#AtoZ Challenge: S Is For Silmarillion

Today’s topic in my fantasy and SF theme is The Silmarillion by J.R.R Tolkien. This is his series of stories about Middle-Earth from its beginning - literally. It goes from the creation to the end of the Second Age. It’s the one he really wanted published, after the success of The Hobbit, but publishers said, “Couldn’t we have more about Hobbits?” This time, the publishers were right, so we got The Lord Of The Rings, a classic that has delighted generations of readers since it first came out. 

This is a book for passionate fans, not first-timers. Anyone who picked it up because they read The Hobbit as a child would be very puzzled. I admit it took me years to get into it, till a friend assured me that while the first chapter was slow, the rest was wonderful. And she was right. 

It didn’t come out till after his death, and it needed completing and editing. This task was undertaken by Tolkien’s son, Christopher, and Guy Gavriel Kay, a fantasy novelist who has done some gorgeous alternative universe novels in his own right. 

In The Silmarillion, we first meet characters who are mentioned or appear in The Lord Of The Rings. We find out how that quarrel started between the Wood Elves(Legolas’s people)and the Dwarves, over a necklace which had one of the gems known as the Silmarils in it - a quarrel mentioned in passing in The Hobbit. We meet Sauron, who is merely a sidekick at the time, to Morgoth, the original Dark Lord, and looks more or less human. We learn that beautiful Elf lady Galadriel is in exile on Middle-Earth after doing something she really shouldn’t have done, and regrets deeply. We know some of that from LOTR, true, but not why - this book tells you why.

It begins with the gods, who serve Illuvatar, the creator God, singing in chorus and the world being created as they sing. A much nicer beginning to the world than cutting bits off gods and throwing them around, I rather think.

Morgoth, the original Satan of Middle-Earth, is one of them and he first gets into trouble because he is really not a team player. As the gods sing, he decides he can do better than that tune created by Illuvatar and sings his own tune, marring the original. Fortunately they turn his negatives into positives, such as cold into the beauty of snow. But this is just the start of his misbehaviour, and he becomes the big villain of the stories. 

We meet the Elvish artist Feanor, who made the Silmarils. He is a bit of a nutcase and obsessed with Galadriel’s hair! He asks her for a strand of it and she says no, showing she has taste. (In LOTR, she gives three of her golden hairs to Gimli, whose motives for wanting them are pure). He starts up huge fights among the Elves - and by the way, Tolkien’s Elves are murderous folk, pretty as they are, in the early Ages. The poor things can’t even die properly; when an Elf is killed, he or she goes to the Halls of Mandos to wait for a while, then returns to Middle-Earth. No wonder they don’t worry about killing each other. 

Middle-Earth’s Atlantis, Numenor, is here also. The kings of Numenor had long lives as their first King was Elrond’s brother, Elros, who had chosen to live as a mortal, while Elrond chose the life of an Elf. But the people of Numenor become more and more arrogant and are eventually drowned, though the good guys escaped and settled in Middle-Earth. Apparently the world was once flat, and you could get to the Undying Lands of the gods by ship, before an attempted invasion of the gods’ territory. So they made the world round and closed off the pathway to the gods’ home, though Elves can still go there when they have had enough of life - and Frodo and Bilbo and Sam Gamgee, all Ringbearers, got to go there. Gimli the Dwarf also goes with his friend Legolas. 

We learn the origins of the Dwarves. The smith god created them. When Illuvatar pointed out that only he should be creating life, the god apologised. Illuvatar gave them souls, but said they must sleep till the Elves have arrived. This is where it gets amusing, because the Fathers of the Fathers of the Dwarves are put to sleep, but there is no mention yet of any Mothers... I think this must have eventually occurred to Tolkien, because another version of the story does mention them. But it was funny! 

There is the story of the lovers Beren and Luthien, who meet while she is dancing in the moonlight. He is a mortal, she is an Elf. Unlike her descendant Arwen, she doesn’t just sit around sewing a banner for her man. When he is captured by Dark Lord Morgoth and thrown into his dungeons, she goes to the rescue, using her brain, not her fighting abilities. There’s a bit of humour here too. Luthien’s father demands that, as the price of their marriage, he steal a Silmarils from Morgoth’s crown, which is how he was captured in the first place. The wording is that he must bring back a Silmaril in his hand. It’s in his hand when the hand is bitten off by a wolf. So he brings the wolf back and points out that he has indeed brought back a Silmaril in his hand...

These characters were very important to Tolkien, who got the idea for them when his wife, Edith, danced in the forest. If I recall rightly, their tombstones have the names “Beren” and “Luthien” carved on them. 

You do need patience to read this book. It’s not easy reading. But it’s worth the effort - the Appendices of LOTR do give you some information, but not as much as this. It’s interesting to read LOTR, then this, then, perhaps, reread LOTR. When you reread, you will find extra depth in the characters who appeared in The Silmarillion. 

Have you read this book? What did you think?