How Tolkien Fans Describe the Silmarillion
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.พ. 2025
- Alternatively, you could just read a one-sentence summary of the book that goes something like: "Stuff used to be great, now everything sucks, and it's going to keep sucking," and basically get the gist.
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I read the silmarilion before the lord of the rings. the demons summoned by that were very impressed.
I'm afraid of you.
I read the Hobbit, then the Silmarillion, then LOTR. Deal with it.
@@drafer100 should have started with the unfinished tales or the letters of tolkien.
I read the Silmarillion first, then the Hobbit, currently reading Unfinished Tales, haven't read LOTR.
Same! I read it before the Hobbit even!
"Read Silmarillion. You'll feel like you've climbed the book equivalent of Mount Everest... Since like Mount Everest, an alarming number of people die before they complete the journey."
Including Tolkein himself!
But have you left a photo of the woman you love in the snow / pages? 😂❤
ETA
Referencing the 1924 Mount Everest/Qomolangma climber Mallory.
Read this is J.Ps voice.
Incredibly accurate lol, but it's worth it
@@fancyskull1667Thats foul💀💀
I've never read _The Silmarillion,_ but this video has convinced me that it gives anybody who reads it a very specific personality disorder that's triggered by hearing the title.
reminds me of The King in Yellow
Keep in mind, he’s roasting the super nerds. The book is not hard to read. There’s like one chapter early on that stumps people but if you keep going, it’s awesome.
Given we all had that reaction upon seeing the title I think it does
it does!
The Silmarillion contains an endless array of Metal as F totally awesome nonsense, told as if it was a penguin classics translation of a medieval English poem.
“The Silmarillion is essentially the Bible but for Middle Earth. It is made up of hundreds of names and dozens of small stories that all have a massive impact on how the world is formed in Lord of the Rings. But it’s actually fucking amazing.”
Basically every chapter in the silmarillion has something you could write an entire power metal album around
This. It’s basically like reading the Old Testament. If you’re into lists of family members and who begat whom interspersed with moments of cosmic violence then the Sil is for you
“What do you mean it’s like the Bible?”
“I mean there’s a copy in the hobbit sized rooms of the prancing pony”.
“Ah.”
@BladedEdge Nightfall in Middle Earth the Silmarillion Power Metal album does exist.
@BladedEdge Every interesting part is glossed over in half a sentence...
Tolkien is interminable
People are overdramatic when talking about the silmarillion. It has a lot of names, but it's not that hard to keep track because the book almost always reminds you "yeah, that dude was the son of that dude" it's even easier if your edition has the genealogies.
I would say that the part in the middle of the book which describes the geography of Beleriand in extreme detail is by far the hardest part. When you are past that the rest of the book is very doable + the story starts moving forwards past the main stalemate. I say this as a fantasy map lover.
@Samuel-s1e It's not that that hard, you've got the blue mountains in the east, Gondolin and Angband in the north, Doriath in the center, Vinyamar in the west, and Ossiriand and the Gelion on the south. My edition had two maps, one of Beleriand and one of Beleriand that showed the dominions of each character
@Samuel-s1e that stuff is far more doable in the first read. On re-reads its nigh impossible to not skip.
The important stuff is the dragon the size of Manhattan. Or the elf lord with a flying boat that slays that dragon. Or the horror movie incest subplot. Or the spider swallowing the Proto-Sun. Or any of the other insanely metal stuff in that book
Yeah, it really is not difficult at all. I read it like a normal novel. 🤷
When people say they are going to read the Silmarillion, I just tell them "Tolkien has as much fascination with the letter 'F' as God does with beetles".
Fëanor, Fingolfin, Finwë, Finarfin, Findis, Fingon, Finduilas, and you have to remember that they are all related
@@senorbolainas2991and Finrod Felagund
@@senorbolainas2991 Well yeah that's why they all have F-names, they're related.
@@senorbolainas2991Celebrian Celebrimbor Celeborn Cirdan any others? 😂
@@hippieyoda1993 Amrod, Amras, Aredhel, Aegnor
As someone who has read the Silmarillion:
> Taking notes does help, especially quick points on characters.
> Happy endings are for chumps. The best you're getting is Bittersweet endings or Pyrrhic endings.
> Huan is the goodest boi
> So is Finrod Felagund
> Sauron gets wrecked by a Disney Princess and her dog
> The "Cast it into the fire!" "No." is actually a trope that repeats itself so often it becomes hilarious.
