J.R.R. Tolkien

A new edition of Tolkien's collection of tales and legends chronicling the world's beginnings and the happenings of the First Age focuses on the theft of the Simarils--the three jewels crafted by Feanor--by Morgoth, first Dark Lord of Middle-earth, and has been revised and expanded to encompass forty-eight color paintings.

The Silmarillion

Terra Ganey

…if they were not increased in happiness, yet they grew more strong, and their rich men ever richer.

Christopher Tolkien

Ted Nasmith

J R R Tolkien's SILMARILLION is the core work of the Middle-earth canon. It is in this dense and often neglected masterpiece that the entire cosmology for the background for THE HOBBIT and, particularly, THE LORD OF THE RINGS is documented.This new paperback volume contains fabulous tales of heroes and monsters, and the history of the Elves and of the Silmarils - the magical jewels produced by the Children of Iluvatar, or Elves (humans being the Younger Children of Iluvatar); it tells of the creation of Middle-earth, and the coming of Men into the world; it chronicles the early battles between good and evil, forces of light and dark, which foreshadow the great conflict with Sauron, the Dark Lord, in LORD OF THE RINGS.These tales of Middle-earth were published posthumously in 1977. Tolkien worked on THE SILMARILLION all his life - long before THE HOBBIT or LORD OF THE RINGS - and his son and literary executor Christopher Tolkien edited the material he left behind into its current form.Complete with a series of full-colour paintings by acclaimed Tolkien artist Ted Nasmith, this sumptuous new edition allows the stories within to really come alive - from the creation of the world and the Tale of Beren and Luthien to the Fall of Numenor and the End of the First Age.

Abby Lane

Anna with an A

The plot of 6 movies fit on 3 pages. This is fantastic read, but the narrative style is very "biblical" - the book tells the story of the world, where the main character is the world itself.

Anton

Pedro Figueiredo

you owe yourself to get through the first chapter. after that (which hurt a bit), the silmarillion turns into this huge genesis which makes the whole middle-earth universe fall into place. and it does it with some of the best stories i've read.

El Silmarillion

Elliot

Il Silmarillion

Silvia Lucchini

Un must per tutti gli appassionati del mondo tolkieniano e per chiunque voglia approfondire la storia che c'è dietro al Signore degli Anelli.
Incredibile come Tolkien abbia disegnato alla perfezioni un universo, a partire dalla sua creazione, fino alla nascita e caduta degli elfi e degli uomini nella Terra di Mezzo. I personaggi sono molteplici, come gli avvenimenti. Eppure, grazie a questo libro, tutto prende una forma precisa e si scoprono le origini e gli avvenimenti che caratterizzano molti personaggi del SdA. 
Si rimane affascinati dalle varie storie, guerre, dai mille nomi, dalla geografia, dalla complessa genealogia che lega elfi e uomini.
Lo definirei un po' la Bibbia del mondo di Tolkien e lettura fondamentale a parer mio. Tutto è presente in questa opera prima.
Bellissimo!

Bilge Ince

Kitabı e-book olarak okumayın çünkü hangi ırk kimden türemiş kim kimin nesi, coğrafik olarak bu canlılar nereden nereye gelmişler görmek isteyeceksiniz bu elektronik olarak okurken oldukça zorluyor. Not alarak okumakta fayda var, tarih çalışır gibi okumayı gerektiriyor. Bunun dışında Türkçe çeviri okuyacaklar dikkatli secsinler kitaplarını ben baya ilerledikten sonra dayanamayarak orjinal versiyona geçiş yaptım.

Martin Shaw

C. J. Daley 

I FINALLY DID IT. I started/got through the first 30-60 pages of this book like literally 12 times. Wow. It is honestly a textbook. 

I most definitely absorbed only 1/26th of this book though. Except for the Numenor stuff because I’ve also read Unfinished Tales. I really liked what I grasped, but this is just a dump of content on Middle-Earth and it can be hard to follow along. I’ll definitely need a round two one day. The new edition illustrated by Ted Nasmith is absolutely beautiful. 

