The Silmarillion

In all my plethora of useless geek information, my knowledge of the Hobbitverse seems lacking, especially when my girlfriend can ace me on all things Lord of the Rings. I've seen the movies. I've read the books. Well, kinda. I believe the Hobbit was read to us in elementary school at some point. On my own, I've made it through Fellowship and halfway through Two Towers, but then I was distracted by something shiny. It was probably a C-3PO action figure. It's hard not to be distracted by the aesthetic glory of a nice, shiny droid.

So, after some prodding, she got me to sit down and read some of the opening passages of Tolkien's The Silmarillion. Now, this book is a collection of the myths, legends, and history of the early, early days of Middle-earth and the Hobbitverse. So far, I've read the two chapters preceding the Silmarillion proper, as well as the first chapter of the titular section.

The Ainulindale and Valaquenta talk about the creation of the Ainur (angel-like spirits) and the earth, as well as the inhabiting of the earth by the Ainur. It deals a lot with the strife between the Ainur at large and a renegade Ainur named Melkor (Lucifer parallel, anyone?). The Ainur are attributed pantheistic qualities, resembling the assortment of gods in Greek and Roman mythology.

Tolkien's writing is rich and dense. I found myself having to read the same paragraph over and over just to more fully grasp what was going on. A flurry of new and unfamiliar names were thrown at me and it was, at times, hard to keep up. However, even if you don't fully comprehend the text, Tolkien's style is so elegant that you realize you're reading something truly beautiful. It easily reminds me of ancient poetry, be it Biblical, Homeric, or other. However, it's a bit more streamlined than actual ancient texts, probably because it's the product of one mind instead of the cobbling together of various traditions and oral histories.

It's certainly neat and beautifully well-written. As a passive LotR fan, though, I didn't recognize a whole lot of what was going on. However, I must admit a twinge of excitement passing through me at a mention of Sauron in the Valaquenta. Finally, someone I know!

I don't know how much more of this I'll continue reading, though. Time will tell on that one. If I do proceed farther, it won't necessarily be because it's all LotR related (sorry Alanna!). It's actually very interesting just from the standpoint of being a modern creation of a purely fictitious mythology.

Somewhere, though, I'm sure some ultra-naive Christian leader would decry it a devilish and blasphemous act to read a mythology other than that of Christianity. I'll take my chances.