices can be helpful, if you see a name you're sure you've seen before, but don't remember much you can look it up to catch yourself up. At least I had in my copy of the book.
Thanks Professor Craig!
The first time I read The Silmarillion it really felt like hitting a roadblock or brick wall. It was THAT TOUGH. But as soon as I managed to "decode" it, reading it was such a beautiful experience.
Read it five time already. My favorite would have to be The Akkallabeth. It reads like the Book of Revelation. It's quite terrifying. Like reading The End Times.
And if you could read The Silmarillion, you should read Frank Herbert's Dune.
I’m reading silmarillion for the first time right now and my biggest advice? Don’t feel bad about reading it in your native language even if you know english fairly well! Trust me, it will be so much easier and then you can re read in english later on when you (possibly) have some kind of an idea of what’s happening in the book
Read it 4 times. 2 of them during my 4 years of hemodyalisis, when I had 12 hours per week to burn during treatments.
I love this book with a passion and would love to some passages of it adapted,.
I started on page one, and read the pages in order until I got to the end. 😁 It really is an amazing book, what a feat of imagination!
I read the Silmarillion during my morning commutes to work. I can say reading it helps you appreciate some of LOTR more; particularly when it comes to Sauron, Gondor, and the battle between Gandalf & the Balrog. You come to understand each thing and their motivations far better.
I read it fairly easily and even finished it in less than a month. I had a little help identifying each character, and I noticed how some chapters slightly overlap others. Ex: Tour comes across his cousin Turin while journeying to Gondolin. (After Turin defeated Glaurung the first dragon).
Great video, thanks. One reading left me overwhelmed with keeping track of all the characters and places. Trying to remember who's who, what group they belong to, and where they are, etc.. This is not a "read in bed" work. Felt like I needed three computers and a wall map open at the same time.
the first book of tolkein I read outside the LOTR trilogy was the Children of Hürin. It took a good 2 chapters to grasp his use of language. I just read through the abridged version in the Silmarillian, made much more sense that time.
Something that helped me was to identify an antagonist (Morgoth) that I was invested in before reading the book.
Thank you for this video. I tried reading The Silmarillion a long time ago(when I was about 15) having read and re-read LOTR repeatedly but I just could not do it. I have recently started reading The Hobbit and LOTR again with the intention of going through everything Tolkien related with The Silmarillion up next on the list.(I know there will be repetition between The Silmarillion and Beren and Luthien for example)
I usually don’t comment on videos. But I cannot thank you enough for this video. So happy I watched it before reading, it allowed me to be in the right mindset for the book. Thank you for the work you put into this.
I appreciate the comment! Glad it helped!
The Silmarillion was the first Tolkien's book I read, and have loved it ever since. I re-read it, or listen to the audiobook with Martin Shaw, every couple of years or so.
typically i prefer to read histories in physical book format so that i can write notes in the margins or highlight stuff, but for The Silmarillion, i have found that the best way for me to engage with it was through audiobook and i could easily skip around and re-listen to sections easily.