The Silmarillion by JRR Tolkien, total gobbledegook

[KeyboardJockey]

We seem to have a few people on here who have read the Silmarillion but what are peoples fave or most impressive or least impressve characters and incidents in the book?

Fave bits are The darkening of Valinor, Beren and Luthien, and the voyage of Earendil amongst others. The creation of the Sun and Moon, the Kinslaying and the journey across the grinding ice aint bad either.

My least fave part of the book is Turin Turambar as he wasa bit of an idiot to let himself get mesmerised by the Dragon into the situations that he got himself in (killing Beleg and getting off with his sister etc etc).

 

[nogoodboyo]

Silmarillion is the backstory to LOTR. It transforms the story of the third age that's in LOTR - everything in it is a shadow of a Silmarillion story.

The first bit is boring, granted, but some of the tales - Beren and Luthien - are classics. I can only guess that people who say it's unreadable have given up a bit early. Skip all the song of the Ainu bollocks and read the later stories.

 

[Jim]

I've dipped in and out of it like a reference book and have probably read it all by now. I would have found it impossible to read it in one go. Its not reallyone book, but a whole back history with lots of tales. I hadn't thought about it before but the bible analogy is quite good. You couldn't read that in one go but its got some good tales inside it. Tolkein apparently wrote a lot of this before he wrote the other books and therfore was the grounwork for them and probably gave them the assuredness of their historical setting that they possess.

Tolkein wrote a very long letter to his publisher which was basically a treatise against allegory. He said he hated it in all its forms. He did admit that writers are bound to be effected by the age they live in a bit but denies doing this consciously. He did say that 'applicability' was a valid concept whereby the reader than apply their own interpretations to things that gave them meaning to them.

 

[tarannau]

Tolkein is a painful writer, bordering on the bloody-mindedly awful in prose terms.

The Hobbit's prose may be the most accessible, but LOTR is just tiresome to me - there's a good yarn in there somewhere, but Tolkein's workmanlike, affected and unnecessarily wordy prose just sends me into utter frustration and boredom after a short while.

Prior to attempting LOTR for the first time I once did briefly look at the Silmarillon. I think it may have set me up to find Tolkein impossibly frustrating in future...

 

[Jim]

can't really agree with wordy. I reckon he fitted more into 1,000 pages of LOTR than Phillip Pullman fitted into 2,000 in his dark materials. It may be a bit archaic in language but he doesn't waste any words at all. You could even say he isn't wordy enough for an easy read.

 

[KeyboardJockey]

can't really agree with wordy. I reckon he fitted more into 1,000 pages of LOTR than Phillip Pullman fitted into 2,000 in his dark materials. It may be a bit archaic in language but he doesn't waste any words at all. You could even say he isn't wordy enough for an easy read.

If you really want to see a wordy writer (verbose in fact) then it's got to be Stephen Donaldson.

But agree tht JRRT fitted a helluva lot in the three vols of LOTR (don't forget the appendices as well).

 

[tarannau]

Interesting take on it Jim. I may need to go and read again- it's been a shocking nearly 15 years since I probably had a proper crack at Tolkein. Which perhaps is a sign how much I disliked his writing back then - it's not as though I haven't read enough fantasy or books in that time.

Perhaps my perception of wordy stems from Tolkein's focus on the dry descriptions and background, rather than the giving a three dimensional feel to the characters. My dominant memory of trying to read Tolkein is one of wrestling with the prose and hating the coldness of it all.

 

[Idaho]

Silmarillion is the boz-boz

I've only read it 3 times though.

Turin is the best. Back then they weren't shy of a scrap. Those 3rd age lot were pussy cats in comparason.