The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was much better the second time through, now that I had a basic familiarity with the world Tolkien has created.

The Silmarillion consists of the entire history of the Elves of Tolkien’s world. It shows the vastness of Tolkien’s imagination. The stories are varied: Some are glorious, some are heroic, many are sad . . . I really wish he would have developed them in more detail.

Beyond the stories, the book makes me reflect on the concepts of creation, fall, and redemption.

At first, the world Tolkien has created is beautiful and good in its unfallen glory. Actually, it’s probably similar to what this world would have been had it been developed for hundreds of years. Before the Elves leave Valinor, they have developed a beautiful culture of cities, light, and song. Ages pass, during which the Elves thrive, creating a glorious, peaceful world. Overall, in the first part of The Silmarillion, Tolkien incites our imagination to think of the world we could have had—more glorious than we can comprehend.

But in Tolkien’s world, like ours, there is a Fall. A fallen Vala (the Valar are essentially archangels who are entrusted with the rule of the world) seduces Feanor, an Adam figure, to rebel against the other Valar. Once Feanor rebels, evil begets evil, and it spreads until the whole world is infected. The whole book is really the working out of this Fall. Eventually, most of the Elves leave Valinor, and they build hidden kingdoms in Middle Earth, such as Gondolin and Rivendell. Over the ages, these hidden kingdoms fall or fade away.

The redemption of Tolkien’s world is really unfinished, but it’s interesting that Tolkien emphasizes the working out of Providence in the world’s affairs. In The Silmarillion, it is the will of Providence for the Elves to go back into the West so that the Age of Man will commence. Although the book ends with the same scene as The Lord of the Rings—the White Ship leaving from the Grey Havens—the emphasis is on the fact that this ship is leaving with the last of the Elves. This is because the Elves’ work is finished in Middle Earth, and now the Age of Man has fully come—and again, this is by the will of Providence.

Finally, I enjoyed Tolkien’s clever links to other legends. The Elvish haven of Avollone is a reference to Avalon of the Arthurian tales. Another reference to other myths is Atalante, or the island (continent?) of Numenor. Like Atlantis, Numenor is destroyed in cataclysm and swallowed up by the ocean. And finally, the character of Earendil (Elrond’s father) is an Odysseus figure—a wandering mariner about whom there are many tales.



View all my reviews