Review: The Hobbit, or There and Back Again

The Hobbit, or There and Back Again by J.R.R. Tolkien
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read The Hobbit, or There and Back Again years ago after I read The Lord of the Rings for the first time. I liked it, but I didn't feel compelled to read it again. I reread it in June. I still don't like it nearly as much as The Lord of the Rings, but it was worth the reread.

The Hobbit was first published in 1937. Tolkien didn't originally plan to write a sequel and wasn't sure whether it would fit into the stories of Middle-earth that he had been working on for decades (then the early versions that were later published as The Book of Lost Tales). I have the revised edition from 1966, in which chapter five, Riddles in the Dark, was changed to make it more consistent with The Lord of the Rings. 

The wizard Gandalf persuades Bilbo Baggins to join the dwarf Thorin Oakenshield and his companions, who are setting out to reclaim the Lonely Mountain and its treasure from the dragon Smaug.

Far over the misty mountains cold
To dungeons deep and caverns old
We must away ere break of day
To seek the pale enchanted gold.

The dwarves of yore made mighty spells,
While hammers fell like ringing bells
In places deep, where dark things sleep,
In hollow halls beneath the fells.

I like the dwarven songs, but the goblin songs (which come later) are kind of ridiculous; the larger problem, I guess, is that the goblins (and the trolls) are just a little too silly as antagonists. The songs of the elves are far more frivolous than either the elven songs in LotR or the dwarven songs here. It seemed weird at first, but I suppose elves can't be serious all the time. The riddle game in chapter five is great, but apart from that, things get much more interesting in the second half (or so) the part where Bilbo and the dwarves stay with Beorn, a skin-changer who changes into a bear. From there it gets more intense as it goes on. It is not as descriptive as LotR, and the descriptions in LotR are one of my favorite things,  so it's not surprising that I don't like The Hobbit quite as much.  

After reading this I listened to the 1979 radio adaptation by The Mind's Eye. I definitely recommend it! I thought the voice acting & songs were great.

There's a bit of weirdness where the Elvenking of Mirkwood is implied to be the same person who was involved in the original ancient quarrel between the Elves and Dwarves:  

In ancient days they had had wars with some of the dwarves, whom they accused of stealing their treasure. It is only fair to say that the dwarves gave a different account, and said that they only took what was their due, for the elf-king had bargained with them to shape his raw gold and silver, and had afterwards refused to give them their pay.

In The Silmarillion as it was eventually published this is definitely before the Elvenking's time, and a different character.

  

There is a quote from Tolkien's letters (which I haven't read; I am taking this from The History of Middle-earth vol 3) that says this about his discussions with his publisher after The Hobbit was published:

I then (after the publication of The Hobbit) offered them the legends of the Elder Days, but their readers turned that down. They wanted a sequel -- but I wanted heroic legends and high romance. The result was The Lord of the Rings.  

Favorite quotes:

“Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?”

“As they sang the hobbit felt the love of beautiful things made by hands and by cunning and by magic moving through him, a fierce and jealous love, the desire of the hearts of dwarves. Then something Tookish woke up inside him, and he wished to go and see the great mountains, and hear the pine-trees and the waterfalls, and explore the caves, and wear a sword instead of a walking-stick.”

“Roads go ever ever on,
Over rock and under tree,
By caves where never sun has shone,
By streams that never find the sea;
Over snow by winter sown,
And through the merry flowers of June,
Over grass and over stone,
And under mountains of the moon.

Roads go ever ever on
Under cloud and under star,
Yet feet that wandering have gone
Turn at last to home afar.
Eyes that fire and sword have seen
And horror in the halls of stone
Look at last on meadows green
And trees and hills they long have known”

Review: Splintered Light: Logos and Language in Tolkien's World (repost from GoodReads, 2018)

Splintered Light: Logos and Language in Tolkien's World by Verlyn Flieger
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It would probably be ideal to read this right after reading The Silmarillion. I would have, if I had known about it at the time. I decided to read it now because I've started following Jeff LaSala's The Silmarillion Primer at Tor. (I've caught up to the Jan. 31 post, but there have been a couple of new ones since then.)

Splintered Light focuses on The Silmarillion, with chapters 18-20 examining the relationship between The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings. Flieger says that although critical opinion is weighted in favor of LotR, The Silmarillion "provides needed evidence that as a writer (and also as a Christian) Tolkien was distinct from both Lewis and Williams, far more unlike than he was like them... Tolkien’s theology was manifestly darker and tougher than Lewis’s, less occult than Williams’s, and less hopeful than either man’s. Tolkien’s belief is precarious, constantly renewed, yet always in jeopardy. It is this precariousness that gives his work its knife-edge excitement."

In Chapter 2: "Dyscatastrophe" Flieger examines Tolkien's view of tragedy in "The Monsters and the Critics" and in Chapter 3: "Eucatastrophe" examines his view of fairy tales in "On Fairy Stories."

Several chapters after this focus on Owen Barfield's linguistic theory of the fragmentation of meaning, that originally "myth, language and humanity's perception of the world are interlocked and inseparable" but that these things become increasingly fragmented with time. Flieger ties this into her discussion of the Sundering of the Elves and the summons of the Valar. The summons of the Valar had mixed results, and Flieger thinks that it was a mistake; I think she's probably right.

At one point, Flieger says that the Quenya/Sindarin distinction should not be seen as a value judgment, and that we should not assume "because one is 'brighter' than the other that Quenya is therefore 'good' and Sindarin less good. Sindarin is farther from the light but closer to the activities and concerns of Middle-earth." I'm not sure that I buy it (that is, I'm not convinced that the narrative isn't making a value judgment for one over the other). (see this post & this one)

The Silmarillion presents mortals as having the unique capability (withheld from Elves) to go beyond the Music of the Ainur, "which is as fate to all things else" (The Silmarillion). Flieger has an interesting explanation of how to reconcile this with the apparent importance of choices made by the Elves:
"A possible distinction may be that Men are given the power to act beyond the Music (that is, to alter external events or circumstances) while Elves, though bound by the Music, have the power to make internal choices, to alter some attitude toward themselves of other creatures or Eru.)"

Chapters 12 & 13 focus on the Noldor, their quest for knowledge, and their inventiveness. Flieger writes that "Tolkien's characterization of the Noldor could stand as a historian's description of any of the great civilization builders of past ages; closer still to home, it is a telling depiction of our own Renaissance and post-Renaissance culture."

Flieger has several chapters on the tale of Beren and Luthien. She says, comparing the Silmarils and the One Ring, "No bearer can escape the evil power of the Ring, but those who touch a Silmaril will be affected according to their motives -- good or evil -- for having it." She compares Beren's attitude toward the Silmaril with Thingol's. Beren's quest for the jewel is unselfish, and when his hand is bitten off he is not corrupted by it; and clearly there's something more disturbing about Thingol's attachment to the Silmaril. But The Silmarillion's last word on Beren, Luthien & the Silmaril is: "the wise have said that the Silmaril hastened their deaths, for the flame of beauty of Luthien as she wore it was too bright for mortal lands" ("Ch. 22: Of the Ruin of Doriath").

