THE SILMARILLION

'''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

Overview

Synopsis

''Ainulindalë'' and ''Valaquenta''

''Quenta Silmarillion''

''Akallabêth''

''Of The Rings of Power and the Third Age''

Concept and creation

Development of the text

Posthumous publication

See also

References

External links

Overview

''The Silmarillion'' comprises five parts:
# ''Ainulindalë'' ("The Music of the Ainur") – the creation of Eä, the world
# ''Valaquenta'' ("Account of the Valar") – a description of the Valar and Maiar, the supernatural powers in Eä
# ''Quenta Silmarillion'' ("Silmarillion proper", "The History of the Silmarils") – the history of the events before and during the First Age, which forms the bulk of the collection
# ''Akallabêth'' ("The Downfall of Númenor") – the history of the Downfall of Númenor and its people, which takes place in the Second Age
# ''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.^[2] In keeping with this idea, ''The Silmarillion'' is said to have been translated from Bilbo's three-volume ''Translations from the Elvish'', which he wrote while at Rivendell.^[3]
''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.
''The Silmarillion'' is a complex work that explores a wide array of themes inspired by many ancient, medieval, and modern sources, including the Finnish ''Kalevala'',^[2] Hebrew Bible, Norse sagas, Greek mythology, Celtic mythology, and World War I. For instance, the meaning of the name of the supreme being, Eru Ilúvatar (Father of All), is borrowed from Norse mythology. The archaic style and ''gravitas'' of the ''Ainulindalë'' resembles that of the Old Testament. The island civilization of Númenor is purposefully reminiscent of Atlantis^[2]—one of the names Tolkien gave that land was Atalantë, although he gave it an Elvish etymology.
Among the notable chapters in the book are:

★ "The Music of the Ainur"

★ "Of Beren and Lúthien"

★ "Túrin Turambar" (closely associated with "Narn i Chîn Húrin: The Tale of the Children of Húrin" in ''Unfinished Tales'')

★ "Of Tuor and The Fall of Gondolin"

★ "Of the Voyage of Eärendil and the War of Wrath"

Synopsis

''Ainulindalë'' and ''Valaquenta''

The first section of ''The Silmarillion'', called ''Ainulindalë'', takes the form of a primary creation myth, describing the making of the world by the supreme being Eru, "The One" (also called Ilúvatar), and the rebellion of the spirit Melkor (later called Morgoth), whose role in ''The Silmarillion'' is similar to that of Lucifer in Judeo-Christian mythologies.
Eru first created the Ainur, a group of eternal spirits or demiurges, described as "the offspring of his thought", who existed before all else was created. Eru then brought the Ainur together to reveal his purposes, after which the Ainur played music together under his direction. Melkor — said to have been given by Eru the "greatest power and knowledge" of all the Ainur — broke from the harmony of the music of Eru, and used his power to develop his own song. This caused discord and division as some Ainur joined him, while others stayed with the music of Eru. The music stopped and Eru showed them all a vision of Middle-earth and its peoples. A division began between Melkor, who harbours a hatred for Eru, and his brother (and equal) Manwë and Ulmo, who became Eru's strongest supporters.
The creation of Middle-earth then began, and 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. Manwë and the other Valar attempted to prepare the world for the coming inhabitants (men and elves), while Melkor repeatedly destroyed their work, until slowly, through waves of destruction and creation, the world took shape.
''Valaquenta'' describes in detail the characteristics of each of the Valar and some of the Maiar. It also shows how many Maiar — including Sauron and the dreaded Balrogs — were seduced by Melkor to serve him.

''Quenta Silmarillion''

''Quenta Silmarillion'', which makes up the bulk of the book, is a series of interconnected tales making up the tragic saga of the three magical jewels, the Silmarils, which hold the light of the Two Trees of Valinor. The various stories describe the conflicts between Melkor (renamed Morgoth) and the other Valar, the creation of the Children of Ilúvatar (Elves and Men), the capture and imprisonment of Melkor, the removal of the Elves to Valinor, Melkor's renewed rebellion, the return of some of the elves to Middle-earth, Melkor's struggles with the Elves for possession of the Silmarils, the overthrow of each of the Elven kingdoms, and the eventual defeat of Melkor by the Valar in the War of Wrath at the end of the First Age. The two main threads that connect all the stories, and which ultimately drive the actions of the various characters, are the terrible curse laid upon the Silmarils by their maker, Fëanor, and the Doom of Mandos, which is placed upon the Elves in punishment for their rebellion against the Valar and for the sinful deeds of the Kinslaying.