In Luthien and Beren (so alternative versions of the story in the Silmarillon), the Disney Princess and her dog even fight a giant cat.
@@dalriada7554 Tevildo was epic
I was dying of laughter reading this I can't- 😂
Beren and Luthian is still one of my favorite stories in that book.
"Two gigachads beat the shit out of evil forces that entire armies couldn't handle just through the sheer power of how down bad they are for each other. Then nopes out of their tragic ending by winning an argument with the grim reaper."
Alas, must we now always turn to Gen Z language in order to interpret literature? How about this instead: "Two great heroes of old, an Elf maiden and a Mortal man, bested the dark powers with skill beyond even that of armies, for their love for each other was legend even to the eyes of the Lords of the West, and such love is Power beyond fathoming, deeper than the deeps of the Sea. For it could move waters and still demons, and even counter the Doom of Mandos!"
@@Ψυχήμίασμα Much better.
@@Ψυχήμίασμα Must we always denigrate the young simply because they are different? Language is an ever evolving thing, deal with it. Also, your version is too flowery and needs more context.
@@RabbitSim As GenAlfa I'm actually denigrating the old. Boomer.
@@RabbitSim GenZ lingo is absolutely not "evolution." lol. It's degradation.
I'd love a story about a cursed book that makes anyone who reads it act like its the most difficult book to read ever
Sounds like an SCP lol
@sithdude2436 Combine it with the rock that makes you procrastinate and the book is never getting read
@@genericname2747 The actual most difficult to read book is [anything you are assigned for class]
@BladedEdge that is true.
@BladedEdge Ah hell that reminds me I still have to read a book for class damn it
I think I'll go read the Silmarillion instead
Listening to Christopher Lee narrate The Children of Hurin as a 12 year old was a disturbing but enchanting experience.
Bro 😂 hardly a story appropriate for 12 but who am I to judge 😆
@@hippieyoda1993 Not that I regret it
Try to distinguish after the first read Finrod, Feänor, Fingon, Fingolfin, and Finarfin. Bonus points for Maedhros v. Maglor or Maeglin.
Feanor =bling silmarils. Fingon= 1v1 with barlogs and bromance with Maedhros. Fingolfin= dad of fingon. 1v1 with Morgoth
Finarfin=Galadriel 's dad. Did nothing wrong ever.
Mahedros: one hand, red hair, accidentally adopt Elros and elrond.
Maeglor: harper and singer, brother of Mahedros, also accidentally adopt the perhedel.
Maeglin:emo boy who wants Gondolin all by himself. End because of a father love and a father curse
@user-bb5mb8qp3n thanks dude
Just have the family tree handy that's in the back of most copies and it's easy.
@user-bb5mb8qp3n is Maeglin the meteorite sword dudes son yeah?
@hippieyoda1993 exactly,
it is my civic duty to remind everyone that the power metal band Blind Guardian has a concept album about the silmarillion titled "Nightfall in Middle Earth" and as someone who isnt even really into tolkien that much, it might be one of the best power metal albums of all time.
I just made a comment about the same thing 😂 listening to the album elevates the book and reading the book elevates the album. It goes so well together
@@DrStuff142 \m/ \m/
yay, fellow blind guardian fans. i prefer a night at the opera, but i've listened to and enjoyed nightfall in middle earth a bunch while not having read or watched any tolkien. it's brilliant.
Eu nunca consegui fazer a conexão de livros medievais com álbuns de metal.
Acho que o som sequer combina com as histórias ali contadas.
Não entendo mesmo, olho as capas lindas dos álbuns, e quando vou ouvir, o som não casa com os livros.
To anyone considering reading the Silmarillion I say to just do it, it is a very good book. Yes, there are lots of names, but the ones you need to remember are repeated often enough that you learn them.
As someone who read The Silmarillion before LOTR, AND a huge fan of it, it's not really that hard and English isn't even my first language, talking like this just makes people reluctant to actually read it and learn about the great mythos behind LOTR. It's tragic that fantasy fans live their whole life without learning about the greatest character Tolkien has ever written, Huan the hound of Valinor, aka bestest boi in Eä.
I had a dog named Huan(my parents really liked Tolkien)
Is it true that it reads less like a story and more like a history book? I hear that a lot, but was wondering how valid you might find it
@ it’s subjective really, to me it felt more like how myths are written. I don’t think history books usually contain such beautiful prose tbh 😂. I can say it has interesting and complex characters, whose stories I was truly invested in, some of Tolkien’s best world building,and the most epic overarching plot I have ever read.