She doesn't mention that passage at all, but I'm not sure how to reconcile it with a reading that says there was nothing wrong with Beren and Luthien's attitude toward the Silmaril.

In one of the chapters on the connections between LotR and The Silmarillion, Flieger writes that there is no eucatastrophe in LotR: "This inadvertent victory, however, does not lessen the bleakness of Frodo's defeat. Here is no eucatastrophe, no consolation giving a glimpse of joy. What happens to Frodo is katastrophe, the downward turn in the action, where the hero is overcome."

I think it may be overstating things to say that the way things work out in LotR does nothing to "lessen the bleakness of Frodo's defeat." I really think that the end of The Lord of the Rings has a happier tone, despite a great deal of sorrow, than Flieger gives it credit for, especially compared to the end of The Silmarillion, where all the emotional emphasis in the last few pages is on the tragedy.

View all my reviews

Review: The Children of Húrin

The Children of Húrin by J.R.R. Tolkien
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

9/25/2019: This is a repost for the Tolkien Blog Party 2019. 

I’d also like to highlight this essay, which I think is pretty insightful -- it will make more sense if you have read the book, however:

Children of Húrin Is Not Relentlessly Depressing (I KNOW IT DOESN’T LOOK GOOD, BUT HEAR ME OUT) -- by Lintamande

(I am on Tumblr but not very active there. If you'd rather not click the link, here is the important bit:
It’s a hard sell, but I’m going to try to make the case that a) the characters in Children of Húrin have unprecedented-for-Tolkien agency over their choices and leverage to live their values, and b) they go ahead and do that and save tons of lives as a result, and c) this fits into the rest of the legendarium as a testament to the human spirit in the darkest hour, one that sustains their people until the War of Wrath and influences their ability to fight there.

12/22/2018 - I finished reading for the 2nd time.

1/17/2019 - My thoughts on reading this again:

This time I read the physical book, which includes illustrations by Alan Lee. They're all great, but I would have liked to see more of them. (I know Jenny Dolfen has done some of the scenes that Alan Lee skipped, like Turin and Beleg.) I still think that reading this on its own more or less works, but The Silmarillion surpasses it for me, because its most iconic moments make it overall the better book, even though it has parts that are far more dry than this book.

The conversation between Hurin and Morwen in Chapter 1 is one of my favorites: a quiet scene full of foreboding, with some great dialogue.

Chapter 2 of this book is an abbreviated version of the Battle of Unnumbered Tears; the part that is left out covers what happened to the forces from East Beleriand. In a nutshell, what happened is exactly what Morwen was afraid of in chapter 1, that is, the Noldor were betrayed because the doom of Mandos was not done with them yet. And the traitors were the same people who occupy Turin's homeland in this book. [I have to say I am kind of annoyed that nobody in-universe seems to remember Bor & his followers, the Easterlings who fought with Maedhros. The real world explanation for this is probably that they were a late addition to the narrative, but it would nice if somebody appreciated them. Did Turin even know who they were? (hide spoiler)]

Some of Turin's character flaws are things he has in common with his mother. Her pride certainly leads her to some bad decisions of her own. However, Turin's refusal to listen to the advice of Ulmo, the only one of the Valar who still gives advice to the Elves and Men in Middle-earth, is not really something I can see Morwen doing. And he does this after Ulmo's blessing on the waters of Ivrin restored him to sanity! Because he is incapable of taking a hint, apparently. I think Beren is a really interesting foil for Turin, as someone who made better choices in similarly difficult circumstances. Tuor in The Fall of Gondolin is harder to evaluate because he is less fleshed out as a character than either of them.

Chapters 6-9, the chapters that cover Turin's time with a band of outlaws and his attempts to reform them into the good kind of outlaws, definitely remind me of both the Robin Hood legend and the Rangers of the North in The Lord of the Rings. I can see why some readers lose patience with Turin; the really frustrating thing about him is that his better qualities rarely make as much of a difference as you would hope, while his bad decisions are disastrous.

***
my first review, written Dec. 2015:
A quick note on the format - there are no illustrations in the ebook, as there are in the print version, and the maps are hard to read in this format. (However, I already have copies of The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales so I could look at those maps.) I read this as an ebook from Overdrive, with my public library account.

The Children of Hurin collected a story that had already been previously published into one volume. The story is a longer, much more detailed version of the “Turin Turambar” chapter of The Silmarillion, and tells the story of the curse that Morgoth, Sauron’s former boss and the Middle-earth equivalent of Lucifer, put on Turin’s family. The style is a bit simpler than that of The Silmarillion, so it might be helpful to a reader who is interested in tackling that book but having a hard time with the style. Of course, the other problem people have with The Silmarillion is that it’s really depressing — and this is a version of one of the darkest tales in that book. Many elements of the story are inspired by the Volsunga saga and the story of Kullervo from the Finnish Kalevala.

Lord of the Rings blends Tolkien’s different approaches in The Silmarillion and The Hobbit, but I think most people who love LotR lean in one direction or the other. LotR is my favorite of Tolkien's works but The Hobbit, although I like it, hasn't made as deep an impression as The Silmarillion. I don’t consider LotR comforting exactly ... but even though it has a very qualified happy ending, it’s still a happy ending, in that it does make an emotionally convincing argument that suffering will ultimately be vindicated.

And yet these stories (The Silmarillion and COH) make it clear that Tolkien understood that reaction better than he gets credit for, which is satisfying. I cried a few times, but not at the very end - having read most of it before, I found that the disturbing part was waiting for the end.

Turin is a pretty exasperating character - he’s arrogant and makes some really terrible decisions - but I have a lot of sympathy for him anyway. Tolkien goes into much more detail about his childhood here than in The Silmarillion, Morwen has some of same flaws as Turin, but I like her too. Nienor gets more of a role in this version than in The Silmarillion, which I like. She’s a bit more sensible than Morwen, and very much her father’s daughter. I kind of wish there was more about her, but I like what there is.

I have read the Volsunga saga, but don’t really have anything to say about its influence on this story. I really like medievalist Michael Drout’s comment on this connection, though:

“I think that at least one impulse in Túrin is to tell the story of a dragon slayer who isn't some kind of Nietzchean/Wagnerian 'ubermensch' (a piece of evidence, I think, is the inclusion of a dwarf named Mîm). Tolkien detested the kind of heroism that Wagner drew out of the Nibelungenlied and the Völsungr Saga: the hero who is superior in some existential way to everyone else and thus somehow deserves to crush everything in his path. By taking the physically most powerful hero, the original dragonslayer, but putting him under the curse of Morgoth and showing how he suffers, Tolkien approaches the Sigfried story in a very different, and more humane, way.”

