The Silmarillion

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This article is about the book by J. R. R. Tolkien. For the jewels of Tolkien's legendarium, see Silmaril.
The Silmarillion
Image:Silmarillion.JPG
1977 George Allen & Unwin hardback edition.
Author J. R. R. Tolkien
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Genre(s) Alternate history, Fantasy
Publisher Allen & Unwin
Publication date 1977
Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages 365
ISBN 0048231398
Followed by The Hobbit

The Silmarillion is a collection of J. R. R. Tolkien's mythopoeic works, edited and published posthumously by his son Christopher Tolkien in 1977, with assistance from Guy Gavriel Kay,[1] who would later become a noted fantasy fiction writer. It tells of the history of the world in which The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are set.

Contents

[edit] Overview

The Silmarillion comprises five parts:

  1. Ainulindalë ("The Music of the Ainur"[2]) – the creation of Eä, the world
  2. Valaquenta ("Account of the Valar"[2]) – a description of the Valar and Maiar, the supernatural powers in Eä
  3. Quenta Silmarillion ("The History of the Silmarils"[2]) – the history of the events before and during the First Age, which forms the bulk of the collection
  4. Akallabêth ("The Downfallen"[2]) – the history of the Downfall of Númenor and its people, which takes place in the Second Age
  5. Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age – a brief account of the circumstances which led to and were presented in The Lord of the Rings

The five parts were initially separate works, but it was the elder Tolkien's express wish that they be published together.[1] Because J. R. R. Tolkien died before he could fully rewrite the various legends, Christopher gathered material from his father's older writings to fill out the book. In a few cases, he devised completely new material.

The Silmarillion, like Tolkien's other Middle-earth writings, was meant to have taken place at some time in Earth's past.[3] In keeping with this idea, The Silmarillion is meant to have been translated from Bilbo's three-volume Translations from the Elvish, which he wrote while at Rivendell.[4][5]

The Silmarillion, along with other collections of Tolkien's works, such as Unfinished Tales, The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, and The Road Goes Ever On, form a comprehensive, yet incomplete, mythopoeic narrative that describes the universe of Middle-earth within which The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings take place. The History of Middle-earth is a twelve-volume examination of the processes which led to the publication of The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion through looking into J. R. R. Tolkien's initial rough drafts and thorough commentary by Christopher Tolkien.

Among the notable chapters in the book are:

[edit] Synopsis

The Silmarillion
Ainulindalë
Valaquenta
Quenta Silmarillion
Akallabêth
Of the Rings of Power
and the Third Age

[edit] Ainulindalë and Valaquenta

Main articles: Ainulindalë and Valaquenta

The first section of The Silmarillion, Ainulindalë, takes the form of a primary creation myth. Ilúvatar ("Father of All") created the Ainur before anything else, a group of eternal spirits or demiurges, called "the offspring of his thought". Ilúvatar then brought the Ainur together, and showed them a theme, from which he bade the Ainur to make a great music. Melkor—whom Ilúvatar had given the "greatest power and knowledge" of all the Ainur—broke from the harmony of the music to develop his own song. This caused discord and division as some Ainur joined him, while others continued to follow Ilúvatar. The music then stopped, and Ilúvatar showed them all a vision of Arda and its peoples. After a while, the vision disappeared, but Ilúvatar, seeing the desires of the Ainur, brought the vision into being.

Many of the Ainur descended, taking physical form and becoming bound to the new world. The greater Ainur became known as Valar, while the lesser Ainur were called Maiar. The Valar attempted to prepare the world for the coming inhabitants (Elves and Men), while Melkor, who wanted Arda for himself, repeatedly destroyed their work, until, slowly, through waves of destruction and creation, the world took shape.

Valaquenta describes Melkor and each of the fourteen Valar in detail, as well as a few of the Maiar. It also tells how Melkor seduced many Maiar—including Sauron and the Balrogs—into his service.

[edit] Quenta Silmarillion

Main article: Quenta Silmarillion

Quenta Silmarillion, which makes up the bulk of the book, is a series of interconnected tales set in the First Age making up the tragic saga of the three magical jewels, the Silmarils. The Valar had attempted to fashion the world for Elves and Men, but Melkor continually destroyed their handiwork, so they removed to Aman, a continent to the west of Middle-earth. When the Elves awoke, the Valar decided to fight Melkor to keep them safe. They defeated and captured Melkor, and invited the Elves to come to Aman. Many Elves journeyed to Aman, but some did not attempt the journey, and others left along the way. While in Aman, an Elf named Fëanor created the Silmarils, jewels which contained the light of the Two Trees of Valinor, the source of light for Aman. Melkor, having been released after seeming to repent, stole the Silmarils, killed Fëanor's father, and destroyed the Two Trees. Fëanor and his sons swore an oath of revenge against Melkor and anyone who kept a Silmaril from them, and led many of his kin to Middle-earth, where Melkor had fled, killing other Elves for their ships.

