The Silmarillion
About the book
Author: J.R.R. Tolkien
Publisher: William Morrow (illustrated collector’s edition)
More info:
The StoryGraph | Goodreads
Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the review.
Buy and support indie bookstores (+ I earn a small commission):
Bookshop.org (print or ebook) | Libro.fm (audio)
My Review
As a lover of The Lord of the Rings who had never read The Silmarillion, I’ve felt like a pretender for years. Add to that my enjoyment of The Rings of Power, and it was only a matter of time. I’m so glad that I finally decided to take the plunge, following along retroactively with Breanne Rodgers’ 8-week readthrough.
8 weeks was a great pace — it gave me space to absorb what I’d read and then synthesize it with Breanne’s recap post plus a little extra help from Super Summary (a SparkNotes alternative). I absolutely recommend this approach; reading a recap of each chapter after I finished took the pressure off to remember every detail (impossible) and let me just relax and enjoy the ride. Which I did!
I started a reread of The Fellowship of the Ring this past weekend, and I’ve already picked up on things that would have felt meaningless before but stand out now (like the elves introducing themselves as “of the house of Finrod”). As a fan girl at heart, I love feeling 10x more informed about Tolkien’s lore and hope to pick up more of his supplemental works someday, perhaps starting with the story of Beren and Lúthien.
Content and Trigger Warnings
War, death, and violence
Torture
Death of a parent/child