There are connections with other legends as well.

Review: Farmer Giles of Ham

Farmer Giles of Ham by J.R.R. Tolkien
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

... Or as the subtitle has it: "The Rise and Wonderful Adventures of Farmer Giles, Lord of Tame, Count of Worminghall and King of the Little Kingdom"

A fun adventure that turns out to be an elaborate in-joke about some English place names. This is one of my favorite novellas. It is a hoot.

Farmer Giles of the Thames Valley becomes famous for fighting a giant. The king rewards him with a sword, Caudimordax or Tailbiter, that turns out to have a magical property: it cannot be sheathed when within five miles of a dragon. Guess what happens next? Of course he meets a dragon…

Like The Hobbit ,this story started out as one that J.R.R. Tolkien, told to his children. He worked on it over about twenty years until it was published in 1949. This novella is illustrated by Pauline Baynes with annotations by Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond.

My favorite quote:
The dragons pricked up their ears. They were hungry, and these rumours were attractive. `So knights are mythical!' said the younger and less experienced dragons. `We always thought so.'

`At least they may be getting rare,' thought the older and wiser worms; `far and few and no longer to be feared.'

This review was written before I started my blog, but I am posting it for the 7th Annual Tolkien Blog Party, hosted by Hamlette at The Edge of the Precipice.

View all my reviews

Review: Beren and Lúthien

Beren and Lúthien by J.R.R. Tolkien
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is an old review from GoodReads, I just wanted it on my blog so I am posting it here.

This book combines different versions of the story of Beren and Luthien, one of the Middle-earth legends mentioned in LotR, presented in one volume. (For those who haven’t read it, the real-world myths that Tolkien draws on here include the story of Rapunzel and the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, and he got the idea for the singing duels from the Kalevala.) I loved it! I really think the characters come across much more powerfully when you read all the different versions (especially the Lay of Leithian).

There’s a prologue that explains "the story so far" for readers who haven’t read The Silmarillion. Most of this book consists of "Tale of Tinuviel" and the extracts from the poem "The Lay of Lethian," which present a more detailed version of the story than appears in The Silmarillion (chapter 19). But there is also some new material -- prose versions that add more to the story in The Silmarillion. There are a few things that made more sense to me after reading this book, compared to reading the Silmarillion version.

"The Tale of Tinuviel" was originally part of The Book of Lost Tales, Part Two. It’s more whimsical than either the later prose version, or the poem. Instead of Sauron, Beren and Luthien face down Tevildo the king of the Cats. And the Noldorin kingdom of Nargothrond wasn’t part of the story at this point, so the darkest elements of the tale are missing. And personally I really love that stuff, and the way it contrasts with one of the rare happy endings of the First Age.

I love the little detail that Beren could hear Luthien across the distance between them: "at night time it seemed to him that his heart heard her sometimes weeping softly for him far away in the woodlands of her home: and this was indeed true."

SPOILER review - I can't hide text here like I can on GoodReads, so keep reading or not, depending
on how you feel about spoilers.

This bit is interesting, because it’s so different from what happens in the Lay and in The Silmarillion:
"… Tinuviel grew at last to long sorely for Gwendeling her mother and the songs of sweet magic she was used to sing to her children as the twilight fell in the woodlands by their ancient halls. Often she half fancied she heard the flute of Dairon her brother, in pleasant glades where they sojourned, and her heart grew heavy."

She tells Beren that she wants to return home (!), and Beren is the one who’s reluctant to leave their life in the woods with Huan, This seems like one of the most significant changes to the characters that happens in the later version - in which he’s the one who tries to leave her behind when they reach the borders of Doriath, and she always insists on coming with him.

- Why does Luthien succeed where Finrod fails (vs Sauron)? Finrod had two disadvantages: the doom of the Noldor and Finrod & co’s guilt about the Kinslaying, which they arrived at Alqualonde too late to prevent. (The latter is less explicit, but I think it’s there, and of course the two things are related; I don’t think the Valar would have pronounced the doom of the Noldor in the first place if they had left peacefully.) Also, I'm pretty sure Finrod & his followers (and Galadriel, and their brothers) had intended to board the stolen Teleri ships until Feanor burned them, so they're not altogether innocent.

- When I read "A Passage Extracted From the Quenta" (p 105) I had a very satisfying aha! moment. The Silm says that when Sauron pierced the disguises of Finrod & co., "their kinds were revealed" but this version has it as "they were revealed as Elves, but the spells of Felagund concealed their names and quest." I have always wondered why Sauron didn’t immediately know who Beren was, since Beren was famous among Morgoth’s servants for killing a lot of orcs & giant spiders.

- I feel sorry for Carcharoth, who clearly knows that there’s something fundamentally messed up about his existence. The poem is more explicit about this than the prose version, but there is something really sad about his predicament. ("For one brief hour escape the net/The dreadful doom of life forget!")

I think the extracts from the Lay of Leithian here include the most memorable parts of the story. The version included in The Silmarillion is complete in length, but not in detail; in particular, there’s much more dialogue in the poem.

I think my favorite passages are these two:
[Finrod and Beren in the dungeons of Sauron]

To Felagund then Beren said: 
'''Twere little loss if I were dead, 
and I am minded all to tell, 
and thus, perchance, from this dark hell 
thy life to loose. I set thee free 
from thine old oath, for more for me 
hast thou endured than e'er was earned.' 
'Ah, Beren, Beren hast not learned 
that promises of Morgoth's folk 
are frail breath. From this dark yoke 
of pain shall neither ever go, 
whether Sauron learn our names or no,
with his consent. Nay, more, I think, 
yet deeper of torment we should drink, 
knew he that son of Barahir 
and Felagund were captive here, 
and even worse if he should know 
the dreadful errand we did go.' 
A devil's laugh they ringing heard 
within their pit. 'True, true the word 
I hear you speak,' a voice then said. 
''Twere little loss if he were dead, 
the outlaw mortal. But the king, 
the Elf undying, many a thing 
no man could suffer may endure…"

[Luthien to Beren, once she catches up to him at the gates of Angband to give him a piece of her mind]

"A love is mine, as great a power
as thine, to shake the gate and tower
of death with challenge weak and frail
that yet endures, and will not fail
nor yield, unvanquished were it hurled
beneath the foundations of the world.
Beloved fool! escape to seek
from such pursuit; in might so weak
to trust not, thinking it well to save
from love thy loved, who welcomes grave
and torment sooner than in guard
of kind intent to languish, barred,
wingless and helpless him to aid
for whose support her love was made!'

Thus back to him came Lúthien:
they met beyond the ways of Men;
upon the brink of terror stood
between the desert and the wood."

Top 10 Tuesday: The Best Books I Read in 2018

A top 10 +1, actually. 

I wrote reviews for most of these, but there are a few I just didn't get around to reviewing. 

