A short introduction to The Silmarillion, the first read in our Second Breakfast Book Club! Including fun tidbits about the structure and writing of the book.

It’s hard to know where to even begin in introducing such a seminal piece of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Legendarium. Have you read it? Have you heard of it?

The Silmarillion is not your typical novel. It’s quite different from The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, even though it’s thought of as a prequel of sorts to them both. But the more I learn about it, how much it meant to Tolkien and the time he put into crafting it, the more I appreciate it myself and want to get to know it better.

The Silmarillion was Tolkien’s labour of love. Writings from it precede even that of The Hobbit, and Tolkien seemed to make it his life work to put together. But it wasn’t published while he was alive. J.R.R. Tolkien died in 1973 and Christopher Tolkien, his son, worked on compiling and editing to publish The Silmarillion in 1977.

The book is broken into 5 parts – 2 preludes and 2 afterwards (of sorts), with The Quenta Silmarillion making up the bulk of the book:

• The Ainulindalë – the creation of Eä (the universe) and the fall of Melkor
• The Valaquenta – the who’s who of Eä, looking at the supernatural beings of the Valar and Maiar
• The Quenta Silmarillion – the longest part of The Silmarillion, telling the history of events before and during the First Age
• The Akallabêth – the history of the Second Age
• Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age – pretty self-explanatory, with lots of familiar faces and events, if you know LOTR

In What Order Should You Read Tolkien’s Books?

There are a lots of differing opinions to answer this question. But personally I don’t think there is only one correct order to read Tolkien’s books. The chronological order of his LOTR legendarium is:

• The Silmarillion
• The Hobbit
• The Fellowship of the Ring
• The Two Towers
• The Return of the King

I appreciate that The Prancing Pony Podcast goes through the books in this order. Here on this blog, I’m tackling them in the same order as I’m re-reading!

But I think for most first-time readers, myself included, that’s not the order one generally follows. Or that I’d even recommend. I actually read them myself in the opposite order. After being introduced to LOTR through Peter’s Jackson’s movies, it felt natural to start with The Fellowship of the Ring. The first time I tried to read The Silmarillion, it all pretty much went over my head. To be honest, I still feel like that at times reading it again almost two decades later.

The Silmarillion reads a bit more like a historical text than a standalone story, which is why it can be a hard book to start with. For some it might work. But for others it might be better to get to know Tolkien’s created world through more accessible stories like The Hobbit and LOTR, and then come back to The Silmarillion for even more rich background and history. Even then, it’s certainly not an easy page-turning read. But I believe it’s well worth the effort. It adds great richness and depth to Tolkien’s already masterful world-building in the LOTR. And the language is so stunningly beautiful that even when it’s tragically sad (which is often the case), it’s still, somehow, a joy to read.

Five Fun Tidbits

1. Early drafts date back as early as 1925. But there are traces of inspiration that go back even further than that. For example, in May 1917, The Tolkien Society’s Timeline says, ‘Tolkien is inspired by watching Edith dance in a ‘hemlock’ glade near Roos. This is the germ for the meeting of Lúthien and Beren in his legendarium.’ How lovely is that? The connections between Tolkien and Edith, and Beren and Luthien, go beyond even that.
2. Christopher Tolkien edited The Silmarillion (we are so indebted to the work he did). But what I didn’t know is that he was helped by Canadian fantasy writer Guy Gavriel Kay. I’d never heard of Kay before, but now I need to check out his work. If you’ve read any of his writings, let me know!
3. After The Hobbit was published and became quite successful, Tolkien submitted an incomplete but fleshed-out version of The Silmarillion to his publisher (can you imagine?!). It was rejected, and instead, Tolkien was asked to write something more about hobbits – leading to LOTR.
4. The Silmarillion starts with the creation of the universe (no big deal) and goes all the way to the end of the Third Age, to the story we’re more familiar in LOTR.
5. Tolkien did not seem all that concerned with spoilers. They seem to drop all over the place in The Silmarillion! So I’ve decided I’m not going to be all that worried about it here as well. I hope that’s ok with you! I really believe that even if you know how the story ends (and Tolkien’s prone to dropping those details without warning throughout the book), the joy of reading The Silmarillion is really in how he tells the story itself. The richness and beauty of the language that he masterfully weaves is truly spell-binding. I’d say that about all of Tolkien’s works, but there’s just something about The Silmarillion particularly.

The Silmarillion Reading Schedule

I hope that’s been a helpful introduction to The Silmarillion. Now, are you ready to dive in? Then check out the Second Breakfast Book Club series! Look out for frequent updates on the @tolkientidbits Instagram feed, and the Reading Schedule if you want to follow along!