Personally still a 5/5* for me as the fact that Tolkien’s mind could do all that is astounding. Additional thanks to his son...without Christopher, I doubt we’d ever seen this at all.

Ryan LaFerney

How does one review The Silmarillion? It's a stunning feat of imagination that comprised elements of Celtic, Norse, Greek, and Arthurian legends into a new mythology for the land of Britain. It was the life work of a talented man. At its best, it is vivid and breathtaking, full of action, intrigue, beauty, and violence. But it is also incomplete, and at times, a slog to read through with its often archaic language. 

 The Silmarillion is essentially a collection of mythopoeic works by English writer J. R. R. Tolkien, edited and published posthumously by his son, Christopher Tolkien (who in some cases filled in the missing threads), in 1977, with assistance from Guy Gavriel Kay. 

The Silmarillion comprises five parts. The first part, Ainulindalë, tells of the creation of Eä, the "world that is". The Ainulindalë is perhaps my favorite section, as I am a sucker for a good creation story. Valaquenta, the second part, gives a description of the Valar and Maiar, the supernatural powers in Eä. This section helps explains that the Wizards, (like our pal Gandalf) initially known as the Istari, are actually Maiar spirits sent to Middle-earth as human forms to aid the Free Peoples against the threat of Sauron. Neat! The next section, Quenta Silmarillion, which forms the bulk of the collection, chronicles the history of the events before and during the First Age, including the wars over the Silmarils that gave the book its title. This is basically about the rise of the elves and their various clans and the rise of dwarves and men. The fourth part, Akallabêth, relates the history of the Downfall of Númenor and its people, which takes place in the Second Age. The final part, Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age, is a brief account of the circumstances which led to and were presented in The Lord of the Rings.

This is a very influential work of art but I would suggest this book to Tolkien completeists only. I for one am glad I made the journey!

Das Silmarrion

Das war wirklich eine Tortur. Also es ist toll für Leute, die sich für die Hintergründe der LOTR und TROP Welt interessieren und die Geschichte von Mittelerde kennen wollen (wollte ich eigentlich auch), aber ich würde eher fandom wikis etc. Empfehlen. Es hat sich so gezogen! 

Es ist unglaublich biblisch geschrieben. :/ 

Es ist eine Ansammlung verschiedener Geschichten, in denen die Charaktere aller 5 Minuten ihren Namen ändern... aus Gründen... 

Ich bin mir nicht sicher, wie viel ich mir tatsächlich gemerkt habe. Tut mir echt leid, dass ich da so ein Kunstbanause bin, ich bin mir sicher es könnte spannend sein, aber nicht so. 

Inga Kühn 

Das war wirklich eine Tortur. Also es ist toll für Leute, die sich für die Hintergründe der LOTR und TROP Welt interessieren und die Geschichte von Mittelerde kennen wollen (wollte ich eigentlich auch), aber ich würde eher fandom wikis etc. Empfehlen. Es hat sich so gezogen! 
Es ist unglaublich biblisch geschrieben. :/ 
Es ist eine Ansammlung verschiedener Geschichten, in denen die Charaktere aller 5 Minuten ihren Namen ändern... aus Gründen... 
Ich bin mir nicht sicher, wie viel ich mir tatsächlich gemerkt habe. Tut mir echt leid, dass ich da so ein Kunstbanause bin, ich bin mir sicher es könnte spannend sein, aber nicht so. 

