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    The Silmarillion
    The Silmarillion
    The Silmarillion
    Audiobook14 hours

    The Silmarillion

    Written by J. R. R. Tolkien

    Narrated by Martin Shaw

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    The forerunner to The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion tells the earlier history of Middle-earth, recounting the events of the First and Second Ages, and introducing some of the key characters, such as Galadriel, Elrond, Elendil and the Dark Lord, Sauron.

    The tales of The Silmarillion are set in an age when Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, dwelt in Middle-Earth, and the High Elves made war upon him for the recovery of the Silmarils, the jewels containing the pure light of Valinor.

    Included in the book are several shorter works. The Ainulindale is a myth of the Creation and in the Valaquenta the nature and powers of each of the gods is described. The Akallabeth recounts the downfall of the great island kingdom of Númenor at the end of the Second Age and Of the Rings of Power tells of the great events at the end of the Third Age, as narrated in The Lord of the Rings.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 29, 2015
    ISBN9780008168537
    Author

    J. R. R. Tolkien

    J.R.R. Tolkien (1892–1973) was a distinguished academic, though he is best known for writing The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion, plus other stories and essays. His books have been translated into over sixty languages and have sold many millions of copies worldwide.

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    Reviews for The Silmarillion

    4/5

    7,300 ratings164 reviews

    What our readers think

    Readers find this title to be a magnificent and fascinating work. It is wonderfully narrated and captures the epic nature of the sagas. The book provides a great deal of information and context for Tolkien fans, although some find it difficult to follow and overly detailed. The depth and complexity of the book's world-building is both amazing and impressive. While there are a few negative reviews, overall, readers appreciate the storytelling and recommend this book for those who enjoy Middle-earth lore and want to delve deeper into Tolkien's mythology.

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      This book would basically be the bible of Middle Earth. It's not an easy read if you aren't obsessed with the source material. But if you are, it's well worth your time.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Truly testament to the unrivalled genius of Tolkien. Depth of the Legendarium alive as a real world teeming. Takes the audience upon a journey.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      One of my favourites. It has a broader, more epic scope than LotR and in my opinion, you need to read it to appreciate LotR fully.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      I was a bit disappointed with the Silmarillion and I never finished reading it. I picked odd bits of interesting information, but much of it was frankly boring.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      I almost gave this a four star but I had to really concentrate while listening to this book, otherwise I would start thinking of other things and miss great swaths of the book. However it has to be a high three star because while it's all tell and no show, the language is wonderful. Perhaps Martin Shaw reading this book aloud for me did the trick but I really enjoyed the sound of the reading - all those elven words sound so lyrical. It was probably a good thing I read The Origins of Tolkien's Middle Earth for Dummies book before reading this, because I feel I was able to take much more out of the stories due to knowing the overall plot-lines of each story. However, the Dummies book does have quote a few spoilers. I enjoyed the fact that this was like a bible for the Lord of the Rings series. And if you know your history, you can pull quite a bit of references out that may have inspired some stories. A lot was obviously taken from Christianity, but there's some Greek history there and Saxon, etc. Probably only for those big fans of Tolkien, but I enjoyed it more than anticipated.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Epicest story I've read in my life as a human