''Akallabêth''

This short section, comprising about thirty pages, bears many similarities to legends of Atlantis. It recounts the history of the island kingdom of Númenor, which the Valar granted to the three loyal houses of Men who had aided them in the final overthrow of Melkor. The story traces the rise and fall of the mighty people of Númenor, the Dúnedain, from whom descended the royal line of Gondor, including Aragorn. Their tragic fate is brought about in large measure by the actions and 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 beat the Númenóreans with force, allowed himself to be taken prisoner to Númenor, where he quickly seduced the King, Ar-Pharazôn, led the Númenóreans into the false worship of his former master, Melkor, and urged them to wage war on the Valar themselves. The Second Age ended with the destruction of the Númenóreans and their island by Eru, in punishment for their rebellion against the rightful rule of the Valar, although Sauron escaped and fled to Middle-earth.

''Of The Rings of Power and the Third Age''

This concluding section of the narrative, comprising about twenty pages, describes the events that take place after the fall of Melkor and the beginning of the Third Age. It tells of
the re-emergence of the Dark Lord Sauron, the forging of the Rings of Power, and the battles between the people of Middle-Earth and the forces of Sauron, culminating in the War of the Last Alliance, in which Elves and Men 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''.

Concept and creation

Development of the text

The earliest drafts of ''The Silmarillion'' stories date back to as early as 1925, when Tolkien wrote a 'Sketch of the Mythology'. However, Tolkien first began working on the stories in 1914,^[2] though a good deal was written while Tolkien, then a British officer returned from France during World War I, was laid up in a military hospital and at home with trench fever.^[2] The first story, The Fall of Gondolin, was completed in late 1916.^[2] At the time, he called his collection of nascent stories The Book of Lost Tales (which became the name for the first two volumes of ''The History of Middle-earth''). These stories were to comprise an English mythology, intended to explain the origins of English history and culture.^[2]
In 1937, encouraged by the success of ''The Hobbit'', Tolkien submitted an incomplete but more fully developed version of ''The Silmarillion'' to his publisher, George Allen & Unwin, but they rejected the work as being obscure and "too Celtic". The publisher instead asked Tolkien to write a sequel to ''The Hobbit'', which became his significant novel ''The Lord of the Rings''.^[2]
Tolkien never abandoned ''The Silmarillion'', however.¹ In fact, he regarded it as the most important of his works,^[11] seeing in its tales the genesis of Middle-earth and later events as told in ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. He renewed work on ''The Silmarillion'' after completing ''The Lord of the Rings'', and he greatly desired to publish the two works together.^[2] 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.^[2]
In the late 1950s he 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. 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. By this time, serious doubt had entered about some of the fundamental aspects of the work that went back to the earliest versions of the stories, and it seems that Tolkien felt the need to solve these problems before he could produce the "final" version of ''The Silmarillion''. In any event, with one or two exceptions, he never did much work on the narratives in the remaining years of his life.

Posthumous publication

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, and to keep as much internal consistency (and consistency with ''The Lord of the Rings'') as possible. 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.
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 (ISBN 0-618-39111-8) 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 primitive ''Lost Tales''.

See also

★ The Children of Húrin

★ Mythopoeia (genre)

★ Silmaril

★ The Black Book of Arda

References

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3. Tolkien and the Invention of Myth: A Reader, , Jane, Chance, University Press of Kentucky, 2004,
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11. Silmarillion Description from Houghton-Mifflin
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External links

★ A Background and History of The Silmarillion at Tolkien Online

★ Chronology of ''The Silmarillion''

★ "The World of Tolkien" by John Gardner; a book review of ''The Silmarillion'', published in ''The New York Times'' (October 23, 1977)