silmarillion, again

Yep, I read it again. Finishing the last book of The History of The Lord of the Rings series recently, got me thinking about The Silmarillion again, mainly because of the stories near the end of the book, that talk about Elrond, Elros, and the fall of Numenor. Could it also be because the third season of The Rings of Power is now coming out? Maybe, but that show includes storylines that, as far as I know, don't come specifically from Tolkien's writings, but are rather inspired by them, and perhaps try to infill details of story that are eluded to in his writings? Now, I say that without being a Tolkien scholar, and I haven't read everything he wrote, or was later published with Christopher Tolkien's editing. Maybe some of this stuff comes from his unpublished notes, I don't know. I bet the nerds know

Okay, okay, but we, do you ask did I read this book in 2013, 2016, 2021, and then again? Well, 2013 wasn't the first time I read it, first of all. You can go back and look at my reviews for those reads, and so I won't belabor the things I said there, except to say that if you're a fan of the LOTR, and you'd like to hear some of the backstory, a lot of it is in this book. The other thing that I think is important, is the names. There are a ton of names, but it doesn't matter. Here's the take away for this 2026 review: If you've started on The Silmarillion and given up because there are 42 names that all begin with F, and they're all related, don't worry. Keep reading. You could flip back and forth to the index of names at the back, which has a quick summary of who everyone is (but those often contain spoilers) of you could flip to the family trees in the back, which give all of the names, and how they're related, or, you could just plow thru, and trust that when you really need to know, the text will explain it, OR, it won't, but it won't matter. Just understanding that they're all from the same F-ing family is probably enough. see what I did there?

The section about Numenor, near the end, the Akallabêth, sums up the rise of of the great kings of men, and their eventual downfall. Tolkien himself tied the story of the island of Numenor, to the Atlantis story, and used it as an allegory on hubris, similar to Plato's use of the Atlantis story in his own writings. The Numenor story specifically comes for a challenge to Tolkien from one of his Inklings peers, C.S. Lewis, according to what I'm reading on the wikis.

Read this book.

 

And yes, that art is by Tolkien. Its called Halls of Manwe on the Mountains of the World above Faerie, from 1928. Looks like the colors have been juiced up on this image, and the image cropped a little.