I would direct you to a blog called “The Silmarillion Primer”, I only discovered it recently and it’s a delightful read, it’s mostly for new readers to ease their way into the book chapter by chapter so I suggest you give it a shot. And please don’t get discouraged by what other people say, I recommend you read the first 3 to 4 chapters before you put it aside, the story kicks off when the elves are introduced, the first few chapters lay out the greater mythos so it may be a slog to read for some people.
Hope you have fun reading it and again I really recommend this blog I mentioned.
@@IRanOutOfPhrases not so much a modern academic history book, more like an epic mythological saga such as the Bible, the Norse sagas or the Iliad.
What is your first language Nour?
That Never-Ending Story bit had me in stitches! The beautiful thing about the movie version is that after the viewer has perhaps somehow managed half to surpress the memory of that traumatizing event it happens that, shortly before meeting the speaking wolf G'mork, Atreyu walks through some stone galery with paintings on the walls, depicting his journey so far, including a graphic depiction of the horse incident, apt to remind and retraumatize the viewer 😀👌
Atreyu was a dumb fuckwit.
If he had just put the Orin-thingy around the horse's neck the both would have survived.
Turns out, Red Flannel just so happens to have a Ph.D. In Medieval English literature, and T-shirt doesn’t.
everyone losing their shit over 3 shiny rocks that at best are useless, at worst they kill you
They could've restored the Trees of Valinor and one of them ended up being used by Earendil to call Valinor into war against Morgoth. That same Silmaril can be seen on the Heavens of Middle Earth, as it is Earendil flying his flying ship
One of them became VENUS
They forgot to mention the part when you read it 5 times and understend every plot haracter and biological tree but you can't normaly comunicate with human beings becose your memory needs to remember everything
Hey that’s me I’ve read/listened 5 times and finally understand it but yeah I can’t talk to people about it
Spot on. I understand it but could never talk about it properly.
Here's my foolproof guide to reading the Silmarillion:
Step 1. Start at page 1.
Step 2. Read the rest of the fuckn book.
It's very funny. Is true though: liking Lord of the Rings is absolutely zero indication that you'll enjoy the Silmarillion
Disagree
I like LoTR. I found the Silmarillion interesting. Notice I said interesting and not 'good' or 'enjoyable'.
and then there's me, who read it after getting wretchedly obsessed with it after seeing art of all the characters on pinterest. i love the silm
Its cool to note the Silmarillion was Tolkien's original fantasy and legend project. The Hobbit became attracted to it, later and the Lord of the Rings was written to bridge the two completely. This was the book, called the Book of Lost Tales which was started during WWI in the trenches. It was not in fact written as an entertaining narrative but rather an academic project of a serious variety, making his own myths up.
The stereotypical Silmarillion does exist, in the form of History of Middle Earth. While the Silmarillion keeps things relatively put together with at least a vague sense of greater narrative, HoME is full academics with a compilation of tons of lore and its various versions as it developed over time. Interesting content to hear about second hand, but not for the casual reader to consume straight up.
Yeah people talk about the Silmarillion being tough (it's not) when HoME is right there as the pinnacle of "I'm in too deep to stop"-type Tolkien material
The Silmarilion is more like the Middle Earth Bible than a plain history textbook.
Just keep in mind:
Feanor = Bad Elf
Fingolfin = Badass Elf
untrue + Feanor slander
Feanor did nothing wrong
Feanor ruined literally everything
@@robertstuckey6407 untrue! Feanor did absolutely make mistakes but he alone cannot be blamed for the ruin of "literally everything" it's moreso a combination of the Valar's failure, FInwe being a terrible father and also Feanors failings as a leader, but he was right in most of what he said and before the First Kinslaying, he had the moral high ground over the Valar.
Even his paranoia about being betrayed by Fingolfin was not completely unfounded, though his course of action was wrong.
In general, it cannot be said that he is a villain or an evil character. There are three things that he did that are objectively wrong, but those are, even seen from the unkindest angle, not completely founded in moral failing and rather character flaws or enviromental factors.
That being the Oath, which was influenced by both Feanors grief and the Valars inaction which only fuelled his anger.
Then Alqualonde, which was not a couscious decision that the boats are more important than the lives of the Teleri and also not born out of a superiority complex, but rather an issue of impulsivity on both Feanors and the Teleris side, aswell as a failure of the Valar because they said that the Noldor were free to leave but then insinuated towards Olwe that they wouldn't like it if he helped them.