Lia 

** spoiler alert **
           Sebbene non si tratti di un'opera "unitaria" o comunque completata interamente dall'autore, "Il Silmarillion" è un must per gli amanti del genere ed, in particolare, del professore. Uno scritto che ricorda moltissimo la Genesi della Bibbia e che, in effetti, vede narrate le gesta di grandi personalità del mondo dalla sua nascita, creato da Ilúvatar partendo dalla musica dei Valar, alla fine della Terza Era, i cui fatti sono narrati ne "Il Signore degli Anelli" stesso. 
Un'opera consigliata a tutti coloro che necessitano di ulteriori delucidazioni sulla storia, i miti, la geografia, gli eroi e le specie popolanti il mondo di Arda e, in particolare, della Terra di Mezzo (ma non solo).

Kirsten Simkiss

Well, I tried starting this one years ago and I found it too dry to want to continue. Alas, I remain true to form as this 300 page story took me 28 days to get through. While the content is fantastic from a world building perspective, it took a lot of willpower to want to get through this book. I’ve never been much of a history reader and this one really reads like a textbook. It's a cross between religious and historical text, while fictional, and the dryness of a book has always hampered my ability to enjoy it.

However, as I said, the actual content of the book is fantastic once you get past that. While I had to take it a little bit at a time, most of the individual stories are quite interesting and lend a lot of understanding to the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit that I otherwise would not have had. (Though it did not hurt my enjoyment of the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings having not read them previously.) I think we can all agree that Feanor is runner up to Melkor in the long history of the world of Middle Earth. All over some shiny rocks he made.

Am I likely to reread this? Probably not in full, maybe as a reference book. Like I said, it was really hard for me to get through. I would only recommend this book to other readers as an extended material source for the Hobbit and the LOTR. My true rating is actually 3.5 stars, but I rounded down for Goodreads’s purposes.

Sandra Tammaru

I loved it sm! Recently a fever of Tolkien hit me and I just had to start reading them. So first off Silmarillion and damn what a beautiful book. As a fan of mythology I deeply cherished this book and the wonderful storytelling! What a glorious insight into the history of Middle-Earth and the heroes to come!

Agustin P

I rarely, if ever, take the time to publish any reviews on Goodreads, but I believe this merits an exception. 

I went into this expecting a challenge, for it's considered among the Middle-Earth fandom to be a "crusher of dreams," and with reason. The archaic English, the lack of a single storyline, and the immeasurable amount of names and places; it's no wonder it's considered among the least read best-selling books. 

I somewhat scheduled my read-through, expecting a burn-out in a few sections. My plan was to finish it in a month — It took me 6 days. I mention this not to showcase how fast I read it but as an example of the immersiveness (If that is even a word) of the world Tolkien created. You can spend hours upon hours in this world and still discover new things on every page. It will take a dozen more read-throughs to capture the sheer amount of detail in these 365 pages, yet it does not diminish the first experience in any way. 

I have a page in Notion where I write down my initial reactions to each chapter immediately after reading them. Here are a few of them: (Warning: I just wrote my thoughts down. I roughly went over it, but I believed leaving it raw would maintain the essence of it)

(view spoiler)[- The chapter about the music of the Ainur was absolutely everything I wanted and more. I swear this could not have started better. It’s a beautiful creation myth, including the symphony and melody aspect that I wanted, especially how they shaped the world, but also added a twist to it: the inclusion of their original melodies. But there’s more!! What they witnessed was a vision, so afterwards, in a beautiful metaphor depicting my favorite saying — You never know what you have until you lose it — they discover darkness. After all of this, does Eru create the world, and it’s up the the Ainur, a.k.a the Valar, to shape the world. - All the while Melkor — Morgoth — is the asshole he is. Onto the next one!!

- I love thisssss

- (After the chapter of Aulë and Yavanna, I got tired of going chapter by chapter. I’m not going to write stuff down all day)

- I would bear his hatred towards Melkor and the Valar, but like, what did the Teleri ever do? That’s where I draw the line, and it got even worse when he abandoned Fingolfin, his brother, on the snowy territory

- Thingol had what he got coming. He acted kind of arrogant tbh, and the Silmarill controlled him. (Props to Beren for putting Luthien over the Silmarill!!!) But I did not see his death coming, and I guess here is where the conflict between the elves and the dwarves originated.