Njals Saga (author unknown) review

Too Like the Lightning/Seven Surrenders by Ada Palmer (Terra Ignota series)

I am lumping these two together because they are so closely connected, with the second book picking up right where the first leaves off. These two books are probably my favorite science fiction that I read this year. These books take place in a drastically changed future world that combines aspects of what we would think of as a utopian society. The title of Too Like the Lightning  comes from Romeo and Juliet: "It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden,/Too like the lightning, which doth cease to be/Ere one can say 'It lightens.' While in the play, Juliet is expressing doubt about Romeo's constancy, the allusion is probably meant to raise questions about the attempts at utopianism depicted in the book. 

I didn't write a real review for these books, so instead, here are some quotes:

from Too Like the Lightning:
"Man is more ambitious than patient. When we realize we cannot split a true atom, cannot conquer the whole Earth, we redefine the terms to fake our victory, check off our boxes and pretend the deed is done."  

from Seven Surrenders:
"If you lived through it, you must remember vividly when you first heard that number, where you were—out shopping, sharing dinner—who first told you, what the wind smelled like. Tens of thousands of days fade into memory's melting pot, but not the day Death first took someone you loved, not that day. If, on the other hand, you join me from remote posterity, then the picture must be altogether different. Two thousand, two hundred and four: in the coldness of a history book it must seem like nothing-- Stalin killed as many in one weekend-- and it must fade too beside the millions of the World Wars. Not so for us. For three centuries we had lived out our rose-tinted daydream, convinced that we were peaceful creatures, good at heart, like Locke or Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Noble Savages; now we woke to find ourselves still brutish humans in the thrall of Hobbes."  

Splintered Light: Logos and  Language in Tolkiens World by Verlyn Flieger 
review

Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett (reread) - In which an angel and a demon team up to stop the end of the world. I've never reviewed this, but I've read it three times. I mentioned this in a previous Top 10 Tuesday for cozy winter reads, but I have to mention it here, too. 

“Don't tell me from genetics. What've they got to do with it?" said Crowley. "Look at Satan. Created as an angel, grows up to be the Great Adversary. Hey, if you're going to go on about genetics, you might as well say the kid will grow up to be an angel. After all, his father was really big in Heaven in the old days. Saying he'll grow up to be a demon just because his dad _became_ one is like saying a mouse with its tail cut off will give birth to tailless mice. No. Upbringing is everything. Take it from me.” 

Eichmann in Jerusalem by Hannah Arendt review

The Iliad by Homer (reread)  review  one of my favorites!

Farmer Giles of Ham by J.R.R.Tolkien (reread) review 

The Silmarillion by J.R.R.Tolkien (reread) review (I posted this review to GoodReads as well as my blog, but my blog automatically takes out the hidden comments in spoiler tags and I am not sure how to add them back in while keeping the spoiler tags. I should fix that, but for now, I have linked to GoodReads.) Also one of my favorites

Manfred by Lord Byron review a new favorite!

Ka: Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ymr by John Crowley review 

The Children of Hurin by J.R.R.Tolkien (reread) - In December, I read this for the second time. (I had previously read most of it in Unfinished Tales, before it was published as a standalone book, so really it was more like the third time). I want to write something about my reread when I get around to it. The best piece of writing I've read about this book is this essay by lintamande at tumblr. She's quite right to note that, as grim as this tale is, Turin's choices overall aren't as futile and self-destructive as those of some other characters, and his accomplishments are not altogether useless. 

Review: The Fall of Gondolin

The Fall of Gondolin by J.R.R. Tolkien
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Love not too well the work of thy hands and the devices of thy heart, and remember that the true hope of the Noldor lieth in the West and cometh from the sea.

This book collects in one volume two previously published stories of Gondolin. The first, an early version of Tuor’s journey to Gondolin and of the fall of the city, is from The Book of Lost Tales, Part Two. It is longer and more detailed than the version in The Silmarillion, but it was never revised to fit in with changes to the other stories of First Age Middle-earth (i.e., changes to the major events and character names). The second story, previously published in Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth, fits in better with The Silmarillion. It tells the story of Tuor’s journey but breaks off when he enters the city. Other drafts of the story follow, with an account of how the tale of Gondolin evolved over time in Tolkien’s writing.

There are some great moments in this story. The highlights for me are probably  the moment when Tuor finds Idril during the attack on Gondolin (in the Tale of the Fall of Gondolin), and Ulmo’s words to Tuor (in The Last Version.)

As with Beren and Lúthien and The Children of Húrin, there is a prologue explaining "the story so far," for readers who haven’t read The Silmarillion. However… I’m not sure it makes as much sense for this volume. In my opinion, the story of Gondolin does not stand alone as well as the other two. The Children of Húrin and Beren and Lúthien don’t go all the way to the end of the First Age, so I was surprised to see that The Fall of Gondolin includes a chapter that covers the Tale of Earendil and the War of Wrath. I really think that tale is more powerful at the end of the main narrative in The Silmarillion, and makes more sense that way. Besides, this chapter is definitely less polished than the corresponding chapter of The Silmarillion, so this book is probably not the best place to start.

My favorite First Age story is probably the core story of the doom of the Noldor. After that, I would say The Children of Húrin, then Beren and Lúthien, and then the fall of Gondolin, pretty much in that order. I do like the story of Gondolin, but for me it doesn’t hold the fascination of the other tales.

some reviews from other readers:

https://pagesunbound.wordpress.com/20...

https://atolkienistperspective.wordpr...

View all my reviews

Review: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight/Pearl/Sir Orfeo

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight/Pearl/Sir Orfeo by Unknown
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

If you will listen to this lay but a little while now,
I will tell it at once as in town I have heard
it told,
as it is fixed and fettered
in story brave and bold,
thus linked and truly lettered,
as was loved in this land of old.

This book collects J.R.R. Tolkien’s translations of three medieval English poems. I have read Sir Gawain before, in the Marie Borroff translation in an anthology of world literature, but the other two poems were new to me.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was written by an anonymous poet from the West Midlands in the late fourteenth century. The poem is in stanzas of alliterative verse, each of which ends with a "bob and wheel," a very short line followed by a four-line rhyming stanza.

During a New Year’s Eve feast at King Arthur’s court, a mysterious figure appears dressed in green and with green skin, holding a bundle of holly in one hand and an enormous axe in the other. He is referred to only as the Green Knight.The Green Knight challenges the men there to a game. He says that he will allow whomever accepts the challenge to strike him with his own axe, on the condition that the challenger meet him at a place called the Green Chapel in a year and a day, on New Year’s morning, to receive a blow in return. At first, no one answers.

What! Is this Arthur’s house, said he thereupon
the rumor of which runs through realms unnumbered?
Where now is your haughtiness , and your high conquests,
your fierceness and fell mood, and your fine boasting ?
Now are the revels and the royalty of the Round Table
overwhelmed by a word by one man ere spoken,
for all blench now abashed ere a blow is offered?

