This forum was closed on October 1st, 2010. However, the archives are open to the public and filled with vast amounts of good reading and information for you to enjoy. If you wish to meet some Wardrobians, please visit the Into the Wardrobe Facebook group.

Almost finished with the Silmarillion...

Plato to MacDonald to Chesterton, Tolkien and the Boys in the Pub.
Forum rules
Please keep all discussion on topic and in line with our code of conduct.

Almost finished with the Silmarillion...

Postby VixenMage » August 9th, 2006, 6:02 am

And am kind of wondering why, exactly, I've been warned about the "BORING AND DULL BOOK OF DOOOOOM!" by so many people. After the Ainulindalë, I was enthralled... and as I'd been told that it was "good, if you can stomach it, but very dull", I kept expecting things to slow down and be impossible to understand... but they never did.



At any rate, I almost tore my hair in frustration when I came to the center of the tale of Beren and Luthien, and a page was torn out. :brood: Given, there are some parts of the book that need reading-over several times to get the full meaning of, and it's not a book that can be multitasked with; if you read the Silmarillion, I've found, you either read the Silmarillion or you do something else, never both at once, or you will fail both tasks. >_>

What do you think? Is it really -that- boring? :think:
"The only thing I know for certain is that I know nothing for certain."
User avatar
VixenMage
Wardrobian
 
Posts: 979
Joined: Apr 2006
Location: Wishing she's somewhere else.

re: Almost finished with the Silmarillion...

Postby Warrior 4 Jesus » August 9th, 2006, 9:53 am

Image

Member of The 2456317 Club
User avatar
Warrior 4 Jesus
Wardrobian
 
Posts: 532
Joined: Mar 2005
Location: Australia

re: Almost finished with the Silmarillion...

Postby A#minor » August 9th, 2006, 6:22 pm

I never thought it was boring. Confusing and difficult to follow all the different names and characters at first, but it's better on the second reading.

I found it difficult the first time because everybody and every place has two or three names; a name in Elvish, and Dwarfish, and the Common Speech.

And then in the middle of something a character will aquire a new name.
"Thou shalt no longer be called _____; but henceforth thou shalt be known to all peoples as ______for that thine courage in battle did save many lives."
That sort of thing. Then you have to learn the new name as well as the old one.

But it certainly is never boring. And there's so much beauty, and..... oh, I can't describe it. It's Tolkien! Hmmmmmm....good stuff. :pleased: :read:
"My brain and this world don't fit each other, and there's an end of it!" - G.K. Chesterton
User avatar
A#minor
Wardrobian
 
Posts: 7323
Joined: May 2005
Location: Georgia, USA

re: Almost finished with the Silmarillion...

Postby Adam Linton » August 10th, 2006, 5:28 pm

Good for you, VixenMage!

I don't think that's it boring, either (not even Ainulindalë). As with all books, it has to be approached on its own terms to appreciate. Once one does so, I think that The Silmarillion is very compelling. It's just not a literary genre that we're much used to reading these days.
we have not loosely through silence permitted things to pass away as in a dream
User avatar
Adam Linton
Wardrobian
 
Posts: 981
Joined: Jan 2005
Location: Columbia Falls, MT

re: Almost finished with the Silmarillion...

Postby AslansGirl » August 14th, 2006, 10:52 pm

I loved it!! I need to read it again. there was one chapter I can think of that I had to read three times because I couldn't keep my mind on it. Actually it was only one page. He was laying out that land or something. Drawing a map with words and it just took a little more brain power for me to pay attention. I was totally swept along otherwise. Doesn't it just make you want to make great painting and tapestries and ballads about it? Then I try and my work is not nearly worthy of it's inspiration. *sigh*
If you are what you should be, you will set the workd ablaze!
AslansGirl
Wardrobian
 
Posts: 42
Joined: Sep 2004
Location: Washington state, USA

re: Almost finished with the Silmarillion...

Postby A#minor » August 15th, 2006, 12:32 am

You should look up some Silmarillion maps; especially the ones done by Karen Wynn Fonstad are good.

Here are some of them that I've scanned. It's probably illegal so don't go publishing them all over the Internet. :anxious:

The Beren and Luthien map, and the Turin and Nienor map:


The Northlands and Thangorodrim:


The Second Age after the Wave destroys half the Northwest:
"My brain and this world don't fit each other, and there's an end of it!" - G.K. Chesterton
User avatar
A#minor
Wardrobian
 
Posts: 7323
Joined: May 2005
Location: Georgia, USA

re: Almost finished with the Silmarillion...

Postby Warrior 4 Jesus » August 15th, 2006, 9:55 am

Image

Member of The 2456317 Club
User avatar
Warrior 4 Jesus
Wardrobian
 
Posts: 532
Joined: Mar 2005
Location: Australia

re: Almost finished with the Silmarillion...

