Book Review: The Silmarillion: J.R.R Tolkien’s Greatest Work (Spoilers)

Last year for Christmas, I asked for two things that I didn’t realize would lead me down a rabbit hole of lore and change the way I write and those things were The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion. Why? I asked for them because while I was raised on Tolkien’s works and the later movie adaptations (I was reading The Hobbit to my dad at three), I had never formally read any of his beefier works for myself. At that time, 14-year-old me had no idea what I was in for. I was still only reading young adults novels. I thought Tolkien’s work would read in a similar fashion. I was wrong. So very, very wrong….

The first thing to say about The Silmarillion is when you finish it, your first question will be: “What the heck did I just read?” I don’t mean this to say that the book is bad; far from it. You’ll be asking that question because the book is so profound, beautiful, and so different from what we’re used to in this hedonistic, confused, godless world that it can be hard to wrap your head around the themes that Tolkien presents. In my opinion, it is because of these themes that I consider The Silmarillion to be the greatest set of stories that he ever wrote. However, I would like to mention that though the themes presented in the stories are apparent, you do need some level of literary knowledge to fully understand the text, which is why I would suggest reading The Lord of the Rings before reading The Silmarillion if you think it’s too challenging a read for you. The reason for this is because the entire narritive is essentially an allegory for Christianity (though it is influenced more specifically by Catholicism). Starting with the introductory section of The Silmarillion, the Ainulindale (the Music of the Ainur), we are introduced to the main religious heirarchy and the main conflict. The Ainulindale tells about The One, Eru Illuvatar, and the Valar and Maiar. Eru is essentially the capitol-G God of the Tolkien universe, while the Valar are representative of arch-angels or little-g gods, and the Maiar are like less powerful angels. The main villian, Melkor (Morgoth), is representative of Satan in the world of Middle-Earth (or as it is called in The Silmarillion, Arda), and his mission is to destroy Middle-Earth by polluting and perverting everything the other Valar created (which seems to be something that is happening before us right now).

The second thing to keep in mind about The Silmarillion is the theme of the sin of creation. J.R.R. Tolkien had a profound understanding of the human condition; that we all are born sinful, but because of a belief in a higher moral good, we try to fight that sin. While some reviewers of The Silmarillion might say that every character is painted black and white, this is completely untrue. Every character has this sin nature – from the purist, highest elf to the most minor man – and they all deal with it in a different way. While I am not personally someone who believes completely in the theology of the Seven Deadly Sins, I do believe there is some truth to those beliefs concerning how they can lead people down some very dark roads. Every character in The Silmarillion dies (or causes someone else to die) from one of these sins: Lust, Greed, Pride, Envy, Gluttony, Wrath, Sloth. For example, the most notable character to die from one of these sins is the highly controversial elf, Feanor. While his pride led him down a dark road that resulted in thousands of deaths – including the deaths of his own sons – his good deeds cancelled out his bad deeds (in my opinion at least). Without him, the light of the Two Trees would never have been preserved, meaning Melkor would’ve succeeded in darkening the world forever. Moreover, even though Feanor’s oath and disregard of the Valar caused the elves a lot of pain and suffering, it was his initiative that forced the Valar to get off their butts and help defeat Melkor at the end of the First Age.

Lastly, Tolkien understood how to weave subtlety into his books in such a way that has long been forgotten. Unlike the work of his good friend, C.S. Lewis (who is another amazing author whose work I will do a review on soon), while the Christian allegory was there and can be seen clearly, it was done in a way that blended perfectly into the story. While Aslan in The Chronicles of Narnia series is obviously a stand in for Jesus, Tolkien’s God is shown through the way things play out in the story through the fight of a higher good vs. evil. The Eldar (the elves) constantly are fighting on the side of the Valar, and thus on the the side of Eru Illuvatar, God. The God parallel is also shown in how the narrative is written. If you have ever read the Bible (which I’m guessing at least a few of you have) and then read The Silmarillion, you’ll see how much the Bible – especially the Old Testament – influenced Tolkien’s writing style, especially since the book is to be read as the history of a nation, with kingdoms and rulers rising and falling, the heroes still trying to do the right thing, but failing in the end to some degree.

So should you buy and read The Silmarillion? In my opinion, if you are an avid fan of Tolkien’s work or are a fan of the high fantasy genre, this is the book for you. However, as I said before, The Silmarillion can be a challenging read for some people. If you are a person who is used to the fast-paced, action packed type of stories that are more often told in today’s novels, then I would suggest working your way up to The Silmarillion by reading something like The Hobbit or Lord of the Rings first. With that said though, if you think your ready for that type of read, go ahead and buy it.

Until next time,

M.J.