The Silmarillion

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This book is not for everyone. In fact, I would only recommend it to those who have read and loved both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. But I wouldn’t hesitate to call it the greatest masterpiece of worldbuilding the fantasy genre has ever had. Ever they dwindled with the years, until their glory passed, leaving only green mounds in the grass. At length naught was left of them but a strange people wandering secretly in the wild, and other men knew not their homes nor the purpose of their journeys, and save in Imladris, in the house of Elrond, their ancestry was forgotten. The world Tolkien created is absolutely extraordinary, without a doubt. Unfortunately The Silmarillion is written as a long history or mythology of biblical proportions. Name after name, battle after battle, son after son. It was hard to follow. The Silmarillion, along with J.R.R. Tolkien's other works, forms an extensive, though incomplete, narrative that describes the universe of Eä in which are found the lands of Valinor, Beleriand, Númenor, and Middle-earth, within which The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings take place.

Hello, I really want to get myself an edition of the Silmarillion Illustrated by Ted Naismith but I’m not sure which one I should get? Should I get: The Silmarillion 2004 Revised Illustrated Edition by Ted Nasmith or The Silmarillion 2021 (brand new) Illustrated Edition by Ted Nasmith or The Silmarillion 2021 Deluxe Edition Illustrated by Ted Nasmith? Also keep in mind that I really want to get the brand new The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings Illustrated by Alan Lee Box Set which matches with the 2021 Silmarillion Illustrated so that maybe my best option and does the 2021 Silmarillion Illustrated contain more illustrations than the 2004 edition? What do you guys think I should get? The first part, of Eru Iluvatar (God) is clearly inspired by the Christian Old Testament. The music of the Ainur (angels) has one Ainur who thought his voice was better than the rest – Melkor (Satan) and so Eru made the music into the world and fifteen Ainur came to reside in the world, including the troublemaker. OKAY THIS IS MY FAVORITE THING RIGHT NOW AND I'M ACTUALLY IN TEARS THAT I ALREADY FORGOT HALF THE NAMES (I'M WRITING THIS REVIEW ONE MONTH LATE) BUT I'M ALSO FULL OF JOY BECAUSE I KNOW THAT I WILL RE-READ THIS FRIGGIN' MASTERPIECE MANY TIMES THROUGHOUT MY LIFE. The Silmarillion just strikes a chord within me. Whilst I understand how much of the beginning can be seen as dry, I love how this world is constructed, and then so many of the latter stories apart such emotion within me. Beren & Luthien, The Children of Hurin and more! I must admit that I love stats and family trees, so the amount of detail seems like ti was made for me!First, there's The Big Guy, Illuvatar, who brings into being the Ainur, who essentially end up being the gods of this world (The Valar). Then there's the creation of the physical world, and the people destined to inhabit it. It's all described in rather complex detail, so this is not light reading, my friends. Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique: Tolkien devised the history, mythology, culture, and languages (he was an early conlanger) of the many races of Middle Earth in intricate detail, and he was a devout Catholic. There is often a sense of the sacred and profane (“ The Light failed; but the Darkness that followed was more than loss of light.”), but there’s not even passing mention of temples, priests, prayers, rituals, sacraments, or holy texts. The elves come closest, but even so, I find it odd that there are no invocations in the darkest times - on the eve of battle or beside the dying - or thanksgiving at the happiest. 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.

A deluxe slipcased edition of the Silmarillion Illustrated edition – the first volume to include J.R.R. Tolkien’s own illustrations – this edition is a beautiful keepsake for ardent fans and collectors. King Thingol was murdered. Melian returned to Valinor without her husband and daughter. Tolkien's grave has 'Beren' inscribed on it, while his wife Edith's has 'Lúthien.' This was very new and different to me because my only Middle-earth exposure is the Lord of the Rings films and The Hobbit book. There are a lot of charters, places, and concepts that I was unfamiliar with: so I resorted to Youtube videos and Wikipedia to help me along the way. John Ronald Reuel Tolkien: writer, artist, scholar, linguist. Known to millions around the world as the author of The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien spent most of his life teaching at the University of Oxford where he was a distinguished academic in the fields of Old and Middle English and Old Norse. His creativity, confined to his spare time, found its outlet in fantasy works, stories for children, poetry, illustration and invented languages and alphabets.

It gets incredibly confusing, not least because of the multitude of characters but additionally because each character tends to come with several names, and reference to them is not consistent. For the first time ever, a very special edition of the forerunner to The Lord of the Rings, illustrated throughout in colour by J.R.R. Tolkien himself and with the complete text. 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.