Arthur steps forward to take the challenge, but Gawain volunteers to do it instead. He decapitates the Green Knight and the Green Knight grabs his head and holds it up. The head speaks to remind Gawain of the quest he must undertake when the time is up.

Gawain’s adventures on his journey are briefly described until he arrives at the castle of Sir Bertilak, which turns out to be very close to his destination.

So many a marvel in the mountains he met in those lands
That twould be tedious the tenth part to tell you thereof.
At whiles with worms he wars, and with wolves also,
at whiles with wood-trolls that wandered in the crags,
and with bulls and bears too, at times;
and with ogres that hounded him from the heights of the fells.

Pearl is probably the work of the same poet. In this poem a father mourning the loss of his daughter falls asleep in a garden. He has a dream in which she shows him a vision of the Heavenly City.

Sir Orfeo is a retelling of the story of Orpheus. The Sir Orfeo of the title is an English king (in Winchester, the old capital of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex) rescuing his wife from the king of the fairies. Unlike the other two poems in the book, this poem is told in rhyming couplets. The main differences between the medieval poem and the classical myth ae that Sir Orfeo’s rescue is successful, and of course that the underworld from Greek myth becomes the realm of the fairies from Celtic myth. The realm of the fairies and the realm of the dead were sometimes the same place in Celtic mythology.

There often by him he would see
when noon was hot on leaf or tree,
the king of Faerie with his rout
came hunting in the woods about
with blowing far and crying dim
and barking hounds that were with him;
yet never a beast they took nor slew,
and where they went he never knew.

View all my reviews

Top 10 Tuesday: Platonic Relationships in Books

I've divided this into "close family" and "friendships." I thought I'd have 10, but I only came up with 9 in time for TTT. Maybe I'll update this post later.

Close Family Relationships

1. Morpheus (aka Dream of the Endless) & his older sister, Death, from The Sandman.

"You are utterly the stupidest, most self-centered, appallingest excuse for an anthropomorphic personification in this or any other plane!"

They are two of the seven Endless, anthropomorphic personifications of natural forces.

I have a couple of friends on GoodReads who have read and reviewed all of The Sandman comics, but I haven't found any blogs that have reviewed it. It is definitely not for everyone (it's more violent than my usual reading, for one thing) but this relationship is one of the best things about the series. Death is one of very few characters who can occasionally talk some sense into Morpheus. 

2. Morpheus & Delirium, also from The Sandman: my favorite volume of the series is probably Brief Lives, so I had to include this one. They're adorable. (Delirium is the youngest of the Endless.)

3. Lear & Cordelia from King Lear  -- I haven't read this in years, but I remember some parts vividly. King Lear is probably my favorite Shakespeare tragedy, edging out Hamlet just a bit. The quote I chose for this one is from Act V, scene III, when Lear and Cordelia are captured.

“No, no, no, no! Come, let's away to prison:
We two alone will sing like birds i' the cage:
When thou dost ask me blessing, I'll kneel down,
And ask of thee forgiveness: so we'll live,
And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh
At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues
Talk of court news; and we'll talk with them too,
Who loses and who wins; who's in, who's out;
And take upon's the mystery of things,
As if we were God's spies: and we'll wear out,
In a wall'd prison, packs and sects of great ones,
That ebb and flow by the moon.” 

4. Denethor + Boromir + Faramir from The Lord of the Rings  -- I am counting this as one relationship, because you kind of need all three of them to make sense of it. I don't usually connect Tolkien to Shakespeare, but this part of Lord of the Rings seems clearly inspired by King Lear. This has always been one of my favorites, at least in the books; the less said about the film version of this particular subplot, the better.

"Do you wish then that our places had been exchanged?"
"Yes, I wish that indeed," said Denethor. For Boromir was loyal to me and no wizard's pupil. He would have remembered his father's need, and would not have squandered what fortune gave. He would have brought me a mighty gift."
For a moment Faramir's restraint gave way. "I would ask you, my father, to remember why it was that I, not he [Boromir], was in Ithilien. On one occasion at least your counsel has prevailed, not long ago. It was the Lord of the City that gave the errand to him."

Rereading this, it strikes me that Faramir's interest in scholarship is what led him to want to learn from Gandalf in the first place. Ironically, it's a quality he shares with Denethor!

Close Friendships

1. Frodo & Sam from The Lord of the Rings. Obviously. Do I even have to elaborate on this one? I'll let this quote speak for itself:

"Yes, that's so,' said Sam. 'And we shouldn't be here at all, if we'd known more about it before we started. But I suppose it's often that way. The brave things in the old tales and songs, Mr. Frodo: adventures, as I used to call them. I used to think that they were things the wonderful folk of the stories went out and looked for, because they wanted them, because they were exciting and life was a bit dull, a kind of a sport, as you might say. But that's not the way of it with the tales that really mattered, or the ones that stay in the mind. Folk seem to have been just landed in them, usually – their paths were laid that way, as you put it. But I expect they had lots of chances, like us, of turning back, only they didn't. And if they had, we shouldn't know, because they'd have been forgotten. We hear about those as just went on – and not all to a good end, mind you; at least not to what folk inside a story and not outside it call a good end. You know, coming home, and finding things all right, though not quite the same – like old Mr Bilbo. But those aren't always the best tales to hear, though they may be the best tales to get landed in! I wonder what sort of a tale we've fallen into?'

'I wonder,' said Frodo. 'But I don't know. And that's the way of a real tale. Take any one that you're fond of. You may know, or guess, what kind of a tale it is, happy-ending or sad-ending, but the people in it don't know. And you don't want them to.'

'No, sir, of course not. Beren now, he never thought he was going to get that Silmaril from the Iron Crown in Thangorodrim, and yet he did, and that was a worse place and a blacker danger than ours. But that's a long tale, of course, and goes on past the happiness and into grief and beyond it – and the Silmaril went on and came to Eärendil. And why, sir, I never thought of that before! We've got – you've got some of the light of it in that star-glass that the Lady gave you! Why, to think of it, we're in the same tale still! It's going on. Don't the great tales never end?'

'No, they never end as tales,' said Frodo. 'But the people in them come, and go when their part's ended. Our part will end later – or sooner."

2. Maedhros & Fingon from The Silmarillion. This one has a complicated backstory, but these two belonged to the house of Finwe, the royal house of the Noldorin Elves; they found themselves on opposite sides of the family feud. Maedhros was held hostage by Morgoth (Sauron's boss and the main villain of The Silmarillion)  and Fingon set out to rescue him, which he hoped would reconcile the two sides of the family. (Technically, I guess they could go under "family;" but they're only half cousins, so I put them here instead.)

"Then in defiance of the Orcs, who cowered still in the dark vaults beneath the earth, he took his harp and sang a song of Valinor that the Noldor made of old, before strife was born among the sons of Finwe; and his voice rang in the mournful hollows that had never heard before aught save cries of fear and woe.