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      Hard book to review. The voice performance of Serkis is wonderful and is what kept me going through a book I've started many times and never finished (until now). Tolkien's work, unlike nearly all other fantasy writers, is borne specifically out of the love of languages, and it shows strongly in the worldbuilding, as does his love of the various sagas in European history (the rings being a peculiar recurring motif). But the stories presented here aren't compelling and approachable in the way Hobbit and Lord of the Rings are. They're much closer to the choppy and distant tellings of real world examples like Beowulf. You're not being told them as much as told about them. Compared with (heresy of heresies) something like Fire and Blood, the latter is written to be accessible and to keep some plot and mystery going despite the fictional nonfiction format. Silmarillion by comparison has much more poetic imagery and mythology, it just doesn't translate to a compelling story. Much like the Bible has a tendency to cause eyes to glaze over at too much of the begatting.
    • 5/5
      JRR Tolkien the master and creator of fantasy works. I thank god for his gift of this author who was a great part of my childhood. Thank you JRR Tolkien for being there for me when I was either depressed or sad
    • 3/5
      Brilliantly written but extremely challenging to read. Narrator was good!
    • 5/5
      Great listen! First half is pretty heavy history, lineage, and lore. Little more story after that. More of an overall summary of LOTR.
    • 5/5
      If you like Lord of the Rings and Middle Earth, this is a great summary of the early history and background of the storyline. It introduces the "gods" of Middle Earth, recounts the arrival of the various peoples, including Elves, Dwarfs, etc. Introduces Morgoth, Sauron, Orcs and other bad-nasties, and the men who would be heroes. This is a first class edition of the book. It has special binding, great illustrations, and an introduction. It's hard to slog through if you're not familiar with Tolkien's writing style, but well worth the effort.
    • 5/5
      Exquisite book and great reading. My first time finishing an audiobook.
    • 5/5
      Amazing book, good plot and very good writing. The voice actor and perfect for this kind of story. Totally recommend this book!!!
    • 3/5
      some parts had poor audio (overlapping narration). not sure if my device or the download was the issue.
    • 5/5
      Magnificent indeed are the works of Tolkien, a tale that carries both great joy and greater still than that, sorrow. But masterfully woven!
    • 5/5
      I am a Tolkien fan.. I loved listening to this book.
    • 4/5
      Difficult to follow and overly detailed but a great history for Tolkien fans. Provides all the context you’d care to read.
    • 4/5
      As I've always heard, this is a very hard read. It reads like a textbook but if you love Middle-earth lore there is so much information in this book.
    • 4/5
      So magical and whimsical and full of adventure! This book is not for those who are bored with history, fictional or real. It’s not a difficult book, it’s a magical one.
    • 5/5
      The depth that Tolkien goes into in these books is amazing, a whole history and languages! At times it’s hard to keep up at times with everything but I enjoyed it none the less.
    • 1/5
      Horrible. It reads like a textbook and put me right to sleep…so great for my insomnia. There is no story at all to this book. Only contains the world building facts. If you are a huge fan of Tolkien and just want more facts about the world, then this book is for you. If you like to hear a good story, however, just walk away from this one. I couldn’t even finish. I thought it was going to be more stories about the older characters, I was wrong.
    • 1/5
      Ok, hear me out. I think The Hobbit is one of the best fantasy books of its time, and the Lord of the Rings trilogy is a great series if you can handle the density of the in world history.

      But The Simarillion is at its heart a retelling of Christianity, the parallels are all over it, and it’s written like it’s a religious tome. It’s lists of names, and short retellings of the history of Middle Earth. It covers eons in a couple hundred pages and really just leaves you wanting more from Tolkien that’s written in the style of The Hobbit.

      But it was really hard to listen to for me having come from a Christian background and leaving that cult because if felt like an author I e grown up with shoving that religion back down my throat, so I’m done with Tolkien for the foreseeable future
    • 5/5
      Wonderful! Great reader. Tolkien is an incredible storyteller. I enjoyed every minute.
    • 5/5
      Test z z z z z z z z z
    • 5/5
      Amazing. Blows my mind. Seemed to me this time as a complex poetic and fictional parallel to the Biblical Old Testament History. It could have been an inspiration, who knows?
    • 2/5
      A great audiobook, but not a great book. Christopher Tolkien's The Silmarillion very much feels like it's cobbled together from various mythologies and loose ends from JRR's work, and is nowhere near the quality of the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. A dreary, hopeless pseudohistorical slog, its incongruous nature is evident from shoehorning the Olympian gods into scraps of Norse myth, and making Sauron, simultaneously a werewolf and a vampire, into Vader to Morgoth's Palpatine. If you love the wordier mythologies (e.g. Indian, Chinese) and Warhammer 40k, then you'll love The Silmarillion. If you love the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit, steer clear.
    • 5/5
      An epic. A classic. Sophisticated yet moving; tragic but glorious. Tolkien’s greatest literary achievement.
    • 5/5
      Excellent! I stayed engaged from the first page. Very compelling reading.
    • 2/5
      i was disappointed in the silmarillion. i only read the lord of the rings trilogy this year, and was so amazed at how enthralling it all was. i just flew through them, absolutely great books. but the silmarillion i found to be so dull, with the exception of a chapter or two. mostly a chore to read.
    • 2/5
      Interesting for detail and background, but quite boring to read. There's so much detail.