This book is the history of Middle-Earth, a history which the characters of The Hobbit and Lord of The Rings look back to. It begins with the creation of the world by Iluvatar, a sort of god that isn't spoken of in LOTR. I think that Tolkien meant Iluvatar, or Eru, to be the God of the earth that he created; with the Valar, lesser beings than Iluvatar, as almost angels. And like Lucifer, there is one "angel," the greatest of the Valar, that falls out of grace with Iluvatar because he wants to be greater than him--Melkor, later known as Morgoth. Morgoth is the being that corrupted Sauron and made him evil, though Morgoth was always more evil and more powerful than Sauron.



This book explains a lot about the elves, a race which is dying out in the Third Age, the time of Frodo and the War of the Ring. The elves were known as the Children of Iluvatar, and men are called the Lesser Children of Iluvatar. The Silmarillion also explains how the dwarves came to be created, but doesn't go into detail as to the origin of peoples like the hobbits.

This book is wonderfully written, more like a history book than a work of fiction. In every page Tolkien's genius shines through, in the beautiful and often tragic stories that are numerous in this book. One of the best and saddest is that of Turin Turambar, whose father was captured by Morgoth when Turin was just a little boy. When Hurin, Turin's father, refused to yield to Morgoth, Morgoth put a curse on him and all his family forever--and the curse falls most heavily on Turin, who is a wanderer and an outcast most of his life, only to end his life by begging his sword to take it.



The book is called "The Silmarillion" because a large part of it speaks of the Silmarils, jewels created by Feanor, the wisest and greatest of all the elves that ever lived. He was the being that called Melkor "Morgoth," the black foe of the world. When the Silmarils are stolen by Morgoth, Feanor and his sons take an oath that whoever keeps the Silmarils from them, whether friend or enemy, elf or Valar, they will war against them to get back the Silmarils. This proves to be the undoing of Feanor, of his family, of his people the Noldor, and eventually of all elves.

If you plan to read all of Tolkien's books, or at least as many as you can get a hold of, this is the best book to read after you've finished with The Hobbit and LOTR. It will definitely make you more knowledgeable as to Middle-Earth and its people, and without many of the words and names you learn by reading this book you'll never understand other books by Tolkien such as "The Shaping of Middle-Earth" or "The Lost Road."



Beside that, I recommend this book as excellent reading, fairly simple (there's a lot of names to keep track of, but the book has a very good index in the back to help you), with some of the best tales you'll ever read. I almost enjoyed this book better than LOTR or The Hobbit, because where in those book Tolkien gives only a taste of what Middle-Earth and the elves were like, this book is full of the beauty and wisdom of the elves.

The last section of The Silmarillion is called "Of The Rings of Power and The Third Age," but Frodo is mentioned only once, in a very short paragraph that sums up the whole trilogy of LOTR. That is, in fact, the only time that Frodo or the hobbits (called "halflings" in this paragraph) is mentioned in the entire book! I found as I read more and more of Tolkien's books that he was interested more in the early ages of Middle-Earth's history, the times when men were truly great and elves much, much greater, than in the Third Age, the age when elves left Middle-Earth to return to Valinor, a sort of "heaven," where the Valar dwelt. As far as I can remember Frodo is only mentioned this one time, in The Silmarillion, in any of Tolkien's books outside of LOTR. Just an interesting little fact I thought I'd mention.

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Created Jul 18, 2003 at 9:55pm • Submit your own review...