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The Silmarillion Reading Group

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The Silmarillion Reading Group

Postby Adam Linton » October 1st, 2005, 5:48 pm

Coming out of conversation among A# minor, Leslie, and myself…

Welcome, All, to The Silmarillion Reading Group

First, the text I myself use (just FYI) is The Silmarillion, Second Edition, by J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien, published in the US by Houghton Mifflin in 2001 (ISBN: 061813504 [hardbound] and 0618126988 [paperback]). The same text was published in the UK by HarperCollins in 1999.

It seems to me, considering the sweep material and allowing for focused questions and comments, that seven weeks would make for a good pace. This is, in my text, about 45 - 50 pages each week.

Here’s my proposal:

October 2 - 8
Foreword
Preface to the Second Edition (including Tolkien’s letter to M. Waldman)
Ainulindale
Valaquenta

October 9 - 15
Quenta Silmarillion
Chap I “Of the Beginning of Days” through VIII “Of the Darkening”

October 16 - 22
Quenta Silmarillion
Chap IX “Of the Fight of the Noldor” through XIV “Of Beleriand”

October 23 - 29
Quenta Silmarillion
Chap XV “Of the Noldor” through XVIII “Of the Ruin of Beleriand”

October 30 - November 5
Quenta Silmarillion
Chap XIX “Of Beren and Luthien” through XX “Of the Fifth Battle”

November 6 – 12
Quenta Silmarillion
Chap XXI “Of Turin Turambar” through XXIV “Of the Voyage of Earendil”

November 13 – 19
Akallabeth
Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age

Good reading to you; may our discussion be lively.

Regards,

Adam Linton
we have not loosely through silence permitted things to pass away as in a dream
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re: The Silmarillion Reading Group

Postby magpie » October 1st, 2005, 11:20 pm

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re: The Silmarillion Reading Group

Postby Adam Linton » October 2nd, 2005, 2:02 am

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re: The Silmarillion Reading Group

Postby magpie » October 2nd, 2005, 2:27 am

I'm game. :) My copy does not have the same preface, but I can participate with the rest of the chapters. Lead on!!!
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re: The Silmarillion Reading Group

Postby A#minor » October 2nd, 2005, 3:10 am

Looks wonderful, Adam! Thanks so much for organizing that.
I can't wait to get started. :read: Happy reading all!
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re: The Silmarillion Reading Group

Postby A#minor » October 5th, 2005, 1:10 am

Here's a map (by Karen Wynn Fonstad) that may help us visualize the first bit of Silmarillion. It's the lanterns set by the Valar before Melkor destroyed them.

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re: The Silmarillion Reading Group

Postby A#minor » October 5th, 2005, 1:12 am



Here's another map of the Spring of Arda, also by Karen Wynn Fonstad.
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re: The Silmarillion Reading Group

Postby Adam Linton » October 5th, 2005, 2:50 am

Thanks for the maps. They certainly can assist the visualization process (but without taking it over). Fonstad's work is both enjoyable and helpful.

Karen Wynn Fonstad
The Atlas of Middle-earth, Revised edition

in the US,
Houghton Mifflin
ISBN: 0618126996

Highly recommended.
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Re: re: The Silmarillion Reading Group

Postby magpie » October 5th, 2005, 3:57 pm

"Love is the will to extend one's self in order to nurture one's own or another's spiritual growth."
M. Scott Peck

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re: The Silmarillion Reading Group

Postby Adam Linton » October 7th, 2005, 6:08 pm

A couple of reflections on this week's section...

1) In Tolkien's mythology I notice the succesful combination:

Utter monotheism (one unique, eternal God, "Ilúvatar/Eru"),
and even - within this monotheism (although never stated or
even hinted in The Silmarillion), the possibility of Trinity
(see Tolkien's Letter to M. Waldman in "Preface to the
Second Edition");

and,

created archangelic/angelic beings; i.e. "powers," or
[lower case g] gods with roles not unlike those of the dieties
in Norse or Greco-Roman mythologies.



2) I also notice the sharing (at least to an extent) by
Ilúvatar/Eru of the work of creation with the Valar. It seems
to me that this sharing is related to the sub-creation that
Tolkien speaks of in "On Fairy Stories," "Mythopoeia," and
"Leaf by Niggle," in which we, too, can participate.
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re: The Silmarillion Reading Group

Postby A#minor » October 7th, 2005, 8:18 pm

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re: The Silmarillion Reading Group

Postby Adam Linton » October 7th, 2005, 11:43 pm

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re: The Silmarillion Reading Group

Postby A#minor » October 8th, 2005, 3:56 pm

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re: The Silmarillion Reading Group

Postby magpie » October 8th, 2005, 9:33 pm

"Love is the will to extend one's self in order to nurture one's own or another's spiritual growth."
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Re: re: The Silmarillion Reading Group

Postby A#minor » October 9th, 2005, 12:03 am

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