When Melkor arrived in Middle-earth, he attacked the Elvish kingdom of Doriath, but was defeated. This battle was the first of five battles between Melkor and the Elves, aided at times by Men and Dwarves. This conflict came to be known as the War of the Jewels. Soon, the Noldor arrived in Middle-earth and attacked Melkor, and though Fëanor was slain, they were victorious. After a peace, Melkor again attacked the Noldor, but was defeated and besieged. Nearly four hundred years later, Melkor broke the siege and drove the Noldor back. A man named Beren survived the battle and wandered to Doriath, where he fell in love with Lúthien, the daughter of the king. The king would only allow their marriage if Beren gave him a Silmaril for a dowry. Together, Beren and Lúthien stole into Melkor's fortress and stole a Silmaril, which Beren gave to the king. The Noldor, seeing that Melkor was not invincible, decided to attack again, but were utterly defeated. All of the Elvish kingdoms fell, until one Elf, using the light of the Silmaril Beren retrieved, travelled across the sea to Aman to ask the Valar for help. The Valar agreed; they attacked and defeated Melkor, completely destroying his fortress and sinking Beleriand, and expelled him from Arda.

[edit] Akallabêth

Main article: Akallabêth

This short section, comprising about thirty pages, recounts the rise and fall of the island kingdom of Númenor, which the Valar granted to the three loyal houses of Men who had aided the Elves in the war against Melkor. Their tragic fate is brought about in large measure by the influence of the evil Maia Sauron (formerly the chief servant of Melkor), who had arisen during the Second Age and tried to take over Middle-earth. The Númenóreans moved against Sauron, who, seeing that he could not defeat the Númenóreans with force, allowed himself to be taken prisoner to Númenor, where he quickly seduced the king, Ar-Pharazôn, led the Númenóreans into worshipping his former master, and urged them to wage war on the Valar themselves. Ar-Pharazôn created a fleet and sailed to Aman, but some Númenóreans remained loyal to the Valar and fled to Middle-earth. The Second Age ended with the destruction of Ar-Pharazôn's fleet and Númenor by Ilúvatar, in punishment for their rebellion against the rightful rule of the Valar. Sauron, however, escaped and returned to Middle-earth.

[edit] Of The Rings of Power and the Third Age

Main article: Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age

The concluding section of the book, comprising about twenty pages, describes the events that take place in Middle-earth after the fall of Melkor and the end of the First Age. It tells of the emergence of the Dark Lord Sauron, the forging of the Rings of Power, and the battles between the peoples of Middle-earth and Sauron, culminating in the War of the Last Alliance, in which Elves and the remaining Númenóreans united to defeat Sauron, after which the One Ring passed to Isildur. This section also gives a brief overview of the events leading up to and taking place in The Lord of the Rings, including the waning of Gondor, the re-emergence of Sauron, the White Council, and Sauron's final destruction along with the One Ring.

[edit] Concept and creation

[edit] Development of the text

Tolkien first began working on the stories that would become The Silmarillion in 1914,[6] intending them to become an English mythology, which would explain the origins of English history and culture.[7] Much of it was written while Tolkien, then a British officer returned from France during World War I, was in hospitals and on sick leave.[8] He completed the first story, The Fall of Gondolin, in late 1916.[9]

At the time, he called his collection of nascent stories The Book of Lost Tales,[10] which became the name for the first two volumes of The History of Middle-earth. The stories in The Book of Lost Tales were told through the medium of a mariner named Eriol (in later versions, an Anglo-Saxon named Ælfwine) who found the island of Tol Eressëa, where the Elves told him their history.[11] However, Tolkien never completed The Book of Lost Tales before he left it to compose the poems "The Lay of Leithian" and "The Lay of the Children of Húrin".[10]

