Kevin's Watch

What are your favourite parts in this book?

The tale of Luthien and Beren, a beautiful bittersweet love story. There is an illustration in my copy of the Silmarillion of Luthien dancing in the woods in the moonlight, such a captivating picture.... and this song......

Farewell sweet earth and northern sky
for ever blest, since here did lie
and here with lissom limbs did run
beneath the Moon, beneath the Sun,
Luthien Tinuviel
more fair than mortal tongue can tell.
Though all to ruin fell the world
and were dissolved and backward hurled
unmade into the old abyss,
yet were its making good, for this-
the dusk, the dawn, the earth, the sea-
that Luthien for a time should be.

The tale of the children of Hurin is a sad but good tale.

I am another fan of Beren and Luthien, especially ever since Zahir told me about how it was inspired by the meeting of Tolkien and his wife...

I also like the stories woven around the great city of Gondolin...

I like it when Felagund discovers Mankind for the first time.

And any part Feanor was in.

As a silly romantic I will third Infelice and the Duchess... But I am very fond of the creation of the world as well.

Just the whole description of Beleriand. And the stuff about Mim.

Hail Landwaster! I concur with you completely. IMO, The Silmarillion is better than the LOTR. Does anyone esle think this?

I find it more readable, and more satisfying ... so yeah, I guess I think its better!

The Silmarillion has a pure epic quality that LOTR doesn't quite match, and most of the prose is astoundingly beautiful. You can tell the man worked on it as a labour of love for almost 60 years. Of course it has the flaws you would expect in an unfinished work. The ending is especially weak, because Tolkien never got around to describing Eärendil or the War of Wrath in any detail. A pity.

I've read the plot-outline for the Tale of Eärendil in The Book Of Lost Tales, and I agree with Christopher Tolkien that it's the most grievous lacuna in all of JRRT's works. Apparently Eärendil was to have made seven great sea-voyages, in one of which he would slay Ungoliant; but only on the seventh voyage would he finally win through to Valinor to fulfil his mission. Based on the outline, the Tale of Eärendil alone would have been just about as long as the rest of The Silmarillion combined.

I just hope JRRT was right about the Workhouse and the Delectable Mountains, because when I get there (um Gottes willen) the Tale of Eärendil is just about the first book I want to read. He'd better have written it in the meantime!

Variol Farseer wrote:The Silmarillion has a pure epic quality that LOTR doesn't quite match, and most of the prose is astoundingly beautiful. You can tell the man worked on it as a labour of love for almost 60 years. Of course it has the flaws you would expect in an unfinished work. The ending is especially weak, because Tolkien never got around to describing Eärendil or the War of Wrath in any detail. A pity.

I've read the plot-outline for the Tale of Eärendil in The Book Of Lost Tales, and I agree with Christopher Tolkien that it's the most grievous lacuna in all of JRRT's works. Apparently Eärendil was to have made seven great sea-voyages, in one of which he would slay Ungoliant; but only on the seventh voyage would he finally win through to Valinor to fulfil his mission. Based on the outline, the Tale of Eärendil alone would have been just about as long as the rest of The Silmarillion combined.

I just hope JRRT was right about the Workhouse and the Delectable Mountains, because when I get there (um Gottes willen) the Tale of Eärendil is just about the first book I want to read. He'd better have written it in the meantime!

With you on all points there Variol!

I agree that the Silmarillion has a more epic feel and atmosphere, and that its prose is extremely refined and suited to the stories of the First ( and Second ) Age; and yes, Earendil's voyage is something I would have liked to read more about, too. Still, the book - unfinished as it is - is to me equal to the Lord of the Rings, which I rate just as much because of the sense of belonging you get reading it, more than the Silmarillion. You can identify yourself more easily with many characters in LotR, and you can also more easily imagine the world described in immediate detail in that book, thus in my opinion LotR is more vivid and gives you more of an illusion of being there, or at least, that that world was real at one time, whereas the Silmarillion, partly by choice, is more of an ancient chronicle, and it doesn't have that same vivid quality. But as for my favourite part, I can't but agree with most of the others - the tale of Beren and Luthien is the most beautiful and stirring part of the book, and all the more so because it is based on Tolkien's relationship with his wife, and thus it is written with Tolkien's heart, more than everything else he wrote; also, it is the foundation around which he created Middle-Earth.

Turin Turambar at the waters of Ivrin. (I wonder if Tull Bloodguard ever found his way there...he needed them just as direly.)

Thus befell the contest of Sauron and Felagund which is renowned. For Felagund strove with Sauron in songs of power, and the power of the King was very great; but Sauron had the mastery, as is told in the Lay of Leithian:

He chanted a song of wizardry,
Of piercing, opening, of treachery,
Revealing, uncovering, betraying.
Then sudden Felagund there swaying
Sang in answer a song of staying,
Resisting, battling against power,
Of secrets kept, strength like a tower,
And trust unbroken, freedom, escape;
Of changing and of shifting shape,
Of snares eluded, broken traps,
The prison opening, the chain that snaps.

Backwards and forwards swayed their song.
Reeling and foundering, as ever more strong
The chanting swelled, Felagund fought,
And all the magic and might he brought
Of Elvenesse into his words.
Softly in the gloom they heard the birds
Singing afar in Nargothrond,
The sighing of the Sea beyond,
Beyond the western world, on sand,
On sand of pearls in Elvenland.

Then the gloom gathered; darkness growing
In Valinor, the red blood flowing
Beside the Sea, where the Noldor slew
The Foamriders, and stealing drew
Their white ships with their white sails
From lamplit havens. The wind wails,
The wolf howls. The ravens flee.
The ice mutters in the mouths of the Sea.
The captives sad in Angband mourn.
Thunder rumbles, the fires burn-
And Finrod fell before the throne.

The whole curse and civil betrayal of the Nolder and how it truly dominates and intertwines with darn near everything was just awesome for me....and to think that thousands of years later there still would be Galadriel running around freakin people out

The Tale of Luthien and Beren for me. I just like that a lot.

I also like the creation. That is cool too. I love just saying the characters names.

I hate to be a spoiler on this one but "Tale of Luthien and Beren" to me is the weakest of all, after Mim, sorry Landwaster

Is there any weaker character than Beren?

For the most part he gets beat again and again.
Killed a few times and then ALWAYS gets his butt saved at the last minute by someone else.

What did Luthien see in that loser?
A pretty face?
I'm better than Beren!
She should have picked me!!!


Ok, now to the original question.
I liked the AKALLABÊTH at the end the best, I think.