And lastly the betrayal of Fingolfin and the burning of the ships, which was not born out of sheer malice or madness or the will for him to suffer on the ice, but rather paranoia, which, with the whole family drama background and Fingolfins attempts to make Feanor look bad politically, was not completely unfounded.
The Flight of the Noldor was a chaotic happenstance and it cannot be dumbed down to "Feanor did everything wrong", but is rather a combination of the Valars failure as gods and leaders, Finwes questionable decisions which lead to the split between his sons and also Noldorin society, aswell as Feanors personal character flaws and mental issues, because ultimately he, too, is a victim of circumstance like almost everyone in the Silmarillion.
Now should be go unpunished? No! He absolutely did bad things and that had lasting consequences on the fate of Arda, but he is not an evil character or a villain and the amount of which he is bad is often blown way out of proportion. He is also by far not the only person to have done the wrong or stupid thing in this situation.
Nobody involved is devoid of blame but all of what happens is understandable and conclusive in the eyes of the acting character, while not neccesarily the morally right thing to do. This applies to almost everyone in the Silmarillion and that is why it's so great.
@@mitchellfarmer5666#SupportFeanorianImperialism
The never ending story reference hits crazy
I know the horse's name is Artax, but calling it anything other than 'Atreeeyuuuuuuuuuu! 😥' just _feels_ wrong.
Also, my preferred two second summary of _The Silmarillion_ for people is 'You know how in _Lord of the Rings_ they'll sometimes stop and sing a poem about a tree? Well _The Silmarillion_ is like a whole book that's almost _exclusively_ that. So you'll either hate it or love it, depending on what you liked about LoTR.'
Edit: Which I have just realised is still redundant and obnoxious, because if someone's thinking about reading _The Silmarillion_ then _that's what they liked about Lord of the Rings._
Not necessarily. I loved the Silmarillion, but I never actually finished the main LotR books, exactly because of said reason. (Just saw the movies.) xD
Also at no point do they sing a poem about a tree in LotR. Unless you count Treebeard singing about the Entwives.
See the hard part isn't reading the Silmarillion. The hard part is getting thrown down the infinite spiral of trying to construct the perfect version of it in your mind by cross-referencing the History of Middle-Earth and trying to add back in all the stuff Christopher regrets cutting from it/leaving out.
Christopher did say that it was pointless to try to do so in the foreword, perhaps even impossible
@@mynameismyname-n9x What Christopher said was "A complete consistency (either within the compass of The Silmarillion itself or between The Silmarillion and other published writings of my father’s) is not to be looked for, and could only be achieved, if at all, at heavy and needless cost."
I agree with that, which is why I have a problem with him removing things like different sections being attributed to different in-universe sources and choosing less complete/fleshed out sections and in some cases dramatically abridging and rewriting the text for the purpose of keeping it all in a consistent style. And Christopher himself came to regret a lot of these choices as he express multiple times in the History of Middle-Earth, and at times expressed a desire to heavily revise the text, but also a fear that he would not have time to do so in his lifetime, which turned out to be the case (if only the man hadn't been so opposed to working with computers).
Tolkien always (at-least after the initial Book of Lost Tales days) intended the Silmarillian to be an in-universe compilation work (like the Bible itself is). For such a thing inconsistency in style and even some in-universe details is actually desirable. These elements that Christopher removed or flattened actually played into each-other in this respect. If the work is by multiple different authors for different purposes and from different backgrounds. It makes sense that human bard might sing about an event differently from how an elf historian might write about it. Tolkien actively played with this, some things was like a theological exposition, some like historical annals, some like an heroic folk tale. For a time he experimented not only with writing the "big 3" stories in verse, but also in different poetic forms. Sometimes he would write things along the lines of 'some believed this happened, some believe that happened, but here they swear this is how it happened'.
Of-course with how much he changed his views of some core aspects of the setting and just how Tolkien went about revising things (and more importantly never getting to revising to other things) some editorializing is absolutely necessary, but I feel, and I think Christopher agreed, that he went about it with an unneeded heavy hand.
The things I personally find the least justifiable is the removal of the multiple authors and almost everything about Dagor Dagorath getting cut.
@@mynameismyname-n9x What Christopher said was "A complete consistency (either within the compass of The Silmarillion itself or between The Silmarillion and other published writings of my father’s) is not to be looked for, and could only be achieved, if at all, at heavy and needless cost."
