The Silmarillion

Tolkien considered The Silmarillion his most important work, and, though it was published last and posthumously, this great collection of tales and legends clearly sets the stage for all his other writing. The story of the creation of the world and of the First Age, this is the ancient drama to which the characters in The Lord of the Rings look back and in whose events some of them, such as Elrond and Galadriel, took part. The three Silmarils were jewels created by Feanor, most gifted of the Elves. Within them was imprisoned the Light of the Two Trees of Valinor before the Trees themselves were destroyed by Morgoth, the first Dark Lord. Thereafter, the unsullied Light of Valinor lived on only in the Silmarils, but they were seized by Morgoth and set in his crown, which was guarded in the impenetrable fortress of Angband in the north of Middle-earth. The Silmarillion is the history of the rebellion of Feanor and his kindred against the gods, their exile from Valinor and return to Middle-earth, and their war, hopeless despite all their heroism, against the great Enemy.

This second edition features a letter written by J.R.R. Tolkien describing his intentions for the book, which serves as a brilliant exposition of his conception of the carlier Ages of Middle-earth.

This is the story of the First Age, the ancient drama to which characters in "The Lord of the Rings" look back.

"Majestic!...readers of THE HOBBIT and THE LORD OF THE RINGS...will find THE SILMARILLION a cosmology to call their own...medieval romances, fierce fairy tales and fiercer wars that ring with heraldic fury...it overwhelms the reader."
TIME Those interested in J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth should not be without this grand volume that tells the tragic tale of the struggle for control of the Silmarils, a struggle that would determine the history of the world long before the War of the Ring.

Publishers Weekly

J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy novel The Silmarillion (1977), published four years after his death, continued the saga of the mythological kingdom of Middle-Earth, begun in his epic trilogy Lord of the Rings. Christopher Tolkien, son of the English novelist and medievalist, here reconstructs the evolution of The Silmarillion using his father's manuscripts and notes and adding his own extensive commentaries and annotations. Picking up where this massive study left off, he reprints the entire text of the unfinished Grey Annals (begun around 1930, reworked in the 1950s, and largely incorporated in The Silmarillion). Amid momentous battles and heroic deeds, we learn how Hurin the Steadfast, released after 28 years of captivity in Morgoth's fortress, journeys among the forest people of Brethril, spreading disaster, and follow the exploits of his son Turin Turambar and daughter Nienor. Included also are J.R.R. Tolkien's discussion of his characters' motives, his detailed maps of imaginary realism, and his essays on the origins and meanings of elvish words and the Dwarves' elaborate gestural language. For hard-core Tolkien devotees and scholars.

It seems an unlikely formula for success: an Oxford professor of Anglo-Saxon, and a book that begins with a little man who lives in a hole in the ground. But The Hobbit, followed by The Lord of the Rings, created the modern genre of heroic fantasy and made J.R.R. Tolkien one of the most widely-read authors in the world.