Cimmerian sighting: Blogging The Silmarillion

Love this image of Maglor, hurling a Silmaril.

Nevertheless it was the work of his heart, which occupied him for far longer than The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings. The better-known works are in a way only offshoots, side-branches, of the immense chronicle/ mythology/legendarium which is the ‘Silmarillion.’

--Thomas Shippey, J.R.R. Tolkien, Author of the Century

Few works of fantasy are as maligned and misunderstood as J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Silmarillion. As the late Steve Tompkins noted, it’s a work that seemed to have been much-purchased upon its 1977 publication but is anecdotally little-read, and is certainly the subject of many strong opinions, both positive and negative. Wikipedia sums up a good portion of the critical response to The Silmarillion upon its release as follows:

Some reviewers, however, had nothing positive to say about the book at all. The New York Review of Books called The Silmarillion "an empty and pompous bore", "not a literary event of any magnitude", and even claimed that the main reason for its "enormous sales" were the "Tolkien cult" created by the popularity of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The School Library Journal called it "only a stillborn postscript" to Tolkien's earlier works. Peter Conrad of the New Statesman even went so far as to say that “Tolkien can't actually write.”

Putting the ridiculousness of “Tolkien can’t actually write” and “a stillborn postscript” aside, there is some truth to the difficulty of reading The Silmarillion. Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey remarks in The Road to Middle-Earth that “it could never be anything but hard to read.” It’s not hard in terms of diction or structure, but rather, as Christopher Tolkien explains in Part One of The Book of Lost Tales, because it “lacks mediation of the kind provided by the hobbits (so, in The Hobbit, ‘Bilbo acts as the link between modern times and the archaic world of dwarves and dragons’).” The second reason is because it is not written as a novel. There is no main character in the foreground through which the story is relayed.

Prompted by the 118th anniversary of Tolkien's birthday and the dawn of the New Year, it’s my intention over the next several weeks to blog about The Silmarillion. I’m re-reading it in its entirety after the interval of several years and thought it would be enjoyable to write down my thoughts, impressions, and observations, and hopefully in the process make a small case for why it’s well-worth reading. I did something similar recently here at The Silver Key while re-reading The Lord of the Rings, and had a lot of fun with it. Please note that I am no self-appointed scholar or expert on Tolkien, just a fan. Writing about that which I read helps to further my own understanding and appreciation of the material.

I’d also like to use these posts to highlight some of the exciting stories to be found in this book, and draw attention to the fact that it can be read for enjoyment. Believe it or not, there are people who enjoy The Silmarillion for the sake of simple reading pleasure (yes, we’re as rare as Third Age Balrogs or Dragons, but we exist). While The Silmarillion serves one purpose as a reference and book of lore for Middle-earth’s history and mythology, including interesting indices that include an elven language reference, it also contains beautiful scenes, breathtaking battles, and visceral stories that pack emotional heft.

Badassery at Gondolin

I will start with a warning: I don’t recommend that anyone who wishes to introduce new readers to Tolkien’s works hand them a copy of The Silmarillion. It may have been Tolkien’s first major work (Christopher Tolkien states in the foreword that the earliest versions can be found in battered notebooks extending back to 1917), and the work of his heart, but it is, in many ways, a difficult read. There is no unifying, plot-driven narrative, and no recurring characters to follow on our journey back to the earliest days of Middle-earth. It also contains its share of foreign names and places with which the reader must cope. In fact, I would actively steer any new Tolkien reader away from The Silmarillion. You certainly don’t need to read it in order to understand and enjoy the events of The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings. These are far superior as introductory works.

That said, I believe that anyone who has read and enjoyed The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings should pursue The Silmarillion as a natural next step in Tolkien’s oeuvre. In its pages are wonders, including how Middle-earth was created, and from whence (or more accurately, from whom) Arda was formed. All of those tantalizing, evocative names of which the characters in The Lord of the Rings give utterance—Sam calling on Elbereth when facing the monstrous Shelob in dark pass of Cirith Ungol, Bilbo singing the tale of Eärendil in the Hall of Fire at Rivendell, Gandalf relaying the tale of Isildur to Frodo in “The Shadow of the Past”— are not only illuminated and revealed, but given breath and life in the pages of The Silmarillion. It also provides the background for the rise of Sauron and the forging of the rings of power, setting the scene for a more rewarding reading of The Lord of the Rings.

Some may fear that reading The Silmarillion may strip Middle-earth of wonder, that its gears and springs will be revealed and its magic dispelled. That’s not so. In fact, I found that reading sections of The Silmarillion and in particular The Children of Húrin (of which a much truncated version is included in The Silmarillion) infused me with a new perspective on Tolkien and his works. Tolkien has been labeled by some wrong-headed critics as “soft” and guilty of succumbing to happy endings. The Silmarillion reveals otherwise. In its pages are darkness and despair, including implacable evil, heartbreaking betrayals, and endless cycles of war. There’s grand triumphs and unearthly beauty to be found, too. In summary, it makes the world we inhabit when we read The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit feel all the more mythic and epic, multi-layered, and real.

Tolkien died before he could finish The Silmarillion and it was published posthumously by his son, Christopher, with help from fantasy novelist Guy Gavriel Kay. I wish Tolkien the elder (Eldar?) had lived long enough to finish it, and flesh out some of the stories that are only presented as sketches. But I am eternally glad that we have The Silmarillion. Middle-earth—and our own world, which are one and the same—are richer, better places for it.