I agree with that, which is why I have a problem with him removing things like different sections being attributed to different in-universe sources and choosing less complete/fleshed out sections and in some cases dramatically abridging and rewriting the text for the purpose of keeping it all in a consistent style. And Christopher himself came to regret a lot of these choices as he express multiple times in the History of Middle-Earth, and at times expressed a desire to heavily revise the text, but also a fear that he would not have time to do so in his life-time, which turned out to be the case (if only the man hadn't been so opposed to working with computers).
Tolkien always (at-least after the initial Book of Lost Tales days) intended the Silmarillian to be an in-universe compilation work (like the Bible itself is). For such a thing inconsistency in style and even some in-universe details is actually desirable. These elements that Christopher removed or flattened actually played into each-other in this respect. If the work is by multiple different authors for different purposes and from different backgrounds. It makes sense that human bard might sing about an event differently from how an elf historian might write about it. Tolkien actively played with this, some things was like a theological exposition, some like historical annals, some like an heroic folk tale. For a time he experimented not only with writing the "big 3" stories in verse, but also in different poetic forms. Sometimes he would write things along the lines of 'some believed this happened, some believe that happened, but here they swear this is how it happened'.
Of-course with how so much he changed his views of some core aspects of the setting and just how Tolkien went about revising things (and more importantly never getting to revising to other things) some editorializing is absolutely necessary, but I feel, and I think Christopher agreed, that he went about it with an unneeded heavy hand.
The things I personally find the least justifiable is the removal of the multiple authors and almost everything about Dagor Dagorath getting cut.
The Silmarillion is an easier read if you realize Feanor has the same personality as Vegeta
I usually compare him to Sasuke
He is much worst than vegeta, he is (literally talking) a elf Morgoth.
@@SantiagoBatista-ej4ft He's not nearly as bad as Morgoth. Yes, he would slaughter millions of children for the silmarils, but he's not outright satanic.
You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain ahh video, I'm subbing
Listening to Blind Guardian's album Nightfall in Middle-Earth made me read The Silmarillion and I loved it. It's pretty cool to know the stories the songs are about.
@@meganega123 \m/ \m/
Blind Guardian got a ton of people to read it, I think, and for that they've done the world a great service.
@LordVader1094 true that! They did the same for me with Wheel of Time 😆
Bro just exposed the Silmarillion fans' gatekeeping :O
... and to that, I say: keep it up, guys, lest an 'adaptation' occurs.
@@Yarblocosifilitico that won't happen, the narrative is too hard do addapt, maybe a multi season show could do the trick, but it's hard
That would be as silly as turning the appendices of _The Lord of the Rings_ into a $1 Billion+ streaming series, so I'm sure it won't happen...
@@senorbolainas2991 nothing is too hard to adapt if you can just scrap the source material and make an hilariously dumbed down version...
@@Yarblocosifilitico And the best part is that you wouldn't even have to tell a good story, because people on the internet will still deffend it, no matter how crappy the plot is.
@@senorbolainas2991 There is no solid Narrative. Thats what makes the Silmarillion so hard to read. Its not a proper, fully fleshed out book. Its like a book that hasnt even finished its first draft, maybe one that has been cobbled together from pre first draft stories. Adapting a book like this.... It needs someone to fully flesh out the missing bits before it can even be STARTED. So it'll be rough. And it'll need changes. Lots of changes. But it also needs to keep the soul that Tolkien put into it. Which, as you might imagine, is nigh impossible. It would require a prodigal author to do it properly, and those tend to have stories of their own which they are both better at writing, and are more interested in, financially and usually emotionally.
Literally anyone who can get through a standard collection of ancient greek/roman or ancient norse myths won't have a problem with the Silmarillion. Arguably the Quinta Silmarillion is easier because it was written by a single man and has more narrative structure as opposed to a book about real life mythologies that developed over thousands of years.
The first time i heard my dad swear was when I was 10. He was reading the Silmarillion, and he threw the book across the room and yelled "Fuck it"
Just finished it.
I think it’s my favorite in the LOTR series.
Don’t let these people intimidate you.
I read it in my teens because my mom (an OG Tolkien nerd from the 60’s) never finished it. Some bits stuck with me, but mostly I just did it to prove a point.