Thus Fingon found what he sought. For suddenly above him far and faint his song was taken up, and a voice answering called to him..."

In light of later events, this one makes me almost as sad as the next one on the list.

3. Turin & Beleg from The Children of Hurin  -- If you've read the book, you know this one doesn't end well, but I haven't said anything about that. So, these two are a mortal man and a Sindarin Elf; they met when Turin came to the kingdom of Doriath as a child. When Turin left, Beleg left everything behind to follow him -- and found that he had fallen in with a band of outlaws -- a combination of "houseless and desperate men" and those "driven into the wild for evil deeds." Here's one of my favorite bits, from their argument about whether to stay with the outlaws:

"I would lead my own men, and make war my own way,” Turin answered. “But in this at least my heart is changed: I repent every stroke save those dealt against the Enemy of Men and Elves. And above all else I would have you beside me. Stay with me!"
"If I stayed beside you, love would lead me, not wisdom,” said Beleg. “My heart warns me that we should return to Doriath."

3. Strange & Norrell from Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell -- Two magicians in an alternate-history magical version of England. Both of them are very flawed characters; Strange is the romantic type of antihero and Norrell is more like the petty, pathetic type of antihero. But I loved reading about them! This quote is from their conversation about Strange's article in The Edinburgh Review.

"You think that I am angry," said Mr Norrell, "but I am not. You think I do not know why you have done what you have done, but I do. You think you have put all your heart into that writing and that every one in England now understands you. What do they understand? Nothing. I understood you before you wrote a word. He paused and his face worked as if he were struggling to say something that lay very deep inside him. "What you wrote, you wrote for me, and me alone."

4. Aziraphale & Crowley from Good Omens - Two friends -- an angel and a demon -- who set out to avert Armageddon.

"We'll win, of course," he said. 

"You don't want that," said the demon. 

"Why not, pray?“

“Listen," said Crowley desperately, "how many musicians do you think your side have got, eh? First grade, I mean." 

Aziraphale looked taken aback. 

"Well, I should think-" he began. 

"Two," said Crowley. "Elgar and Liszt. That's all. We've got the rest. Beethoven, Brahms, all the Bachs, Mozart, the lot. Can you imagine eternity with Elgar?"

5. Finrod and Andreth, "Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth," History of Middle-earth vol. 10 - I really want to reread the Athrabeth, but my library no longer has the book, so I'll have to acquire it someday. (They used to have it, I read it from the library in the first place. I immediately read this chapter two more times.) Anyway, this is my favorite thing I've read from the History of Middle-earth, featuring a philosophical discussion between two friends, Finrod Felagund and Andreth of the House of Beor.

This a tough one to quote because I don't want to give too much away here, but I'll just say that despite the theological/philosophical focus of the text itself, the intensity and honesty of their friendship definitely comes through.

"And then suddenly I beheld as a vision Arda Remade; and there the Eldar completed but not ended could abide in the present for ever, and there walk, maybe, with the Children of Men, their deliverers, and sing to them such songs as, even in the Bliss beyond bliss, should make the green valleys ring and the everlasting mountain-tops to throb like harps.’

Then Andreth looked under her brows at Finrod: ‘And what, when ye were not singing, would ye say to us?’ she asked.

Finrod laughed. 'I can only guess,' he said. 'Why, wise lady, I think that we should tell you tales of the Past and of Arda that was Before, of the perils and great deeds and the making of the Silmarils! We were the lordly ones then! But ye, ye would then be at home, looking at all things intently,
as your own. Ye would be the lordly ones. "The eyes of Elves are always thinking of something else," ye would say. But ye would know then of what we were reminded: of the days when we first met, and our hands touched in the dark."

The Sunday Post

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Caffeinated Book Reviewer.

Some of the stuff I've been up to:

On Friday, I finished The Accursed by Joyce Carol Oates and On Bullshit by Harry Frankfurt. I'll have reviews for both up soon, I think.

I enjoyed reading the responses for the Tolkien blog party tag over at The Edge of the Precipice.

I have just posted The Monday Poem for All About Books, a GoodReads group I'm in. I've done this a few times before. This time I picked Sonnet 73 by William Shakespeare.

I am now on Archive of Our Own as AssamTeawithBooks, a name I came up with after getting the response "that name is already taken" for a few other names. I just realized a few weeks ago that you don't have to be a writer to have an account. (I have written fanfiction before, actually, but I'm not interested now. I still read & comment sometimes, though.) So I've been bookmarking stories and saving some for later that I had meant to read.

I've also signed up for a tumblr account (under the same name, except in lowercase), for the same reason: it's a way for me to keep track of stuff written by other people. I don't know if I'll post anything. I'll probably focus more on this blog.

Yesterday I listened to the Mission Log Star Trek podcast. I've been following them for a while, through most of TNG and now DS9. (They were already doing TNG when I discovered the podcast, but I went back and listened to a few of the Original Series episodes as well.) The most recent podcast is "Necessary Evil" -- an excellent discussion of a great episode, I thought. (Also check out "Melora," another recent podcast, for an excellent discussion of a very flawed episode.)

At the Rogue Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship today, the service was about the work of Ursula LeGuin. Works mentioned:

"The Creation of Ea," the epigraph to A Wizard of Earthsea. 

"Solitude" -- I can't remember what the quote was that was shared, but I know this story, although I haven't read it recently. This one is about the differences between generations and cultures on an alien world: a world where solitude is very important, and adults usually lead fairly solitary lives. 

Tehanu - the storytelling for children today was adapted from Therru's story in Tehanu.
"Unchosen Love" - Well, I thought I recognized this one, based on the excerpt that was read. Actually, what I'd read was "Another Story OR A Fisherman of the Inland Sea," as I figured out when I looked at the program. The two stories are set on the same planet, hence my confusion. "Another Story..." is earlier of the two, but it seems like you can read them in either order. I will try to look for a collection that has this one when I get a chance. 

Five Ways to Forgiveness - This one was new to me. The description at GoodReads says: "First published in 1995 as Four Ways to Forgiveness, and now joined by a fifth story, Five Ways to Forgiveness focuses on the twin planets Werel and Yeowe, two worlds whose peoples, long known as "owners" and "assets," together face an uncertain future after civil war and revolution."

My personal favorite book of hers, though, is The Left Hand of Darkness. My favorite of her short stories might be "Vaster Than Empires and More Slow," but I didn't think of that one until I got home today, for some reason.

Tolkien Blog Party 2018

The first time I read Lord of the Rings was shortly before the movies came out (about a year before, I think). But it wasn’t because of them, exactly. I don’t think I would have been interested in the books much earlier than that, anyway. I started reading fantasy with authors like Jane Yolen, Susan Fletcher & Tamora Pierce. I don’t think I would have gotten into LotR much earlier than I did (movie or no movie, probably) especially since I didn’t start with The Hobbit. I managed to miss The Hobbit completely as a child, and only read it after reading LotR. 

