The Silmarillion | Review

3.32/5.00

Published: 1977

Genre: Fantasy

Goodreads

“For if joyful is the fountain that rises in the sun, its springs are in the wells of sorrow unfathomable at the foundations of the Earth.”

Any hardcore fan of LOTR will enjoy this book. It adds a mythology and history to the better known trilogy. If you didn’t like LOTR, however, you won’t find this one any more enjoyable. This is a mythological text, a historical account, not a standard story or epic like LOTR.

I understand criticisms against Tolkien’s works. Many of them are entirely valid. Like Eragon, a large part of my affinity for Tolkien’s works is composed of it being part of my initiation to reading. Though not particularly long, this book took me a long while to finish. At one point, I took a break to read The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao before returning to Tolkien’s world. Of course, college in full swing didn’t help with the time lag, but it is a book that took me a time to drag through. 

Unlike with the usual books that I have to drag through, it isn’t because this was a bad book that I was just determined to finish.

I would suggest reading The Silmarillion after LOTR and The Hobbit.

J.R.R. Tolkien (1892 – 1973) was the English writer and professor best known for his high fantasy series The Lord of the Rings.

“Not all those who wander are lost.”