- Fingolfin is a badass. He straight up showed up alone in front of Morgoth and demanded a duel. He lost, but hurt him and stabbed him in the foot, which is insane if you consider Melkor as an Ainur. 

- I love how in Elwing and Eärendil, we have the remnants of all the greats of the first age. Melian (Maia), Beren (Man), and Luthien (Elf) It’s an incredible way to conclude the first age of this incredible universe!  (hide spoiler)]

After reading this, I am extremely excited to reread the Lord of the Rings and watch the songs sang in memory of ages past. I wanted to mention Eurielle and Karliene from YouTube for their amazing interpretation of Tolkien's songs. I fell in love with Eurielle's "Lúthien's Lament" video.

Lúthien's Lament by Eurielle

For anyone planning to start this, I recommend reading the Children of Húrin first. It was a fantastic way to get to know Beleriand (the map), making it one thing less thing to memorize while reading it, and I recommend, as much as possible, to take it slow. Recently I've been trying to open a random page and read the next few pages. It has made me appreciate the beauty of Tolkien's writing, so please, take advantage of your first time reading The Silmarillion!

The popular paperback edition with a cover design by Tolkien himself, to complement the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings paperbacks. Includes a special preface by J.R.R. Tolkien.

Charles Siboto

Every year I come back to The Silmarillion and every year it reveals more of its beauty and grief to me than it did the year before. When The Fellowship of the Ring was published in 1954, C.S. Lewis wrote of it: "It's like lightning from a clear sky!" For me, The Silmarillion is the lightning from the clear sky and the rest of Tolkien's work draws from it as the source of all its history. The Silmarillion, understandably, lacks appeal for a casual reader because it's quite a lot of things at once. In some ways, it's the religious text of Middle-earth, akin to the Bible, the Quran or the Torah. It's a collection of the legends of Middle-earth in the same way you have scholarly collections of Norse mythology. It's also a genealogy of the main houses of Elves and Men of Middle-earth. Once you get comfortable with its strange structure its beauty is revealed. The Silmarillion is music, it's poetry and above all beauty and sorrow as sharp as swords.

I've attempted to read this book 3 times and given up every time. Listening to Don Marshall read and explain the book helped immensely,it was a beautiful story and his explanations were concise and very helpful

Ashley Hernandez

Rebeca Keren Nuñez

Hermoso, pero igualmente el más difícil de leer de la saga de el hobbit y el señor de los anillos. Mi recomendación es que, si bien las historias, sí, son muchas, transcurren antes, es un libro para leer por ultimo, ya que es un poco más duro para leer. De todas maneras puede leerse perfectamente, y hay gente que no tiene ninguna dificultad para leerlo. Como siempre la pluma de Tolkien impecable, muy estimulante. Lo lees y es imposible no verlo en tu mente. Si hay que elegir cuales son los libros que quiero tener para siempre en la biblioteca, sin dudas son los de esta saga, con este incluido.

Alex Landau

This explained so much of the the things that occured in the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. It was highly entertaining as long as (like Tolkien) you find names, places, and history important. 

It absolutely had its moments of being slow because there is frequent breaks to explain names or locations, but what else do you expect from Tolkien. I really enjoyed it and am glad I took the time to read it.

Rjyan C Kidwell

Picked this up many times since I was a kid and always stalled out fairly quick. At first, all the names and places were just confusing. When I was older, it was easier to follow but difficult not to hear them accumulate in "Comic Book Guy voice", if you know what I mean. But now I'm WAY older and I did it, I finished the whole book. And thank Illuvy cause this book is great. 

