All tagged The Silmarillion
Sign Up for our Summer Book Club: The Silmarillion
I’m thrilled to share the details for our Summer 2022 Book Club: a ‘crash course’ in The Silmarillion. This Book Club was created for those who are interested in learning about the beginnings of Arda and all of the Great Tales that led up to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, but don’t have the time to devote to exploring every single detail of this story quite yet. I’m of the belief that once you make it through The Silmarillion once, you’ll find yourself wanting to re-read it over and over again - so this is meant to be a gateway into Tolkien’s greatest work.
Introducing The Silmarillion Reader’s Guide: a Free Resource from Tea with Tolkien
The Silmarillion is one of Tolkien’s most challenging works and yet also the most beautiful and important in my opinion. Many Tolkien fans new and old often feel intimidated by its depth and bewildered by its vocabulary, but it’s become my goal to encourage, equip, and inspire Tolkien fans to not only pick up The Silmarillion — but to finish it as well!
Our Silmarillion Book Club Wrap-Up Celebration (Spring Book Club 2021)
To celebrate the wrap-up of our Silmarillion book club, we’ve got activities going on all week! These are my way of saying thank-you to everyone who read along with us and participated in our discussions. I hope you’ll have a wonderful summer break and will join us in the fall to read The Lord of the Rings together!
Guide to The Silmarillion: Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age
"There at the last they looked upon death and defeat, and all their valour was in vain; for Sauron was too strong. Yet in that hour was put to the proof that which Mithrandir had spoken, and help came from the hands of the weak when the Wise faltered. For, as many songs have since sung, it was the Periannath, the Little People, dwellers in hillsides and meadows, that brought them deliverance."
Guide to The Silmarillion: Akallabêth: The Downfall of Númenor
“...Yet it seems that you desire now to have the good of both kindreds, to sail to Valinor when you will, and to return when you please to your homes. That cannot be. Nor can the Valar take away the gifts of Ilúvatar. The Eldar, you say, are unpunished, and even those who rebelled do not die. Yet that is to them neither reward nor punishment, but the fulfilment of their being. They cannot escape, and are bound to this world, never to leave it so long as it lasts, for its life is theirs. And you are punished for the rebellion of Men, you say, in which you had small part, and so it is that you die. But that was not at first appointed for a punishment. Thus you escape, and leave the world, and are not bound to it, in hope or in weariness. Which of us therefore should envy the others?” - JRR Tolkien
Guide to The Silmarillion: Of the Voyage of Eärendil and the War of Wrath (Ch. 24)
"Hail Eärendil, of mariners most renowned, the looked for that cometh at unawares, the longed for that cometh beyond hope! Hail Eärendil, bearer of light before the Sun and Moon! Splendour of the Children of Earth, star in the darkness, jewel in the sunset, radiant in the morning!"
Guide to The Silmarillion: Of Tuor and the Fall of Gondolin (Ch. 23)
"At last, in the year when Eärendil was seven years old, Morgoth was ready, and he loosed upon Gondolin his Balrogs, and his Orcs, and his wolves; and with them came dragons of the brood of Glaurung, and they were become now many and terrible." - Of Tuor and the Fall of Gondolin
Guide to The Silmarillion: Of The Ruin of Doriath (Ch. 22)
“Morgoth hath bewitched thee; for he that seeth through Morgoth’s eyes, willing or unwilling, seeth all things crooked. Long was Turin thy son fostered in the halls of Menegroth, and shown love and honour as the son of he King; and it was not by the King’s will nor by mine that he came never back to Doriath. And afterwards thy wife and thy daughter were harboured here with honour and goodwill; and we sought by all means that we might dissuade Morwen from the road to Nargothrond. With the voice of Morgoth thou dost now upbraid thy friends.”
Guide to The Silmarillion: Of Túrin Turambar (Ch. 21)
"Thereat Glaurung stirred for the last time ere he died, and he spoke with his last breath, saying: ‘Hail, Nienor, daughter of Húrin. We meet again ere the end. I give thee joy that thou hast found thy brother at last. And now thou shalt know him: a stabber in the dark, treacherous to foes, faithless to friends, and a curse unto his kin, Túrin son of Húrin! But the worst of all his deeds thou shalt feel in thyself.’ Then Glaurung died, and the veil of his malice was taken from her, and she remembered all the days of her life."
Guide to The Silmarillion: Of the Fifth Battle: Nirnaeth Arnoediad (Ch. 20)
"Great was the triumph of Morgoth, and his design was accomplished in a manner after his own heart; for Men took the lives of Men, and betrayed the Eldar, and fear and hatred were aroused among those that should have been united against him. From that day the hearts of the Elves were estranged from Men, save only those of the Three Houses of the Edain." - The Silmarillion