Honestly, once you got passed the parts where it talks about what group of elves settled where it's not that bad. That part was only difficult because there were so many proper nouns and you have little context. After that it becomes like reading Plato and Shakespeare. Pretty epic, lots of people making lots of bad decisions, and many of the stories ending on a bittersweet note.
This is like when you made fun The Wheel of Time.
Public service announce
Faenor may have done many things wrong , but my boi maglor didn't
Not relevant to the video but I wanted everyone reading the silmarillion to know that
Thank you
Maglor did by not jettisoning his brothers at the first opportunity.
@@LordVader1094 Him and Maedhros considered abandoning the Oath at the very end, but didn't do it because they thought they were beyond redemption for swearing in Eru's name. As soon as they swore the Oath, they were (or thought so, at least) that they were past the point of no return
1) Swearing the oath
2) 1st kinslaying (maybe just out of love for his father, we don't know)
3) Burning the ships, which at least Maedhros refused to participate in
4) Further kinslayings
@triacontahedron honestly I blame the oath , and the oath is faenor fault
@ Yeah, but Maglor chose his father over his morals of his own free will. That was the wrong thing to do.
For me it's heavy autism high fantasy. I love it
What does it have to do with autism?
@@waltonsmith7210 Special interests
And the mythology is so expansive that it provides endless fuel for our autism powers
The online tolkien wikis solved all the problems of Silmarillion.
You can just have Noldor family tree handy and have a map of Beleriand for that chapter...
Tolkien Gateway is a godsend.
That was great, now I guess I'll need to get that trapezoid out and start reading.
Hello Morgoth of Angband
I mean Morgott of Leyendell
(Morgoth is the primary antagonist of the Silmarillion)
0:32 the way this description made me feel seen heard and validated
I read The Silmarillion 3 times going on 4. Hopefully more, it’s unironically my favorite book.
I mean, it's just a bunch of fairy tales that the characters in LotR tell each other. Red plaid guy was spot on for a moment there, before the gatekeeping bug bit him. 😄
I seem to have the opposite problem lol loads of my friends have read lotr, LOVED it, but can't be bothered with silm and now my entire life has been reduced to "it's really not that bad you just have to get to chapter 7!!!!!!!!!"
Silmarillion? More like Sillymarillion!
I read the Silmarillion when I was 14 so at the time, yeah, it was pretty hard to get through. I enjoyed it more as I got further into it, so not as bad of a slog as people say.
Same here! But when the battle finally gets really cool and the mighty dragons show up and you are on the edge of your seat then.... it's eagles out of nowhere again! Such a letdown !
No one likes reading the Silmarillion, but everyone likes having read the Silmarillion
Compared to real life mythology like Mahabharata, the Silmarillion is absurdly easy to follow, despite the scope of the world it seeks to build. It’s the product of a single auteur, all edited by his son. Theres a level of focus and narrative clarity you dont get with organic, messy, cobbled together real life myths.
I would NEVER tell someone the Silmarillion is hard to read.
I would, however, suggest that they supplement their reading of it with some excerpts from The History of Middle-earth, and provide them with a long and detailed procedure for the order in which they should read things, complete with many cross-references for further information.
I've read the Silmarillion and honestly, I want to read it again. I feel like a second read will definitely help to sink in all the lore and characters and I was considering taking notes as well. I'd definitely recomend it to any fans of the lotr trilogy that are fascinated with the lore of middle earth.
Yeah I just plowed through it like a blind man. I didn't keep track of anything. I probably should've gotten the PhD first.
I listened to it on audiobook. I really enjoyed it and keep going back
A couple of cool stories, mostly easy to read. Some great imagery and moments. That's how I describe it.
Just make sure to have an atlas of middle earth with you while reading the Silmarillion
My explanation for it has devolved over the years to a simple:
"Its an Plus sized lord of the rings appendix." Its quite an apt description. It also works for "The Unfinished Tales.", which is a book you must read if you liked the silmarillion.
Also, I say you need a "PHD in English linguistics". Damn those words were brutal.
@@snowdrop9810 It is more like a prequel than a simple appendix as the story and characters are too flashed out to be considered that. Unfished tales is actually more like an extended appendix of the Silmarillion and other tales
@senorbolainas2991 well, it doesnt have the proper structure you expect from a novel. Its more all over the place, with very rough guidelines. Unfinished tales has zero guidelines, so yes its a better appendix. Eitherway, neither feel like a normal book, more a loredump through stories.
