From the very beginning, one of the Ainur has evil intentions, and Melkor (aka Morgoth) swiftly becomes the Big Bad who lurks throughout this entire history, darkening all that the others create. His presence sows the seed of good vs evil, and suddenly this fancy new world is marred into something tragically more recognisable and honestly far more interesting. This was an interesting read, though I admit that it was one of the most difficult books that I read. What is amazing is the thoroughness that is displayed by Tolkien in creating this mythological world, the characters - Elves, Men, Dwarfs, Gods, Dark lord, and his creatures. The main characters being Elves and Men are described to the minutest detail including their different races and their descendants. It is really impressive. I have read that Tolkien always felt the absence of British lore and had felt the need to remedy the defect. I think his works quite compensate for that absence. Tolkien’s most popular works, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are set in Middle-earth, an imagined world with strangely familiar settings inhabited by ancient and extraordinary peoples. Through this secondary world Tolkien writes perceptively of universal human concerns – love and loss, courage and betrayal, humility and pride – giving his books a wide and enduring appeal.

Successive generations have been spellbound by the exploits of Frodo, Gandalf and their comrades as they journey towards Mordor to do battle with the Dark Lord Sauron. Tolkien fue un genial filólogo y escritor. Pero también fue un humanista y filosofo de primera. Todo esto desemboco en que su romanticismo innato se contrapusiera a la dureza del mundo en el que le toco vivir, del cual no podía escapar. Esta lucha interna se dió de la mano con su gran capacidad creadora para crear uno de los mundos y legados fantásticos y ficticios más hermosos y mejor construidos de toda la historia. Un mundo que a día de hoy sorprende, sobrecoge y enamora a partes iguales a todos sus lectores. Incluso aquellos que ya lo conocen de antes no pueden dejar de enamorarse de la Tierra Media cada vez que vuelven a Tolkien. Ahora tengo muchas ganas de seguir con este autor, especialmente de leer los libros a mayores sobre (como no) “Los hijos de Húrin “y “Beren y Lúthien”. After almost reluctantly publishing The Hobbit and very reluctantly writing and publishing its sequel The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien could finally concentrate on what he actually wanted to do: to complete his collection of tales on the mythology and origins of Arda, often just referred to as Middle-Earth. The result, though published after the great man himself had passed away, became The Silmarillion Actually, I am surprised at the low grade this has here on Goodreads. The only explanation I have for it is the fact that a lot of readers search for instant gratification these days. Sad really. It is true though that if you want to read this Tolkien epic, you need patience and attention. But it is soooooo worth it!

So in that place which was called Losgar at the outlet of the Firth of Drengist ended the fairest vessels that ever sailed the sea, in a great burning, bright and terrible. And Fingolfin and his people saw the light afar off, red beneath the clouds; and they knew that they were betrayed.

That´s how worldbuilding has to be done the ultimate overachiever way. The only true one, the writing a life long on it mode, the one narrative style to rule them all.

Might also be handy if one is into LARPG and wants to impress the hot elves with nerdiness so concentrated that it takes control over the brain applying it, whispering to the mind about seductive levels of fandom indistinguishable from complete loss of perception of reality. The book also includes several shorter works: the Ainulindalë, a myth of the Creation, and the Valaquenta, in which the nature and powers of each of the gods is described. The Akallabêth recounts the downfall of the great island kingdom of Númenor at the end of the Second Age, and Of the Rings of Power tells of the great events at the end of the Third Age, as narrated in The Lord of the Rings. So I was asking myself - Jen, how do you review the Silmarillion? How do you review the events of thousands of years of heavily condensed material and make it palatable that this is in fact, a classic and a must for all Tolkien fans? Other well-known names of "Lord of the Rings", such as "Elrond" and "Galadriel" are also heroes of part of a short story in this book.

J.R.R. Tolkien turns the world-building knob all the way up to 11 in The Silmarillion, which is a masterclass in high fantasy. 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! 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. But some of the best and most successful fantasy and sci-fi writers do it in a similar way, invent extremely detailed universes with cultures, fractions, detailed geography, etc. often inspired by the behemoths that came before them or mythology. It seems to be the necessary and intelligent effort to be able to live in these worlds and thereby describe them in a way impossible for the ones who just write without true passion and obsession. It must be a kind of wonderful fusion of learning the self made theory, internalizing the world, fusing protagonists, worldbuilding, and plot, and in this way intensifying the flow and pleasure of creation. Just as I do it with my deeply disturbing cosmic body horror extreme terror sci fi nightmare fuel visions, sigh.

This edition also includes a foldout National Geographic-style map and a comprehensive glossary of characters, locations, and languages. Relevant family trees are also included.

Tolkien could not publish The Silmarillion in his lifetime, as it grew with him, so he would leave it to his son, Christopher Tolkien, to edit the work from many manuscripts and bring his father’s great vision to publishable form, so completing the literary achievement of a lifetime. This special edition presents anew this seminal first step towards mapping out the posthumous publishing of Middle-earth, and the beginning of an illustrious forty years and more than twenty books celebrating his father’s legacy. On a similar note, a special edition of The Lord of the Rings Illustrated Edition has just been published in the US. It includes the full text of The Lord of the Rings, plus full-color illustrations and fold-out maps. El Silmarillion”, al igual que el resto de obras de Tolkien, no es un libro para leer con prisas. Y no solo por la forma de narrar de su autor, plácida y lenta, con ritmo pausado y recreándose en los detalles y en las descripciones. También porque en la obra se encadenan muchos episodios de todo tipo y condición, protagonizados por toda una horda de personajes de diferentes razas. Creo que nunca he agradecido más en mi vida que en la parte de atrás de un libro hubiera árboles genealógicos y listados de personajes, ya que me he pasado toda la lectura consultándolos. Y también la existencia de wikias hechas por los fans en las que se explicaba más detenidamente que era cada lugar, cada objeto o cual era la historia de cada uno de los personajes. 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. It was cold. And deep. And dark. It took a while to feel my limbs. It took even longer to get my arms and legs moving, but I soon found I was OK: Still breathing and able to dog paddle.Shall we mourn here deedless forever a shadow-folk mist-haunting dropping vain tears in the thankless sea?” Of the Rings of Power and The Third Age (basically a summary of what happened in The Hobbit, LOTR and a bit before that) Unique to this edition are two poster-size, fold-out maps revealing all the detail of Beleriand as the tales grew, an illustrated booklet featuring 'A Brief Account of The Silmarillion and its Making' by Christopher Tolkien, and a printed art card reproducing 'Taniquetil'.