All in Book Club
“Here ends the Silmarillion; and if it has passed from the high and the beautiful to darkness and ruin, that was of old the fate of Arda Marred; and if any change shall come and the Marring be amended, Manwë and Varda may know; but they have not revealed it, and it is not declared in the dooms of Mandos.”
Thank you so much to everyone who has been participating in our Silmarillion Summer Read-Along! As we are moving on to Part Two this week, I wanted to share a recap of what we’ve read and discussed in Part One. I’ve really enjoyed keeping up with the text chat, and our voice chats have been an absolute delight!
Finwë was wed to Míriel, and their son Fëanor was born. However, after the birth of Fëanor, Míriel languished and was unable to continue living. She went to Lórien to rest, and her spirit departed from her body and went to the Halls of Mandos. Finwë was grieved at the loss of his wife. Fëanor grew swiftly and was the most subtle in mind and skilled in hand of the Noldor. Fëanor devised letters that bear his name (Fëanorian letters), and was the first who discovered how to make gems. Fëanor was married to Nerdanel.
After it came up during our last discord chat, I wanted to share some recommended Silmarillion Reading Resources as well as favorite editions of The Silmarillion for those who were interested.
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!
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.
I’m thrilled to announce our fall book club today and share some details about it. We’ll be reading The Lord of the Rings over the course of six months, beginning in September 2021. For more details and to join, use the newsletter form at the bottom of this post.
Hello, friends! The Tea with Tolkien community is excited to announce our next book club: a read-along of The Silmarillion, beginning in January! You can find the schedule below.
There are many ways to participate in this free, virtual Book Club! The easiest way to join is signing up with your email address — from there we’ll send a link to our private discord server directly to your inbox, and you’ll also receive weekly emails once the book club begins. I’ll be posting about the book club on social media so if you’d like to join the discussions on twitter or Instagram, look for the hashtag #teawithtolkienbookclub.
