I'm enjoying it as much as I did upon my last re-read, which prompted me to revisit my old "Blogging the Silmarillion" series for the Cimmerian website.
Back when I was writing for The Cimmerian I used to run part of the post here and link to the rest. Unfortunately that has resulted in incomplete posts after that site was radically overhauled. Time to correct that by posting the full text here, which I fortunately retained.
Here's the series introduction, Cimmerian sighting: Blogging The Silmarillion.
I'll post the others as I work my way through the text, and possibly add a little additional commentary.
6 comments:
"The Silmarillion" is my next-to-favorite Tolkien work, losing only to the tragic saga "The Children of Hurin".
The Children of Hurin is great, it presages ASOIAF and all of grimdark (but better IMO).
I love ASOIAF, but I also prefer "The Children of Húrin". But I think they're quite different, really. "The Children of Húrin" is like a norse saga, a tragic epopee. No wonder its first version is in verse. ASOIAF is Historical Fiction, except the History it's based on is imaginary and fantastical.
I'd agree they are quite different (and come from two very different creators). I was not very precise but what I meant was the idea of grim and dark fantastic fiction, whose creation some place at the feet of GRRM, was already being done by Tolkien.
Yes, that's true. What's also very interesting about it, in my view, is that ASOIAF is grim and dark because History is grim and dark. In other words, ASOIAF is grim and dark because it's realistic. "The Children of Húrin" isn't realistic at all. "The Children of Húrin" is grim and dark because tragic norse sagas are grim and dark. That's why, for all it's "grimness and darkness", it has grandeur and nobility (which ASOIAF lacks) and lacks sordidness (which ASOIAF has).
Agreed (to a degree) anonymous... Children of Hurin is not a mirror on reality by any means, but there are very genuine/timeless/realistic wellsprings of human emotion in it. And while I also agree ASOIAF is more "realistic" it also seems to be missing elements of real life--laughter, goodness, grace. These are part of my life at least, along with the darkness and horror in the world.
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