The Silmarillion

By J R R Tolkien. 

Narrated by Martin Shaw.

[The Silmarillion is an account of the Elder Days, of the First Age of Tolkien's world. It is the ancient drama to which the characters in The Lord of the Rings look back, and in whose events some of them such as Elrond and Galadriel took part. The tales of The Silmarillion are set in an age when Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, dwelt in Middle-Earth, and the High Elves made war upon him for the recovery of the Silmarils, the jewels containing the pure light of Valinor.

Included in the book are several shorter works. 'The Ainulindale' is a myth of the Creation and in the Valaquenta the nature and powers of each of the gods is described. 'The Akallabeth' recounts the downfall of the great island kingdom of Númenor at the end of the Second Age and 'Of the Rings of Power' tells of the great events at the end of the Third Age, as narrated in The Lord of the Rings.]

I've been wanting to read this one for a while now and I had, in fact, started it a long time ago but I just found it quite difficult to get my head around, so I thought listening to it would be a bit easier!

I certainly understood it better, especially as I read a review beforehand saying that you should think of it more as a bible instead of an ongoing story, a bible of how the Tolkien world and specific characters came about.

I thought, overall, it was good, a lot to take in, and interesting to see how everything was created and linked up to the following novels. I must admit, I got confused at times and still had to read a summary guide after each chapter just to make sure I understood what was going on. The narrator had a very soothing voice so I kept missing bits as well, my mind wandering away to other things!

I also tended to get very excited whenever someone I knew was mentioned (i.e. Galadriel, Gandalf, Saruman, Sauron, Aragorn, Frodo, Elrond and even Shelob's ancestor!)

Definitely worth a read if you're interested in knowing a full in-depth backstory. Very descriptive as always and am even more eager to re-read Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit again.



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