jon_hill987 Posted December 7, 2004 Share Posted December 7, 2004 I'm sure i saw a book that was the opposite to LOTR, with the evil hobbits trying to destroy the ring in order that gandalf could enslave the world (or something), Is that a proper Tolken book? has anyone read it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tk102 Posted December 7, 2004 Author Share Posted December 7, 2004 Originally posted by Spider AL I've read it many times, but let's not get pretentious here... Here is an antidote for pretension caused by this thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon_hill987 Posted December 7, 2004 Share Posted December 7, 2004 Originally posted by tk102 Here is an antidote for pretension caused by this thread. I've read that one and "the soddit" they are both brilliant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_One Posted December 7, 2004 Share Posted December 7, 2004 Originally posted by Pie™ But weren't those written entirely by Christopher Tolkien? Unfinished Tales was, like the Silmarillion, only finished by Cristopher... Besides, I've been told by different people that the series isn't very good... Nope, like the Unfinished Tales, the books contain essays, stories, and general Middle-Earth goodness written by JRR that are only edited and compiled into a readable format (with notes) by Christopher Tolkien. It depends how into Middle-Earth history etc you are - if you have a love of all things Tolkien, go ahead and read them. If you're just a casual fan, stay well away... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pie™ Posted December 7, 2004 Share Posted December 7, 2004 Originally posted by The_One Nope, like the Unfinished Tales, the books contain essays, stories, and general Middle-Earth goodness written by JRR that are only edited and compiled into a readable format (with notes) by Christopher Tolkien. It depends how into Middle-Earth history etc you are - if you have a love of all things Tolkien, go ahead and read them. If you're just a casual fan, stay well away... If you say so... I might check them out if I have the chance then Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GothiX Posted December 7, 2004 Share Posted December 7, 2004 Read and loved the Silmarillion. I dislike the series though,Christopher's notes make it about impossible forme to read it all the way. Stopped somewhere down the 4th book. And that swhile I can read Lovecraft and Poe with ease. :/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spider AL Posted December 7, 2004 Share Posted December 7, 2004 On the contrary, it is a story with heroes and villains. Just because it is not a novel per se, does not invalidate it as a story.It is NOT a cohesive narrative. Like the bible, it is merely a collage of snippets of VARIOUS stories, with little or no depth to the narrative aspect of the writing. It is more like a time-life-guide to Middle Earth. A wonderful time-life-guide, but a time-life-guide nonetheless. It is not a deep, character-driven novel with lengthy and poetic descriptions of both people, souls and landscapes. It is not Lord of the Rings, in other words. Thus it is pretentious to compare it to LotR, as the two are different animals entirely. Just as pretentious as saying "Oh, I like this band's early music better", merely because the newer music is more popular. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tk102 Posted December 7, 2004 Author Share Posted December 7, 2004 I suppose you could you look at it that way: as a collection of short tales over the course of a long history. After completing the Silmarillion though, the story of Morgoth and the Silmarils does come full circle. Likewise, the Akallabeth and LotR bring the Numenoreans and Sauron full circle. The are over-arching themes to Tolkiens' works that require the Silmarillion for full appreciation. It is not a deep, character-driven novel with lengthy and poetic descriptions of both people, souls and landscapes. It is not Lord of the Rings, in other words. I agree. Thus it is pretentious to compare it to LotR, as the two are different animals entirely The point of the thread was to find out if there were other readers who enjoyed the Silmarillion. In my experience, they are few and far between compared to the number of fans of LotR. That is as far as I will go in comparing the two works. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toms Posted December 8, 2004 Share Posted December 8, 2004 I thought the simlarillion was great (if a bit of a hard read). It is a lot like the bible... or (as someone said) a collection of short stories set thoughout the timeline of middle earth. But if you know what to expect it does a great job of building a detailed world with a detailed history. Unfinished tales, unfortunately, i only made it about half way through before i got distracted. It is much harder work than the silmarillion... more of a collection of historical notes than anything. there is still some good stuff in there, but it is hard to get to. Since it was never intended to be published as a novel you can't really hold that against it though. LOTR is by far the most complete novel (with the hobbit in second place)... but the silmarillion is still worth a look if you are the patient type. (2 fast 2 furious fans need not apply ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Writer Posted December 8, 2004 Share Posted December 8, 2004 Have it, read it twice, liked it, but couldn't understand a whole lot... it kind of jumps around a lot and gives so many names that it's hard to keep up. I'll agree that there are more fans of LotR than of the Silmarillion and understand the reason behind this as well. People prefer to read a story, something that flows together. Silmarillion really doesn't do that. It explains pretty much where everybody came from in LotR... a brief section on the wizards, which I must say was greatly enjoyed... Beren and Luthien... creation of Arda (the planet)... ect. I liked it, but then I'm really into histories and stuff like that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samuel Dravis Posted December 8, 2004 Share Posted December 8, 2004 I love it. It is quite good at making you feel a sense of awe - just the scale of the events that are portrayed is amazing. The characters feel mythological. In any case, read The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales if you want a mostly full account of what happened before the Third Age. I never really found it difficult to read - less so than Bulfinches' Mythology, actually (I don't know if any of you have read that either, but it's quite boring compared to The Silmarillion, and it has exactly the same relation to the real world - namely, none. ). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Altus_Thrawn Posted December 8, 2004 Share Posted December 8, 2004 Every year I try to read it, every year I get about 50 pages farther...at last count I made it to 165 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.