Ok, so I've only occasionally suggested the Silmarillion to anyone, (and in a good chunk of those, the fact it was in a comment section under a Blind Guardian song helped immensely), but if I were to suggest it to someone, I'd say to look at Lord of the rings...and make your peace with the fact that that entire book series is literally the last paragraph of the epilogue of the epilogue in the whole book. Seriously, when I first read it, I was looking for hobbits the whole way through, only for a few passing mentions in "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age" and of course a finishing bit regarding Frodo and his work in ending the threat of Sauron.
For first time readers, my advice (and I say this as someone with the tism) is to not worry about keeping track of the names other than the ones that jump out to you by doing something cool during your first reading. Feanor is obviously a good example, as with Fingolfin, but you may forget their brother Finarfin even exists despite him being Galadriel's dad. That's ok, people with common sense who avoid unnecessary drama tend to go unnoticed for much of life themselves, but the benefit of that is generally a greater degree of peace of mind. Hurin and his family will stick out for...actually, I don't need to spoil it, but pace yourself if you're a crier. Make peace with the fact that a lot of these stories end either sadly or bittersweet at best, and because this is essentially meant to be a mythic retelling of Western/Northern Europe's ancient past drawn from Celtic, Germanic, and Scandinavian (with a bit of Finnish) roots, its going to have a lot of stuff that focuses on morality and the human condition, such as the fate of Numenor in the Akalabeth. When you finish the first time, give yourself some time to think about and digest it all, perhaps even try some Tolkien channels like Tolkien Untangled and DarthGandalf to help better understand and contextualize all the lore before diving in again, (cause trust me, at least some parts will make you want to), and also consider some of the other Tolkien lore books such as unfinished tales or the appendixes in Lord of the Rings for more info. There will seem to be some information that seems conflicting and contradictory between the sources, and that's ok, because it's a myth: there's supposed to be stuff beyond a shadow of a doubt (ex. Morgoth bad) while others are more disputed (ex. in the Silmarillion, there's a very important battle that the elves and men lost which the Silmarillion [in-universe, written by elvish historians] says could have been won if not for the treachery of Easterling men, whereas in the Children of Hurin, it was said this battle was doomed from the start).
Basically, pick up and read the Silmarillion as an organized anthology of myths similar to the Illiad and Odysee or the Norse Sagas. If you can enjoy those, you can enjoy this: just pace yourself and don't overthink it with the first read. It's literature. You can put the book down when your brain needs a break and you can come back and try seeing the connections you missed the first time, and that's part of the fun.
The Silmarillion is my favorite book… I like it more than LOTR to be honest lol!
Silmarillion is so like the other two books: in the end, magic eagles show up out of nowhere and solve the problem! That was such a letdown!
I remember first reading it as a teenager and being impressed by it. Recently revisited it but with the audiobook version snd enjoyed it even more.
This video was me after my copy of the Ted Nasmith illustrated edition arrived on Tolkien's birthday.
I have that edition too, it's gorgeous
Look, this was settled long ago via a quote in BeatleJuice. "This reads like stereo instructions."
I read The Silmarillian, then Lord of the Rings, and then The Hobbit. Opposite of most i think. It felt like trekking through a dense jungle, finding a city full of ancient tales and artifacts, then departing that city to settle down in a quiet village.
I never had trouble with the names. It's far worse when a book has repeating names in every generation.
One hundred years of solitude while a good read can be cited here.
@@Bubblegob That's exactly what I was thinking about XD
I read it for the first time when I was 13.
I didn't understand most of it but picked it up again in highschool, then again when I was in the military, and THEN, at the age of 22, I finally understood it.
I couldn't get to end of this video. I finished The Silmarilian three times.
There's a TH-cam channel tgat has audiobooks of each chapter of "The Silmarillion", but with visual aids, like portraits if the characters, maps, and family trees. I'll be honest, I had a blast listening to it. I even liked "Of Beleriand and its Realms".
What's it called?
If you can survive book 1 of malazan then you can survive the entire silmarillion
I once read two thirds of the Silmarillion then never opened the book again like four years ago
Decades ago, I had to read it several times to get everything straight. It's so much easier to read books like this now, though, because there are excellent fan wikis for reference while reading, haha. Not to mention e-books with search capabilities. I love the information age.
There's a reason it took me four attempts to get through The Silmarillion.
I have read lotr once (while i had a fever), read the hobbit once and had both read to me once. (No movies)
My brother's special interest is Tolkien, i will know most of the silmarillion, whether i want to or not.