One significant factor was surely that I've now read The Niebelungenlied and Thucydides, which I feel were invaluable help for breaking Silmarilly loose from the cringy contemporary tendrils that have grown around Tolkien. Truthfully the more cartographically obsessed passages still kinda numbed me. But it doesn't matter because this story is RELENTLESSLY sad. I've never seen that really emphasized, but holy hell this book is absolutely every bit as aggressively tragic as it is aggressively elf-namey. And that really smashes through all the shallow associations that were impeding my enjoyment and understanding of this timeless piece of writing.

Bob Simone

The four stars are in particular for the good parts. There are other parts that are just lists of bullshit. Like those parts of the bible where they go to town and make a huge list of people. What the hell? It's all worth it for the story of Huan the War Hound though. Kinda. Omg, I remember sitting in my bed pounding out the end of the book and just WAITING for it to be done. This isn't a ringing endorsement, it seems. To be honest, if you don't already know you like it, you're not going to ever pick it up, so I guess it's no bigs.

shellybn

As much as I love "The Lord of the Rings" I enjoy this book more. It is absolutely breath-taking, in the truest sense of the word. This is one of the very few books that I've finished reading, turned back to page one, and started over immediately. This is Tolkien's Masterpiece in the classic sense--the book that shows him at the height of his powers and proves him to be a true creator of the fantasy genre. This is the story behind the story--the history of Middle Earth that tells the events that occurred in dawn of time and resonate through "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy.

Sara Menefee

This is not a book for the feint of heart. It goes into some of the gritty (at best) details re: the Valar, destruction of the Noldor elves, Melkor, Morgoth, and of Sauron (whom everyone knows in the later trilogy of The Lord of the Rings). 

I'm giving it 3 stars because I had to read it twice to get the general gist. I will probably read it again and this score will improve. Maybe.

A number-one New York Times bestseller when it was originally published, THE SILMARILLION is the core of J.R.R. Tolkien's imaginative writing, a work whose origins stretch back to a time long before THE HOBBIT. Tolkien considered THE SILMARILLION his most important work, and, though it was published last and posthumously, this great collection of tales and legends clearly sets the stage for all his other writing. The story of the creation of the world and of the the First Age, this is the ancient drama to which the characters in THE LORD OF THE RINGS look back and in whose events some of them, such as Elrond and Galadriel, took part. The three Silmarils were jewels created by Feanor, most gifted of the Elves. Within them was imprisoned the Light of the Two Trees of Valinor before the Trees themselves were destroyed by Morgoth, the first Dark Lord. Thereafter, the unsullied Light of Valinor lived on only in the Silmarils, but they were seized by Morgoth and set in his crown, which was guarded in the impenetrable fortress of Angband in the north of Middle-earth. THE SILMARILLION is the history of the rebellion of Feanor and his kindred against the gods, their exile from Valinor and return to Middle-earth, and their war, hopeless despite all their heroism, against the great Enemy. This second edition features a letter written by J.R.R. Tolkien describing his intentions for the book, which serves as a brilliant exposition of his conception of the earlier Ages of Middle-earth.

Cerys

I would personally recommend the audiobook over the actual book for this one. Only because like most of Tolkien's books they're rather long and I personally found it easier to listen to this rather than to read it. However, I have read and thoroughly enjoyed LOTR and The Hobbit books with little hardship. I would definitely recommend the Silmarillion, however, I would personally say that you should read the main Tolkien books before this because this is more the myths and legends of world rather than a story. However, it is very good.

The Silmarillion Boxed Set (J.R.R. Tolkien)

I would personally recommend the audiobook over the actual book for this one. Only because like most of Tolkien's books they're rather long and I personally found it easier to listen to this rather than to read it. However, I have read and thoroughly enjoyed LOTR and The Hobbit books with little hardship. I would definitely recommend the Silmarillion, however, I would personally say that you should read the main Tolkien books before this because this is more the myths and legends of the world rather than a story. However, it is very good.

Adam Dawid Stadnicki

Great work showing fantastic world building and back story to many people's favourite Lord of The Rings trilogy.

The Silmarillion

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