As far as the movies go, I really disliked RotK when it came out and I feel like none of the movies have really held up in retrospect, largely because RotK magnified everything I didn’t like about the first two films. (As you can probably guess, I never watched The Hobbit films.) 

[note: I didn't spend much time writing this when I first posted, so I couldn't resist go back to edit it a bit]

1.  What's your favorite Middle-earth story/book?

It’s a tie between LotR and The Silmarillion. I would probably have to flip a coin to decide. Also, I adore The Children of Hurin. 

I like The Hobbit but I'm not as invested in it, compared to Tolkien’s other books. 

2.  Do you have a favorite subplot?

In LotR: Sam and Frodo in Ithilien + the siege of Gondor. 

In The Silmarillion… well, my favorite thing in The Silmarillion is the Noldor. But their story is prominent enough that perhaps it isn't a subplot. Maybe the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, to be a bit more specific. (I said in my review of the book that this is my favorite chapter, but I definitely have other favorite parts that don't make up a whole chapter.)

late edit: or, hang on, can I count the Oath as a subplot? I guess that has to be it -- the Oath & the Feanorians have always captivated me, even when I read the book for the first time and a lot of stuff didn't quite click yet.

3.  What's your favorite theme in Tolkien's books? (Can be in one specific story, or overall.)

Probably the theme of joy in the midst of sorrow that pervades almost all the stories of Middle-earth. There’s a wonderful lecture on this by Dimitri Fimi, which you can listen to here: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkpQ0nmDRSo

4. Do you have a favorite weapon from Middle-earth?

I’ve never thought about this one. Maybe Anglachel, aka Gurthang. It’s so creepy!

5. Would you like to be a hobbit?

Sure! I’d probably have some Took in me though. I might have a hard time staying put in the Shire. 

6. Do you have a favorite romance/couple?

Beren and Luthien, probably. I read the Lay of Leithian in The Lays of Beleriand (this was years before Beren and Luthien came out). In some ways I prefer it to the version in chapter 19 of The Silmarillion; I love all their dialogue (and the other characters’, too). I really enjoyed Beren and Luthien, though; getting to read all the versions of their story was great. 

I love it for being one of the few happy endings in The Silmarillion, although I love the tragedies too. 

There’s so much great art of these two. Apart from Alan Lee’s illustrations I have to recommend: 

Anke Eissmann’s Lay of Leithian sequence: 

http://anke.edoras-art.de/anke_tolkien_leithian.html

The Assault on Tol-in-Gaurhoth by tuuliky

(The only art with short-haired Luthien I’ve ever seen. I’ve always wondered why everyone draws her with her hair grown back after she cut it off in Hirilorn. I doubt that she would have bothered to stop and regrow it right away, even if she could have.)

I also have a fascination with Feanor/Nerdanel. I love that she was the only person he would listen to, although that didn’t last. I love pretty much everything we are told about them (which isn’t much). 

“While still in early youth Feanor wedded Nerdanel, a maiden of the Noldor; at which many wondered, for she was not among the fairest of her people. But she was strong, and free of mind, and filled with the desire of knowledge. In her youth she loved to wander far from the dwellings of the Noldor, either beside the long shores of the Sea or in the hills; and thus she and Feanor had met and were companions in many journeys” -- History of Middle-earth 10: Morgoth's Ring

I have not found much art with them, but here are a few depictions I really like: 

Feanoreans: family picture (Jenny Dolfen) 

Feanor & Nerdanel (Ivanneth)

I don't have quite the same level of enthusiasm for Faramir/Eowyn, but I really like it. 

7.  What's your favorite Middle-earth creature?  (Can be "real" or "imaginary.")

Elves! But I don’t think I really "got" the Elves until I read The Silmarillion; I appreciate their role in LotR more since then. Wait, do Elves count as a “creature?”

If not: then maybe Arien the Maia, who guides the Sun.

 "Arien the maiden was mightier than he (Tilion), and she was chosen because she had not feared the heats of Laurelin, and was unhurt by them, being from the beginning a spirit of fire, whom nonetheless Melkor had not deceived nor drawn to his service. Fair indeed was Arien to behold, but too bright were her eyes for even the Eldar to look on, and leaving Valinor he forsook the form and raiment which, like the Valar, she had there worn, and she was a naked flame, terrible in the fullness of her splendour."

8.  What character do you look the most like?

Hmm, I don’t know. I can’t think of a character who really looks like me, but maybe I’m forgetting someone. 

9.  Are there any books about Middle-earth or Professor Tolkien (but not written by him) you recommend?

Tolkien & the Great War by John Garth (I really need to reread this, as I read it a long time ago) and Splintered Light by Verlyn Flieger (which I read and reviewed earlier this year at GoodReads). There are some other books at the library that I want to get to but haven’t read (The Road to Middle-earth by Tom Shippey + There Would Always Be A Fairy Tale by Verlyn Flieger.) 

10.  List up to ten of your favorite lines/quotations from the Middle-earth books and/or movies.

1 - "The wide world is all about you: you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot for ever fence it out." [LotR]

2 - "The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater." [LotR] 

3 - "The road must be trod, but it will be very hard. And neither strength nor wisdom will carry us far upon it. This quest may be attempted by the weak with as much hope as the strong. Yet it is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: Small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere."[LotR]

4 - "War must be, while we defend our lives against a destroyer who would devour all; but I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend: the city of the Men of Númenor, and I would have her loved for her memory, her ancientry, her beauty, and her present wisdom. Not feared, save as men may fear the dignity of a man, old and wise." [LotR] 

 5 - "But I suppose it's often that way. The brave things in the old tales and songs, Mr. Frodo: adventures, as I used to call them. I used to think that they were things the wonderful folk of the stories went out and looked for, because they wanted them, because they were exciting and life was a bit dull, a kind of a sport, as you might say. But that's not the way of it with the tales that really mattered, or the ones that stay in the mind. Folk seem to have been just landed in them, usually – their paths were laid that way, as you put it. But I expect they had lots of chances, like us, of turning back, only they didn't. And if they had, we shouldn't know, because they'd have been forgotten. We hear about those as just went on – and not all to a good end, mind you; at least not to what folk inside a story and not outside it call a good end. You know, coming home, and finding things all right, though not quite the same – like old Mr Bilbo. But those aren't always the best tales to hear, though they may be the best tales to get landed in! I wonder what sort of a tale we've fallen into?" [LotR] 

6 - "It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule." [LotR]

7 - "Mightier than Este is Nienna, sister of the Feanturi; she dwells alone. She is acquainted with grief, and mourns for every wound that Arda has suffered in the marring of Melkor. So great was her sorrow, as the Music unfolded, that her song turned to lamentation long before its end, and those who hearken to her learn pity, and endurance in hope." [The Silmarillion] 

8 - "In Aman we have come through bliss to woe. The other we will now try: through sorrow to find joy; or freedom, at the least." [The Silmarillion] 

9 "But now a cry went up, passing up the wind from the south from vale to vale, and Elves and Men lifted their voices in wonder and joy. For unsummoned and unlooked for Turgon had opened the leaguer of Gondolin, and was come with an army ten thousand strong, with bright mail and long swords and spears like a forest. Then when Fingon heard afar the great trumpet of Turgon his brother, the shadow passed and his heart was uplifted, and he shouted aloud: 'Utulie'n aure! Aiya Eldalie ar Atanatari, utulie'n aure! The day has come! Behold, people of the Eldar and Fathers of Men, the day has come!'" [The Silmarillion] 

10 - "And when this new star was seen at evening, Maedhros spoke to Maglor his brother, and he said: ‘Surely that is a Silmaril that shines now in the West?' 

