I finally got my hands on a copy and I’m very excited to get into it. Is there anything I should know or any tips for a relatively new reader of Tolkien’s works?
I finally got my hands on a copy and I’m very excited to get into it. Is there anything I should know or any tips for a relatively new reader of Tolkien’s works?
Wonderful! Yes: because Tolkien writes with a more advanced, lofty style than in Lord of the Rings, be prepared to read more carefully and tediously. Sentences are longer than average, and more archaic English words are used here and there. But all of it can be understood with time. His stylistic choices parallel the grandeur of the narrative and its conflicts and proportions.
And, if you're inclined to really have a grasp early on of the narrative, instead of at your fourth or fifth read of the entire thing, take notes or make an outline, incrementally, once the story has begun to focus on the Elves and the character count really inflates. There is a higher rate of new-information-and-context per chapter; the pacing from chapter to chapter is much quicker than the average fantasy novel; more like a historical chronicle, or an epic (in the classic sense) that has many characters and threads to track, over many centuries.
So, you will often find the narrative zoom-in on one circumstance, and then after four pages, abruptly zoom-out to go and zoom-in elsewhere, in a quicker, denser way than in the flow of Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.
Here's Christopher Tolkien on the subject (abridged):
'In the Silmarillion, the draught is pure and unmixed...the reader is worlds away from any sort of ''mediation''...in the meeting between...Théoden and Pippin and Merry in the ruins of Isengard:
''Farewell, my Hobbits! May we meet again in my house! There you shall sit beside me and tell me all of your hearts desire: the deeds of your grandsires, as far as you can reckon them...''
''...So that is the King of Rohan!'' said Pippin...''Very polite.''
In the second place, where the Silmarillion differs...is its refusal to accept novelistic convention. Most novels (including 'The Hobbit' and 'The Lord of the Rings') pick a character to put in the foreground, like Frodo and Bilbo, and then tell the story as it happens to him. The novelist inventing the story, and so retains omniscience: he can explain, or show, what is 'really' happening and contrast it with the limited perception of the character.
The Ainulindalë and Valaquenta is a very tough read for most people. It's very heavy on information and names. Took me 3-4 reads before I felt I had a good grasp on it. Once you reach Quenta Silmarillion it's a bit lighter reading and more of a story. But still for the most part harder than LotR.
Have fun 😌
What do you think?