This is a personal introduction to The Silmarillion; it is my own story of how I came to read the book, and what these pages are about.
The Silmarillion is the background story to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. I found the Hobbit in my school libary in 1971 when I was sixteen, finished it and proceeded to read the Lord of the Rings. The first time I read it, I was so amazed by the story that I "bleeped" over all the unfamiliar words and most of the pages of description without losing any of the story line. The second time, I read every page of description and used a dictionary to define each and every word. I did not want to leave a single word of this fascinating book unsavored.
Appendix A at the end of the third book (The Return of the King) cites the The Silmarillion as the source for some of the older tales told in poetry and song; indeed, the Lord of the Rings was only a small span of years in the Third Age of the history of Middle-earth. Many of the heroes and villians began their tales in the First Age, and these are told in The Silmarillion.
J.R.R. Tolkien, the author of the books, died in 1973 with The Silmarillion unpublished. Fortunately, his youngest son Christopher, seeing this book as the most important work of his father's career, gathered together all of the notes and drafts that had been written between 1917 and 1973. J.R.R. Tolkien had worked on this myth most of his life, and had refined it and honed it until the day he died. Christopher edited the book which was finally published in 1977.
Although I re-read The Lord of the Rings every year and even taught myself to write in Elvish, I did not pick up The Silmarillion until about 1989. I made an attempt to read it and ended up skimming much of it, but other than the creation story, I did not remember what I read. By then, Middle-earth drifted into the background as an interest not pursued.
This changed with the movie version of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. With the popularity of the movie, and the availability of the Internet, I found a group of people as enamoured with the story as I was. Much to my chagrin, I was knowledgeable about LOTR, but I lacked all knowledge of The Silmarillion, The Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien and the twelve volume History of Middle-earth. I wanted to rectify the situation, but reading The Silmarillion is like reading the Bible...it takes massive concentration, a map and a genealogy table to keep everything straight. I found much of this information online, but there was something missing. I wanted to be able to go through the book at my own speed, on my own time, with complete comprehension. Merely reading the book didn't work; just like the first time through, I couldn't remember what I read. I didn't have the ti! me to make it into a course of study, asking myself questions and seeking the answers that made it relevant.
I finally found the solution by getting the audio version of The Silmarillion and actually reading along in the book while the English narrator read it to me. All the pronounciation was there keeping me from "bleeping" over the unfamiliar names (which are not in the dictionary), and firmly setting the characters in my mind. I found a genealogy table and a map online. I later found out that the map is found in The Tolkien Bestiary, The Tolkien Encyclopedia and the Characters From Tolkien by David Day. (These are all the same book under different names; you can pick up any of these books online or at your favorite bookstore.)
Using these study aids, I was able to see the relationships of the characters to one another, follow their journeys throughout Middle-earth and compare their location with the locations found in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
After I finished the book, I was again amazed at the breadth of the myth. The Silmarillion is not a fun book nor is it a fairy story. Many of the characters are hard and mean, and few have redeeming qualities. Stupidity does not belong solely to the human race, and in a way, it is interesting to see how a fantasy story portrays the best and worst in the fictional race of the Elves as well as the race of men. I began to talk to other people who were not able to make it through this book...the language construction takes too much concentration or the number of characters with two and three names proved too much to remember. Having gone through the same experience and finally finishing the book, I came to the conclusion that these stories are too good to fall by the wayside.
I decided to put together a synopsis and a study guide. The synopsis will help anyone trying to read the book by giving a summary of the relevant points; the study guide will ask questions to put the books into perspective with insight found in later chapters or in other Tolkien works.
Suggestions are always welcome, and if you are pleased with these first chapters, then grab your copy and follow along if you dare, as I finish The Silmarillion, and then begin The Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth.