The heroes of The Silmarillion all have their own stories to tell, and you cheapen their valour if you view them only through the narrow lens of a later tale.
Man, I wish Peter Jackson had nailed that sentence to his wall when he was writing the Hobbit screenplay. Or Lucas, with the Star Wars prequels.
Jewish Steel
I wish Peter Jackson had occasionally referred to the title of the book whilst writing the screenplay.
My wife and I rewatched the LOTR trilogy over Christmas. This was shortly after having listened to the trilogy as read by Robert Inglis (which was a revelation, btw. so good!). We had liked them well enough in the theater, but on reflection I’ve got to agree with Christopher Tolkien: I think JRR would have hated the films.
The Hobbit movies retroactively soured me on the LOTR movies. i was willing to forgive Jackson’s modifications of LOTR because the whole thing basically worked. but the first two Hobbit movies were so aggressively ridiculous that i started seeing Jackson’s ridiculousness in the LOTR movies, too. never saw the third Hobbit movie.
just started LOTR books again, trying to wash away some of that sour.
Jewish Steel
Again, you and my wife are leading parallel Tolkien lives. I’m sure she’d say much the same thing. I don’t know if she even saw the second.
Jewish Steel
My wife says, “I tried to read it as a teenager but it was too boring. Too many names!”
The Silmarillion is what tells me the limits of my Tolkien fandom. I read LOTR and the Hobbit the first time in elementary school, bought the calendar, learned to write tengwar calligraphy; now decades later I occasionally spend evenings discussing themes with my wife… but man, I could never penetrate the Silmarillion.
I excuse myself with the assertion that JRR wrote it mostly for his own sake, and it was never really ready for publication.
i gave up. i made it about 1/4 of the way through. but the faux-Biblical writing and the never-ending cast of characters and twelve-letter place names makes it too much of a slog.
It repays its debt tenfold.
Although I’ve never tried to read it.
Mike, this article is tempting me…
From that article:
Man, I wish Peter Jackson had nailed that sentence to his wall when he was writing the Hobbit screenplay. Or Lucas, with the Star Wars prequels.
I wish Peter Jackson had occasionally referred to the title of the book whilst writing the screenplay.
My wife and I rewatched the LOTR trilogy over Christmas. This was shortly after having listened to the trilogy as read by Robert Inglis (which was a revelation, btw. so good!). We had liked them well enough in the theater, but on reflection I’ve got to agree with Christopher Tolkien: I think JRR would have hated the films.
The Hobbit movies retroactively soured me on the LOTR movies. i was willing to forgive Jackson’s modifications of LOTR because the whole thing basically worked. but the first two Hobbit movies were so aggressively ridiculous that i started seeing Jackson’s ridiculousness in the LOTR movies, too. never saw the third Hobbit movie.
just started LOTR books again, trying to wash away some of that sour.
Again, you and my wife are leading parallel Tolkien lives. I’m sure she’d say much the same thing. I don’t know if she even saw the second.
My wife says, “I tried to read it as a teenager but it was too boring. Too many names!”
My experience was the same.
The Silmarillion is what tells me the limits of my Tolkien fandom. I read LOTR and the Hobbit the first time in elementary school, bought the calendar, learned to write tengwar calligraphy; now decades later I occasionally spend evenings discussing themes with my wife… but man, I could never penetrate the Silmarillion.
I excuse myself with the assertion that JRR wrote it mostly for his own sake, and it was never really ready for publication.
i gave up. i made it about 1/4 of the way through. but the faux-Biblical writing and the never-ending cast of characters and twelve-letter place names makes it too much of a slog.