Postby Larry W. » August 15th, 2006, 2:04 pm

Not all of The Silmarillion is boring, but it is kind of tedious. The names and places are rather tiresome-- if Lewis had written it instead of Tolkien instead of Tolkien he might have simplified the whole thing. I don't dislike the book, but parts of it are about as about as exciting as the book of Leviticus in the Bible. I really like the maps-- they have a unique medieval quality. I have a beautifully bound edition which was given to me for Christmas many years ago, and sometimes it seems that the book's binding is more attractive than the story. :smile:

Larry W.
Larry W.
Wardrobian
 
Posts: 1721
Joined: Jul 2004
Location: Western Michigan

Re: re: Almost finished with the Silmarillion...

Postby A#minor » August 15th, 2006, 5:43 pm

"My brain and this world don't fit each other, and there's an end of it!" - G.K. Chesterton
User avatar
A#minor
Wardrobian
 
Posts: 7323
Joined: May 2005
Location: Georgia, USA

re: Almost finished with the Silmarillion...

Postby Glorfindel of Gondolin » August 16th, 2006, 8:35 pm

Then said Littleheart son of Bronweg: "Alas for Gondolin."
And no one in the Room of Logs spake or moved for a great while.
Pro published order! Poster of The Wardrobe's 40,000th post. That earns no merit, but I feel pretty cool about it anyway.
User avatar
Glorfindel of Gondolin
Wardrobian
 
Posts: 101
Joined: Dec 2005
Location: Gondolin

re: Almost finished with the Silmarillion...

Postby Larry W. » August 16th, 2006, 11:14 pm

Yes, there must be a creation story and history/mythology of Middle Earth, and The Silmarillion fulfills that purpose. Lewis did something similar for Narnia with The Magician's Nephew. But it seems that people find that book more readable, it being a children's book read by many adults. Tolkien created something much more complex with The Silmarillion, but the disadvantage is that some readers who aren't experts in mythology or linguistics may find it very difficult to understand. The Lord of the Rings is much easier reading for the ordinary person. I think Tolkien's mythology is a beautiful, artistic creation, but Lewis was more gifted in communicating with the ordinary, moderately educated reader. However, there are many people (not just academics) who like The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings perhaps because those books have more of a story in them, which is much more interesting than The Silmarillion's naming of persons and events.

Larry W.
Larry W.
Wardrobian
 
Posts: 1721
Joined: Jul 2004
Location: Western Michigan

Re: re: Almost finished with the Silmarillion...

Postby Adam Linton » August 17th, 2006, 12:38 am

we have not loosely through silence permitted things to pass away as in a dream
User avatar
Adam Linton
Wardrobian
 
Posts: 981
Joined: Jan 2005
Location: Columbia Falls, MT

Re: re: Almost finished with the Silmarillion...

Postby Larry W. » August 17th, 2006, 2:48 am

Larry W.
Wardrobian
 
Posts: 1721
Joined: Jul 2004
Location: Western Michigan

Re: re: Almost finished with the Silmarillion...

Postby Adam Linton » August 17th, 2006, 1:44 pm

we have not loosely through silence permitted things to pass away as in a dream
User avatar
Adam Linton
Wardrobian
 
Posts: 981
Joined: Jan 2005
Location: Columbia Falls, MT

re: Almost finished with the Silmarillion...

Postby rusmeister » August 29th, 2006, 4:03 am

I don't consider myself a 21st-century man at all. I don't want to limit myself to the extremely limited wisdom of our time.
I find that many things in our time have gone totally wrong and poorly relate to some of the more sensible periods of history - in that sense common sense is one of the things in short supply in our time, so I would find it insulting to be called a modern man.
Having finished with Lewis's wonderful works, I am slowly plowing through Chesterton's, and agree with Lewis on his being one of the most sensible men (although he's no longer alive, of course). The progressiveness of our time is clearly in a wrong direction (and there are many wrong directions).
There might be sense in things in Leviticus that we have ceased to be able to understand in our rabid dash to embrace pluralism, multiculturalism and moral relativism (which Lewis called "subjectivism"). Even Matthew ch. 1 has a purpose and reason for being. But many of us never grow to the point where we "get it".
Just so you don't think my nose is in the air, I'll readily admit that there are things in Chesterton's "Everlasting Man" that I find hard to follow. I don't get everything, myself. But it's good at least to know that I don't.
"Eh? Two views? There are a dozen views about everything until you know the answer. Then there's never more than one."
Bill "The Blizzard" Hingest - That Hideous Strength
User avatar
rusmeister
Wardrobian
 
Posts: 1795
Joined: Dec 2005
Location: Russia

Next

Return to Inklings & Influences

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered members and 11 guests

cron