The Silmarillion Woot!
#1
Posted 31 January 2005 - 01:49 AM
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#2
Posted 31 January 2005 - 06:15 AM
While it is actually nice to know the background story for LOTR, the work as a whole just suffers from the lack of uniform tone of narration. It is simply too much squeezend into one volume.
Some bits of it are superb - Beren and Luthien tale, tale of Turbin Turambar, the story of Feanor.
But it is simply too much. It just leaves me dumb from marvelling at the sheer size of the creation, that's all. Nobody has the time it takes to read it these days.
#3
Posted 31 January 2005 - 11:03 AM
While it is actually nice to know the background story for LOTR, the work as a whole just suffers from the lack of uniform tone of narration. It is simply too much squeezend into one volume.
That's the problem I had with it when I tried to read it when I was in Junior High School. Maybe I'd find it more interesting now, I don't know. I was one of the few people in my group of friends (and still am, I suppose) who just didn't like the Lord of the Rings books at all. I don't know what it is. I just never liked them. Read them all, was bored or annoyed with them. Saw the movies, more of the same.
Not quite sure how I made it to read The Silmarillion if I felt that way, but there you have it. I think it was just because the book was around.
Having said all of that, I can understand how a fan of those books would love reading it. I would gladly read a similar book about The Karate Kid.
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#4
Posted 03 February 2005 - 06:04 PM
Actually I find that the Silmarillion would be a great deal easier to follow if I had about ten family trees and two maps of middle earth(one before the breaking of the world and one after) available to me at all times. I wonder, have any of you considered that maybe Tolkien just did the Silmarillion for himself, and perhaps never meant to publish it? It seems rather like just an author's notes on the history of their world and I believe that if Tolkien had really meant to send it out he would have done it in the form of various stories from the views of people such as Feanor, Fingon the High King, Maedhros, Beren, Turgon, Turin, and maybe even Manwe or Ulmo.
This post has been edited by J m HofMarN: 03 February 2005 - 06:06 PM
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#6
Posted 03 February 2005 - 10:35 PM
Remember Emu's face, people; one day it's going to be on the news alongside a headline about blowing some landmark to smithereens, and then we can all sigh and say, "She was such a normal person".....
....We'd be lying though.
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#7
Posted 04 February 2005 - 02:00 AM
And Tolkien never finished Silmarillion. It was his son Christopher who completed the book (it was published posthumously) and I think that accounts for the non-uniform style.
Also this "further material" Despondent mentioned it was also compiled by his son. Has anyone even attemptedd to read it? JM, you are familiar wiht Unifinished Tales, aren't you? How can you read a book where footnotes are more lenghty than the text iself? It was just too much for me. I got it on my shelf, but rather as a reference, not a great bedtime reading.
And JM - that was lovely bit of a parody and it just sums up the problem of the phonebookishness of Siimarillion.
#8
Posted 06 February 2005 - 02:04 AM
That is the best summation of the book I have ever heard. Well done.
I attempted to read it again last year, and it didn't get any easier then whey I tried in high school.
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#9
Posted 08 February 2005 - 05:52 PM
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#10
Posted 08 February 2005 - 09:08 PM
Elrond and Elros, were both half-elven... Elrond chose to live as an elf and served under Gil-galad, and established Rivendell.
Elsros chose to be human and established Numanor, serving as its first king.
arwen isn't aragorns cousin, she's his great, great, great, great, great, great, great... etc. grand aunt.
i think that's even more disturbing.
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#11
Posted 08 February 2005 - 09:29 PM
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#12
Posted 08 February 2005 - 10:10 PM
i was saying elrond and elros are brothers.
and Elros begat Vardamir Nólimon, Tindómiel, Manwendil,and Atanalcar.
who were cousins with the children of Elrond; Elladan, Elrohir,and Arwen!!!
Aragorn was generations after.
Tar-Amandil (2nd king of Numenor, but third generation ie. grandson of Elros) was the son of Arwens cousin Vardamir, making him Arwens nephew. And HIS son Tar-Elendil (not to be confused with Elendil father of Isildur) would then of course be Arwens great-nephew.
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#13
Posted 08 February 2005 - 10:25 PM
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#14
Posted 08 February 2005 - 10:30 PM
i was just trying to explain that you can only be cousins with people of your generation. other wise your a nephew, great nephew or etc.
there were plenty of generations between aragorn and arwen to wash the grossnes of it out.
turin on the other hand... well that was a dirty set up.
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#15
Posted 09 February 2005 - 08:57 PM
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