And Maglor answered: 'If it be truly the Silmaril which we saw cast into the sea that rises again by the power of the Valar, then let us be glad; for its glory is now seen by many, and is yet secure from all evil.’" [The Silmarillion]  

The Sunday Post

The Sunday Post is hosted by Caffeinated Book Reviewer.

September 21 was my birthday. I didn't get around to mentioning it because I wasn't online much that day. Sept. 21 also happens to be the birthday of H.G. Wells!

I had a great day. I had chocolate cake and my mom took me out to a restaurant called Sauce. I had a bowl of rice, vegetables and dahl that was very good.

What I read this week:
I finished Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, a group read in the Science Fiction/Fantasy Book Club on GoodReads. This was a reread for me. It was great! I'll write a review soon.

I started The Accursed by Joyce Carol Oates. I like it so far. I'll have more to say later but for now, here's the official synopsis: "This eerie tale of psychological horror sees the real inhabitants of turn-of-the-century Princeton fall under the influence of a supernatural power. New Jersey, 1905: soon-to-be commander-in-chief Woodrow Wilson is president of Princeton University. On a nearby farm, Socialist author Upton Sinclair, enjoying the success of his novel The Jungle, has taken up residence with his family. This is a quiet, bookish community - elite, intellectual and indisputably privileged. But when a savage lynching in a nearby town is hushed up, a horrifying chain of events is initiated - until it becomes apparent that the families of Princeton have been beset by a powerful curse..."

I'm still following Jeff La Sala's posts for The Silmarillion Primer at Tor. The most recent is:
Morgoth Is Rendered Null And Void In An All Out War of Wrath -- the end of the Quenta Silmarillion. He has some interesting thoughts; I think I'm going to reread this post later.

Hamlette at Edge of the Precipice (on my blogroll) has posted the questions for the Tolkien Blog Party 2018. I've started to fill them out, so I'll probably post tomorrow.

Review: The Silmarillion

The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Silmarillion is not an easy read, but on the other hand, I don’t want Tolkien fans who might be interested to be unnecessarily scared away from it. I definitely had a rough start the first time I read it, but eventually it won me over.

I followed along with The Silmarillion Primer at Tor.com during this reread, and I highly recommend it. It’s intended for first-time readers and does a great job of explaining things, focusing on one chapter at a time. That said, avoid reading the comments at Tor if you don’t want spoilers. Each post includes maps, art, family trees, and flowcharts. Also, it’s surprisingly hilarious.

And speaking of art, one of my favorite Tolkien artists Jenny Dolfen, who focuses on The Silmarillion, has a book out, Songs of Sorrow and Hope: The Art of Jenny Dolfen, which I’ve added to my TBR. Much of her art is available online, as well.

The book is divided into 5 sections. I've decided to put the main narrative last, it simplifies things a bit.

The Silmarillion starts with two prologues:
The Ainulindale, Tolkien’s creation myth and an examination of how fate works in these tales. This is 10x more interesting on rereads, because of the way it ties in with everything else. But it’s really not very representative of the book as a whole. It’s ok to skip this, in fact, but probably don’t skip the next part.

The Valaquenta, which introduces the Valar, the semi-divine characters of Tolkien’s legendarium. And also the Maiar, who are sort of a level down from them — the same kind of beings as Sauron, Gandalf, and Saruman. Gandalf has a line in LotR about Sauron being "a servant or an emissary" but doesn’t bother to explain whose servant. The main antagonist of The Silmarillion, Melkor, was Sauron’s boss and is pretty clearly analogous to Satan.

The book also ends with two short sections:
The Akallabeth: the tale of the fall of Numenor. This is a very compressed account considering how much happens in it. It is not quite as engaging as some of the more fully fleshed out tales, but there are some wonderful passages.

Of the Rings of Power: sort of a historical essay that links The Silmarillion with The Lord of the Rings, (covering the Second and Third Ages).

The Quenta Silmarillion ("Tale of the Silmarils") makes up the bulk of the book. It starts out telling of the beginning of time and the origins of the Elves. Some of the stories in these chapters have a Lord Dunsany-like feel to them, but the narrative is building up to something significantly darker than that.

At this point the Noldor, who are the main players in most of the book, are introduced. The index notes that their name literally means "the Deep Elves," and explains that

The name… meant the Wise, but wise in the sense of possessing knowledge, not in the sense of possessing sagacity, sound judgement

.... LOL. I mention this because it tells you pretty much what you need to know about the Noldor. Their greatest craftsman, Feanor, invented the Silmarils, the three jewels that are central to the stories that follow. Some of these events have a pretty obvious Genesis/Paradise Lost influence. The Noldor -- and really, the First Age Elves in general -- often seem to have more in common with legendary human characters (in the sagas, for example) than with Elves in folklore, as far as their basic motivations are concerned. [... with the significant difference that Feanor explicitly didn’t see his rebellion against the Valar as a rebellion against God. By contrast, Morgoth + Sauron come across as significantly less grand and more contemptible than Milton's Satan, I think. (hide spoiler)]

The Feanorian arc -- the tale of him and his sons -- both starts and ends the main story, but it is somewhat in the background during the "Three Great Tales," Tolkien’s collective term for the stories of Beren and Lúthien, The Children of Húrin, and The Fall of Gondolin. (The narrative compression of The Silmarillion means that quite a lot from the extended versions is left out. I’ve put a hold on The Fall of Gondolin at the library, but I’d really like to reread The Children of Húrin, eventually.)



a few of my favorite things:

favorite of the Valar: Nienna! I have rather mixed feelings about the Valar as a whole, but that would probably take an entire essay to sort out properly.

favorite chapter: The Nirnaeth Arnoediad, probably.

favorite character: Maedhros!!! On rereads I’ve come to appreciate many or even most characters, but he’s still my favorite. Without a doubt, he has one of the most compelling character arcs in the whole book; it was one of the few things that really stuck with me the first time I read it.

View all my reviews