[Lord Kendis Dai]

THIS IS LONG BUT PLEASE READ THANKS !

I have never read any of Tolkein's works exept for the hobbit but i can say this - the Silimarilion ROCKS!!! i will explain... 5 years ago when i was still playing AD&D and other RPG's with my friends i came across allmost every possible game i could but we allways got bored of em... Then one day one of my friends who usually DM'd sayd: "give me 2 months of planning i'll D.M you the best RPG you guys could ever hoped for". We started the game as a humaniod figures that are surrounded in compleate darkness... we had to discover who we actually are later on we discoverd that we are one of the FIRST ELVES that where brought to MiddleEarth by the Inor... we started to develop our civilization we gatherd experience through inventing basic things like clothes, wheel, fire, horse riding, hounting.. much more complexed things later. We later on discoverd magic through singings and wrote poems deticated to the Inor and Eru. We started to form a hierarchy within the elvish people... we were Friends and generals to the Greatest leader of the elves - F'eanor (if im not mistaken). Some of us possesed great strength and skill of arms, some of us where weaker but where intelligent and skilled in the arts of song-magic or deticated themselves to their Inor-gods and got their powers through them. When we first encounterd the strange creatures - the orcs, we did not knew what evil was, we did not knew they where our twisted brothers... We did not knew what war was before we saw their Dark horrible steal-sticks with sharp edges (swords), We did not knew what death was before they started to butcher elves... then some of us decided we need to fight back... others sayd that the elves will never resort to violence.. Our people started to devide... we started to move from our place of genesis - we went on the side of Fe'anor and thus began our Great jurney in our quest for the devine Lands of Rivendell - Imladris, The Last safe Haven. We fought wars, faced hard decitions... Our jurney was long and hard but we finally reached our destination. we spoke with the inor, some of us (players) started to develop their great fighting skills, some focused on reaserch and inventions, and new forms of magic, some pledjed themselves to their Inor - god. centuries later we came back to MiddleEarth to fight the greatest war and to rid the world of the great evil of Melkor - The forsaken Inor and the strongest of them. we met other races like the dwarves, and later on Humans. We ventured to Luthrelorien, we met Galadriel and learend new Song magics from her. we Held the silimarils along with Fe'anors sons. we Fought to rescue them from the hands of the Dark armies. we signed alliance treaties, fought wars, created great catsels of silver with the help of magic, built great underground Cities that are entierly made of Gold,Platinum,Gems.. deticated shrines and worshiped the inor while we where fighting and exploring the edges of the world..
We won the great wars agains Baulrog and we banished the invading evil from our lands...

Again i have NEVER read the Silmarilion but it IS the greatest story i have ever heard/playd. I know all of this BY HEART never read a single word of the book itself. Its allmost like i once lived there in MiddleEarth long ago... in an other lifetime.... IT CHANGED MY LIFE!!!!!
U'll be suprised but it took us more than 1 and a half years to finish the game and we wanted to keep playing at the end but we ended in the 'The reaturn of the king' only we didnt had much to do with the Lord of the rings story (our Dungeon master wanted to avoid it).

I reccomend ANYONE who Never read the Silmarilion to try and read it BUT you have to have alot of imagination beacuse from what i heard the book itself is very hard but the story is GREAT, i have heard from people that if the Silmarilion was written a bit diffrently it would have been regarded as the BEST book of the century - if JRR tolkein would have finished it instead of his son. Alot of people say LOTR is better - i never read LOTR but i can say these people probobly didnt understood The Silmarilion as they should have... people with great imagination ( That aren't wackoes http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/smile.gif) would understand what i mean.
I wish y'all could see my great , perfect vision of the Silmarilion.

Again thank you for Taking the time to read this and i wish you Good luck.

Til' next time, greetz..

[Mithfânion]

Hear hear! It's absolutely magnificent and anyoen who loved the LoTR should at least give it a try. It's Middle-earth's grand history!

[estranghero]

Well, there's a very good interview with JRR Tolkien on Fantastic Metropolis when he was still alive. Here's the address:
http://www.sfsite.com/fm/show.html?iw,tolkien,1

(Hope Gabe likes the free plug... http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/wink.gif)

[Mithfânion]

That was pretty nice

Well done chap http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/smile.gif

[Shehzad]

Hear! Hear!

[SirRob]

The Silmarrilion was just so dull and complex I couldn't get any enjoyment out of it and hardly managed to finish it. Even though it is quite interesting in places its so bogged down by the endless list of families and dynasties and heroic deeds its impossible to remember who's who because the way its written isn't lively or simple enough to make you care. I wasn't expecting it to be your usual modern clearly written fantasy book but I wasn't expecting so .. stuffy. Its the kind of book you have to study.

[Kingslayer]

SirRob:How far did you get into it?After the 1st third I thought it got much better, although I enjoyed the first part to.You have to be a big fan of Tolkien to really enjoy it.

[Giarc]

While I personally disagree with SirRob's opinion, I do understand where he is coming from. It's not your run-of-the-mill fantasy novel, nor is it intended to be. It is what I like to think of as 'epic fantasy'....the fantasy equivalent of Homer's Iliad, or even the Odyssey, except focussed on the story of middle earth instead of on any one person.

The beauty of it is that is is so rich, and full of gorgeous detail, that every time you read it you discover a new gem...another great tale...not buried, but awaiting discovery, hidden within the myriad complexities of the story. Each time you read, you meet old friends and find new ones. It's an entirely different style of book to LOTR or the Hobbit, or of any of the recent fantasy authors. I'm not sure it needs to be /studied/. In fact, I'm sure Prof Tolkien would be appalled at the very thought. I do think it bears repeated readings, however. The detail can be overwhelming at first, but once you have the knack of it it is simply mind-blowing stuff.

That said, it won't always appeal to some who love the modern fantasy novel, but to others it will nourish and enrich the soul: immersing them into the epic history of a world that has no parallel IMHO.

The distant clash of arms, the song of Luthien Tinuviel, the siege of Angband, and the battle of un-numbered tears. The treachery and the valour of men, the majesty of the ride from hidden Gondolin, the futile courage and despair of Fingolfin, the terrible wrath and recklessness of Feanor. The horror of Ungoliant, /armies/ of Balrogs, and the father of Dragons, Glaurung...

I think I need to read it all again! http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/wink.gif

[Qin]

It took me three tries to actually make it through the book. By the third try I wisened up and purchase Blind Guardian's album 'Nightfall in Middle-earth' to help me get through the album. Surprisingly the two complement one another fairly well.

It is a difficult book to read, since it's written in a very dry style in the fashion of the ancient epics such as Beowulf, the Volsungs, etc.

That's part of the charm of the Silmarillion, to read a book written in such a style.

[alison]

I wouldn't call Beowulf "dry" (nor the Iliad or the Odyssey or Gilgamesh or the Bible or any of those other ancient epics, for that matter) but I can understand that they're not everybody's cup of tea.

I think the Silmarillion's definitely for hardcore Tolkine fans. The creation of the world by Iluvatar is my favourtie bit: what a beautiful image, the universe as a symphony of music! And in a funny way, not so far from string theory...

Alison