The Silmarillion

Product Information

Don´t expect anything similar to Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit, this is Tolkiens´s self made manual, the extreme, pedantic, perfected expansion of the wonderful addendums that make general high fantasy with all its maps and sci-fi timelines and tech trees with astronomical maps so amazing. Well, maybe I don't feel *THAT* bad. I mean, it is DAMN full of names and genealogies and it's probably a bit worse than having to slog through the Iliad for all that. All that remains is to refer you to my little collection of quotes and artwork from the most important scenes of the book. Most of you have already seen it, but for those who haven’t, please have a look: Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:

The Silmarillion was not an easy read and the first half of the book was completely not fun at all to read. Due to the nature of writing style, there were also a lot of events that could’ve worked so much better rather than making me feel so distant. However, this book clearly shows Tolkien’s capability as a pioneer in fantasy world-building. I didn’t even know how rich the lore and history behind Middle-Earth was until I’ve read this one. I highly recommend this book for patient readers and obviously, fans of Tolkien. If you’re not a huge fan of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, I really think that it’s not mandatory for you to push through this book if it’s not working for you. Don't get me wrong, there were a lot of great scenes that really shows Tolkien's imagination at its highest level. But overall, I think I'm left wanting more out of the stories than feeling completely satisfied. A video discussing why you should read The Silmarillion. Many have said it better than myself, but I hope my passion for this collection of wonderful stories can be seen. Why You Should Read The SilmarillionOn a similar note, a special edition of The Lord of the Rings Illustrated Edition has just been published in the US. It includes the full text of The Lord of the Rings, plus full-color illustrations and fold-out maps. This deluxe slipcased edition contains the complete text, which is printed in two colours and features, for the very first time, more than 50 colour paintings, illustrations and designs drawn by J.R.R. Tolkien himself as he composed this epic work. At the heart of the book is the story of the Silmarils. The Silmarils were crafted by Fëanor, the Elven King of the Noldor. These magical jewels contained the essence of the Two Trees of Valinor. Fëanor asked Galadriel, the princess of Noldor and his niece, for a few strands of hair to put in The Silmarils. She refused him. If you remember, she granted the request to Gimli in the Fellowship of the Ring. Actually, I am surprised at the low grade this has here on Goodreads. The only explanation I have for it is the fact that a lot of readers search for instant gratification these days. Sad really. It is true though that if you want to read this Tolkien epic, you need patience and attention. But it is soooooo worth it! After almost reluctantly publishing The Hobbit and very reluctantly writing and publishing its sequel The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien could finally concentrate on what he actually wanted to do: to complete his collection of tales on the mythology and origins of Arda, often just referred to as Middle-Earth. The result, though published after the great man himself had passed away, became The Silmarillion

En esto creo que también tiene mucho que ver el transfondo social, histórico y moral del propio Tolkien, del cual toda su obra es también deudora, bebiendo ampliamente de estas circunstancias. Nada del otro mundo, estos contextos influyen, para bien o para mal, en todos los escritores. La gracia está en ver en cómo lo hace. En el caso de Tolkien no solo vemos una historia que habla sobre la humanidad. También podemos comprobar la forma en que la Primera Guerra Mundial influyó en él, ya que de joven estuvo en el frente (Por cierto, hay un libro que habla de las experiencias en este conflicto junto a las de su amigo C. S. Lewis, creador de “Las Crónicas de Narnia”, y de como les influyo a ambos en sus celebres obras. Libro que tengo, desde hace mucho, ganas de leer también, como no). El sinsentido de la guerra y la capacidad inherente de las personas para realizarla a sangre fría, y para matar a sus semejantes es algo muy presente en todo este libro de una forma descorazonadora. Otro aspecto que también me ha parecido muy interesante es la preocupación del escritor por la ecología y el medio ambiente, la forma en que habla de cómo la industrialización y la falta de cuidado están destrozando los espacios naturales y la tierra. Ideas muy avanzadas para la época en que Tolkien vivió y que demuestran la gran sensibilidad y perspicacia de este autor. The one had leaves of dark green that beneath were as shining as silver, and from each of his countless flowers a dew of silver light was ever falling, and the earth beneath was dappled with the shadows of his fluttering leaves. The other bore leaves of a young green like the new-opened beech; their edges were of glittering gold. Flowers swung upon her branches in clusters of yellow flame, formed each to a glowing horn that spilled a golden rain upon the ground; and from the blossom of that tree there came forth warmth and a great light. These annals, with their brilliantly-etched admixtures of beauty and short-lived heroic triumphs set against an overpowering sense of futility and tragic defeat at the hands of an enemy whose cunning is as deep as the infernal pits of his cavernous dungeons and whose malice engirds the star-kissed world, whose very corruption has been bled into the core of creation itself, were just what were needed to spark a young imagination; Tolkien's private amusements and delights mirrored my own in their fledgling form, and inspired me to tributary tasks of creation that nobody else could understand or appreciate but which gave me immense personal satisfaction. They awoke within me the powerful demiurgical desire to craft worlds, populate them, endow them with their own gods and mythologies, formulate a history, laden it with political systems, the whole works, all in the service of a time-bound fate that culminates in an apocalyptic showdown betwixt the dark and the light. At that point in a person's life, when the complex and inscrutable mathematical rituals and hierarchical causality of all-powerful modern science have immense appeal but few handholds, the prismatic and primal allure of myth and magic, the intuitive interconnectedness of nature with the sorcerously creative will of man, even at that tender age a force struggling to avoid restraint and desperately endeavoring to draw power from those spiritual furnaces deep within, the font of dreams, such tales of heroism and fortitude in the face of the supernatural are, for many, very hard to resist. What's more, the channeling of natural phenomenon into organic spirits with anthropomorphic features and forms offers another intuitively-appealing means to understanding a vast material world that otherwise seems awesomely inexplicable and frighteningly unpredictable. Stories that tap into our innate desire both to be entertained and be edified by human theatre set within the panoramic vistas of a horizon-hid past—Tolkien delivered in spades. Tolkien tells the story of the beginning of Middle Earth and has provided us with a very cool mythology for his creation. We learn about the Valar, the Maiar (of whom Gandolf and Suaron are both members) the tribes of the elves and the fall of the great cities of the Elves in Middle Earth.Tolkien was a professor at the Universities of Leeds and Oxford for almost forty years, teaching Old and Middle English, as well as Old Norse and Gothic. His illuminating lectures on works such as the Old English epic poem, Beowulf, illustrate his deep knowledge of ancient languages and at the same time provide new insights into peoples and legends from a remote past. For the first time ever, a beautiful slipcased edition of the forerunner to The Lord of the Rings, illustrated throughout in colour by J.R.R. Tolkien himself, with the complete text printed in two colours and with many bonus features unique to this edition.