The first complete version of The Silmarillion was the 'Sketch of the Mythology' written in 1926.[12] The 'Sketch of the Mythology' was a 28-page synopsis intended to explain the background of the story of Túrin to R. W. Reynolds, a friend to whom Tolkien had sent several of his stories.[12] From the 'Sketch' Tolkien developed a fuller narrative version of The Silmarillion called Quenta Noldorinwa.[13] The Quenta Noldorinwa was the last complete version of The Silmarillion Tolkien ever wrote.[13]

In 1937, encouraged by the success of The Hobbit, Tolkien submitted an incomplete but more fully developed version of The Silmarillion, called Quenta Silmarillion, to his publisher, George Allen & Unwin,[10] but they rejected the work as being obscure and "too Celtic".[14] The publisher instead asked Tolkien to write a sequel to The Hobbit.[14] He renewed work on The Silmarillion after completing The Lord of the Rings,[15] and he greatly desired to publish the two works together.[16] But when it became clear that would not be possible, Tolkien turned his full attention back to preparing The Lord of the Rings for publication.[17]

In the late 1950s Tolkien again began work on The Silmarillion, but much of his writing from this time was more concerned with the theological and philosophical underpinnings of the work than with narratives themselves; by this time, he had doubts about some of the fundamental aspects of the work that went back to the earliest versions of the stories, and it seems that he felt the need to solve these problems before he could produce the "final" version of The Silmarillion.[15] During this time he wrote extensively on such topics as the nature of evil in Arda, the origin of Orcs, the customs of the Elves, the nature and means of Elvish rebirth, and the "flat" world and the story of the Sun and Moon.[15] In any event, with one or two exceptions, he wrought little change to the narratives during the remaining years of his life.[15]

[edit] Posthumous publication

This section does not cite any references or sources.
Please improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. (August 2007)

For several years after his father's death, Christopher Tolkien compiled a Silmarillion narrative. Christopher's intentions seem to have been mostly to use the latest writings of his father's that he could,[citation needed] and to keep as much internal consistency (and consistency with The Lord of the Rings) as possible,[18] though he admitted that a complete consistency was impossible.[1] As explained in The History of Middle-earth, Christopher drew upon numerous sources for his narrative, relying on post-Lord of the Rings works where possible, but ultimately reaching back as far as the 1917 Book of Lost Tales to fill in portions of the narrative which his father had planned to write but never addressed. In one later chapter of Quenta Silmarillion which had not been touched since the early 1930s he had to construct a narrative practically from scratch. The final result, which included genealogies, maps, an index, and the first-ever released Elvish word list, was published in 1977.

Image:SilmarillionBook LR.jpg
Cover design for the second illustrated edition, as illustrated by Ted Nasmith (ISBN 0-618-39111-8)

Due to Christopher's extensive explanations (in The History of Middle-earth) of how he compiled the published work, much of The Silmarillion has been debated by readers. Christopher's task is generally accepted as very difficult given the state of his father's texts at the time of his death: some critical texts were no longer in the Tolkien family's possession, and Christopher's task compelled him to rush through much of the material. Christopher reveals in later volumes of The History of Middle-earth many divergent ideas which do not agree with the published version. Christopher Tolkien has suggested that, had he taken more time and had access to all the texts, he might have produced a substantially different work. But he was compelled by considerable pressure and demand from his father's readers and publishers to produce something publishable as quickly as possible. Some contend that parts of The Silmarillion are more a product of the son than of the father, and as such its place in the Middle-earth canon is hotly debated.

In October 1996, Christopher Tolkien commissioned illustrator Ted Nasmith to create full-page full-colour artwork for the first illustrated edition of The Silmarillion. It was published in 1998, and followed in 2004 by a second edition featuring corrections and additional artwork by Nasmith.

During the 1980s and 1990s, Christopher Tolkien published most of his father's Middle-earth-related writings as the 12-volume The History of Middle-earth series.

In addition to the source material and earlier drafts of several portions of The Lord of the Rings, these books greatly expand on the original material published in The Silmarillion, and in many cases diverge from it. There is much that Tolkien intended to revise but only sketched out in notes, and some new texts surfaced after the publication of The Silmarillion. These books also make it clear just how unfinished the later parts of The Silmarillion really were: some parts were never rewritten after the early versions in Lost Tales.