In practice it mean im learning the mythology the way mythology should be, in disconected short stories over a meal, during long journeys, while listing to songs written on the mythology (but occasionally at 2am when i go for a glass of water )
Feanor did nothing wrong
Remember Losgar. Never forget Losgar.
Most fans say: yeah i wanted to read, couldn't do it, i'll try again some day
It’s really daunting but also very beautiful!
I didn't begin to understand it until my second reading, but it wasn't until the third or fourth readings that I finally got the names and places all figured out.
It's basically like 15 copies of the Lord of the Rings compressed and smushed together
“And then you have to write down the first chapter of the book in circular Galifreyan…”
You don’t need a PHD in medieval literature. You just need parents who give you mythology books, a translation of Beowulf, and translations of some of the sagas.
And a map of Beleriand.
@ Good point.
Chapter 14 is literally the best
I'm almost halfway through the Quenta Silmarillion and I'm good so far...
Edit. Haven't started chapter 14 yet. Wish me luck (I'm reading another book right now, will come back to it later)
@alejandroalcalarodriguez chapter 14 isn't that bad. My edition came with a map in that chapter that shows which kingdom was from who, and where they were located.
I have a friend who spent a year in a psychiatric institution after a severe depression and multiple SAs. The only books there were a bunch of dumb shit, and the Simarillion. One day he told me that after reading it three times because there was nothing else to do, he ended up feeling crazier than he ever felt before.
He's fine now, kinda. But not thanks to Tolkien.
When you said "quixotic" with that accent, I think I may have died.
Morgoth, y’know like da Devil…from da Bible
Just as there are people who soon after you meet them will tell you that they ride a Ducati, so there are people who soon after you meet them will tell you they've read the Silmarillion.
It was never about the difficulty...
it's about the GATEKEEPING!
A little summary 😂
A Guy Who Sang Out Of The Tune Brought Many Problems
I have read the Hobbit and then Silmarillion ... I'd say it was kinda hard to read and I remember even less.
Its surprisingly small tbh, because it condenses a lot of lore into so few pages.
Its good tho, very good, its like you are reading greek/biblical/hindu mythology of some long lost culture, written by philosophers and poets of that culture.
Also i did read it before the trilogy
Silmarillion is hard to read only first five times you are reading it :)
It's been 3 years and I'm still just 1/5th through it. I can't do it man I don't have a habit of taking down notes when I read
I adore the lotr but I have the type of ADHD that is absolutely unable to deal with Tolkiens writing (the hobbit, a kids book, took me 3 tries to finish), so while I've read the lotr a million times by now, I have attempted and failed at the Silmarillion just as often. it just completely fries my brain!
I finally caved and got the ebook version to read at night to help me fall asleep 😂 it's a win win! I fall asleep faster, /and/ I make (albeit slow) progress in a book I've wanted to finish for a decade. plus I can look up the names with the search function!
so yeah I am the Tolkien fan in this video, but really only because thats genuinely how reading the book is for me xD but it has over 30k fics on ao3 for a reason! these elves sure can drama! it's fun despite it all xD
"Do you like going through Dark Souls item description?"
So, basically we just want to belong to the elite Tolkien geek smarty-pants semi-Elvish literate club, and keep the common folk out of Valinor for fear of Eru smiting the world.
The vicious cycle 😅
Also a good reminder to finally read the Silmarillion this year.
The Silmarillion is great! Everyone should read it!
THIS IS HILARIOUS OH MY GOD
A fun activity to do while reading the Simarillion is to type new names and places and named events into Google Images und look at all the amazing art this book has inspired. Especially DeviantArt is full of beautiful art for the most obscure parts of the book.
This video just makes me want to read it a second time… but only under the light of the stars on the shores of Cuiviénen.
Reading my dad's first American edition of The Silmarillion in the summer between 7th and 8th grades (2004) made me want to be a writer and probably changed the structure of my brain. 😂 I read it at least 3 times in those months, took notes in gel pen for no reason but my own pedantic enthusiasm, and started practicing tengwar on every writing surface I touched. My 8th grade trapper keeper is covered in it. So were most of my school notebooks.
I wouldn't call it an easy read, especially if someone isn't used to an older literary style or following a non-linear narrative, but it isn't undecipherable. I quite like discussing it with first time readers as they go along, especially as they realize how batshit the Elves were before they chilled way the hell out in the Third Age.
The Silmarillion is what got me into reading real history. Jump from there to the Thucydides. It's seamless.