[edit] Influences

The Silmarillion is a complex work that has been influenced by many sources. Possibly the largest influence on The Silmarillion was the Finnish epic Kalevala, especially the tale of Kullervo. Tolkien admitted that he had been "greatly affected" by Finnish mythologies,[19] and even credited Kullervo's story with being the "germ of [his] attempt to write legends".[20] Tolkien attempted to rework the story of Kullervo into a story of his own, and though he never finished,[21] similarities to the story can still be seen in the tale of Túrin Turambar.[22]

The Silmarillion is occasionally influenced by Greek mythology. For instance, the island of Númenor is reminiscent of Atlantis.[23] Both were great island civilisations in the West which disappeared into the sea due to a cataclysmic event. The names are also similar: the Elvish name for Númenor is Atalantë.[24] The similarity fits with Tolkien's literary pose that his 'mythology' is part of the real world's overall history and not invented by him.[25]

Another example of the influence of Greek mythology is the Valar, who somewhat resemble the Olympian gods.[26] The Valar, like the Olympians, live in the world, but on a high mountain, separated from mortals;[27] the Olympians live on Mount Olympus, while the Valar live on Taniquetil. The realms of some Valar also resemble those of the Olympians; Ulmo, Lord of the Waters, is similar to Poseidon, and Manwë, the Lord of the Air and King of the Valar, may be similar to Zeus.[26] However, other Valar lack Olympian counterparts and, except for Melkor, all the Valar particularly lack the Olympians' petty or human-like motivations.

The Valar also contain elements of Norse mythology. Several of the Valar have characteristics similar to the Æsir, the gods of Asgard.[28] An example of this is Thor, one of the physically strongest of the gods, who can be seen in both Oromë, who fights the monsters of Melkor, and Tulkas, the physically strongest of the Valar.[29] Manwё, as the head of the Valar, also contains similarities to Odin, the "Allfather".[29]

The division between the Calaquendi (Elves of Light) and Moriquendi (Elves of Darkness) was also influenced by Norse mythology, which has its own Light elves and Dark elves.[30] Further, the Light elves of Norse mythology are associated with the gods, and the Calaquendi are associated with the Valar.[31]

A traditional Christian understanding of the Bible is probably the deepest influence on The Silmarillion. Tolkien was a devout Roman Catholic. The conflict between Melkor and Eru Ilúvatar parallels the one between Lucifer and God.[32] Further, The Silmarillion tells of the creation and fall of the elves, similar to the way Genesis tells of the creation and fall of man, making The Silmarillion a sort of "'Bible' for the elves".[33] As with all of Tolkien's works, The Silmarillion allows room for later Christian history, and one of Tolkien's related writings even has Finrod, a Silmarillion character, speculating on the necessity of Eru's (God's) eventual Incarnation to save humankind.[34]

It has also been suggested that Celtic mythology influenced The Silmarillion. The exile of the Noldorin elves resembles the story of the Tuatha Dé Danann.[35] The Tuatha Dé Danann, semi-divine beings, invaded Ireland from across the sea, burning their ships when they arrived and fighting a fierce battle with the current inhabitants. The Noldor arrived in Middle-earth from Valinor and burned their ships, then turned to fight Melkor. The Tuatha Dé Danann are also described similarly to the Noldor.[35] This is seen by some as unlikely, though, since Tolkien wrote in a 1937 letter that he felt "a certain distaste" for Celtic legends, "largely for their fundamental unreason".[14]

[edit] Critical response

Contemporary reviews of The Silmarillion were rather negative. The Silmarillion was criticised for being too serious, lacking the light-hearted moments that were found in The Lord of the Rings and especially The Hobbit.[36][37][38] TIME complained that there was "no single, unifying quest and, above all, no band of brothers for the reader to identify with".[36] Other criticisms included difficult to read archaic language[39][40][41] and many difficult and hard to remember names.[39][42]

Despite these shortcomings, a few reviewers praised the scope of Tolkien's creation. The New York Times Book Review acknowledged that "what is finally most moving is … the eccentric heroism of Tolkien's attempt".[37] TIME described The Silmarillion as "majestic, a work held so long and so power fully in the writer's imagination that it overwhelms the reader".[36] The Horn Book Magazine even lauded the "remarkable set of legends conceived with imaginative might and told in beautiful language".[43]

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.[39] The School Library Journal called it "only a stillborn postscript" to Tolkien's earlier works.[38] Peter Conrad of The New Statesman even went so far as to say that "Tolkien can't actually write".[44]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b c (Silmarillion 1977, Foreword)
  2. ^ a b c d (Silmarillion 1977, Index of Names)
  3. ^ (Carpenter 1981, #165, 211)
  4. ^ (Tyler 2004, p. 583)
  5. ^ (Chance 2004, pp. 85-86)
  6. ^ (Carpenter 1981, #115)
  7. ^ (Carpenter 1981, #131, 180)
  8. ^ (Carpenter 1981, #165, 180, 282)
  9. ^ (Carpenter 1981, #163, 165)
  10. ^ a b c J. R. R. Tolkien (1984), Christopher Tolkien, ed., The Book of Lost Tales, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, Foreword, ISBN 0-395-35439-0
  11. ^ J. R. R. Tolkien (1984), Christopher Tolkien, ed., The Book of Lost Tales, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, Chapter I, "The Cottage of Lost Play", ISBN 0-395-35439-0
  12. ^ a b J. R. R. Tolkien (1985), Christopher Tolkien, ed., The Lays of Beleriand, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, Chapter I, "The Lay of the Children of Húrin", ISBN 0-395-39429-5
  13. ^ a b J. R. R. Tolkien (1986), Christopher Tolkien, ed., The Shaping of Middle-earth, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, Preface, ISBN 0-395-42501-8
  14. ^ a b c (Carpenter 1981, #19)
  15. ^ a b c d J. R. R. Tolkien (1993), Christopher Tolkien, ed., Morgoth's Ring, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, Foreword, ISBN 0-395-68092-1
  16. ^ (Carpenter 1981, #124)
  17. ^ (Carpenter 1981, #133)
  18. ^ J. R. R. Tolkien (1980), Christopher Tolkien, ed., Unfinished Tales, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, Introduction, ISBN 0-395-29917-9
  19. ^ (Carpenter 1981, #131)
  20. ^ (Carpenter 1981, #257)
  21. ^ (Carpenter 1981, #1, footnote 6)
  22. ^ (Chance 2004, pp. 288-292)
  23. ^ (Carpenter 1981, #154, 227)
  24. ^ (Silmarillion 1977, p. 281)
  25. ^ J. R. R. Tolkien (April 1, 1987), The Fellowship of the Ring, vol. 1, The Lord of the Rings, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, "Note on the Shire Records", ISBN 0-395-08254-4
  26. ^ a b Purtill, Richard L. (2003). J. R. R. Tolkien: Myth, Morality, and Religion. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 52, 131. ISBN 0-89870-948-2. 
  27. ^ Stanton, Michael (2001). Hobbits, Elves, and Wizards: Exploring the Wonders and Worlds of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 18. ISBN 1-4039-6025-9. 
  28. ^ Garth, John (2003). Tolkien and the Great War: The Threshold of Middle-earth. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 86. 
  29. ^ a b (Chance 2004, p. 169)
  30. ^ (Flieger 2002, p. 83)
  31. ^ (Burns 2005, pp. 23-25)
  32. ^ (Chance 2001, p. 192)
  33. ^ Bramlett, Perry (2003). I Am in Fact a Hobbit: An Introduction to the Life and Works of J. R. R. Tolkien. Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, 86. ISBN 0-86554-851-X. 
  34. ^ Morgoth's Ring, Athrabeth Finrod Ah Andreth, pp. 322, 335
  35. ^ a b Fimi, Dimitra (August 2006). "Mad" Elves and "Elusive Beauty": Some Celtic Strands of Tolkien's Mythology 6-8. Retrieved on 2007-09-01.
  36. ^ a b c Foote, Timothy (24 October 1977), "Middle-Earth Genesis", Time 110: 121, <http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,915707,00.html>
  37. ^ a b Gardner, John (23 October 1977), "The World of Tolkien", The New York Times Book Review, <http://www.nytimes.com/1977/10/23/books/tolkien-silmarillion.html>
  38. ^ a b Hurwitz, K. Sue (December 1977), School Library Journal 24 (4): 66
  39. ^ a b c Adams, Robert M. (24 November 1977), "The Hobbit Habit", The New York Review of Books 24 (19): 22, <http://www.nybooks.com/articles/8321>
  40. ^ Brookhiser, Richard (9 December 1977), "Kicking the Hobbit", National Review 29 (48): 1439-1440
  41. ^ Jefferson, Margo (24 October 1977), Newsweek 90: 114
  42. ^ Yamamoto, Judith T. (1 August 1977), Library Journal 102 (14): 1680, ISSN 0363-0277
  43. ^ Cosgrave, M. S. (April 1978), The Horn Book Magazine 54: 196
  44. ^ Conrad, Peter (23 September 1977), The New Statesman 94: 408

[edit] References

[edit] See also

Middle-earth Portal

[edit] External links

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