I read the Silmarillion after watching this and it helped so much. I put the audiobook on, I put a map up on my iPad, and read along at the same time. 100% immersed, and felt like I would get a 5/5 on a AP Beleriand History exam.

The real eye-opener for me, upon finishing The Silmarillion, was seeing the entire Lord of the Rings tale condensed into less than three pages in the typically terse Silmarillion style. It made me realize that any given three OTHER pages throughout The Silmarillion might represent similar condensations and could be expanded like LotR was.

Pirate 1: "You know you can't read." Pirate 2: "It's the Silmarillion. You get credit for trying."

I read one chapter a night and that was a beautiful experience. Take each chapter as a self-contained short story that is interconnected through the book.

I started with the Silmarillion before reading Lord of the Rings and it's worked for me. It's like a history book or the Bible but it's outstandingly well-written. Understanding all of those little stories makes the trilogy a much better experience. HOWEVER, I love history and I commonly read history books. The Silmarillion is closer to a book about the Peloponnesian War or the Illiad than it is Lord of the Rings.

Your editing is killing it my friend!

The Silmarillion might not have a protagonist, but it has one of the greatest antagonists of all time.

Growing up, in the early 70's I watched the animated version of The Hobbit, and instantly became fascinated by Tolkien's imaginary world. I will never forget going to B. Dalton's bookseller in 1977 at Eastridge Mall in San Jose. I was 12 years old at that time, and loved to read. Right inside the bookstore was a large tower made of The Silmarillion, laid out in circular form. I stared in amazement and became transfixed by my find. It was the first hardback book that I bought, and I read it all the way through that night. It captivated me completely, and became the one book that I re-read every 5 years or so, finding new things to amaze me each time. It's a classic!!!

I’ve started listening to it as an Audiobook and it’s completely changed the way I experienced it from the first time around. Also, being a little more familiar with the layout of middle earth and not having to flip back and forth to the map is a game changer.

I like to think of The Silmarillion as a mythological book that existed in Middle Earth itself, that people there could read to learn about Middle Earth's history. It's quite meta in that respect in a way that LOTR isn't, and as a result feels like an artefact directly from that world, which is a fun thought

What got me into the Silmarillion after LOTR was watching Nerd of the Rings videos, and watched some videos on Morgoth and the first age, where I saw a reading suggestion from him. He said to read "The Children of Húrin" first, as this helped acquaint the reader with Beleriand, and using this and the knowledge from his videos, I was able to read the Silmarillion very easily. One thing I'm not sure people know about is the maps, genealogies, charts to show the sundering of the elves and their divisions, and the list of almost all names with definitions in the back of the book.

As a mainly non-fiction reader, The Silmarillion is the only fantasy book I'm willing to read again. The best modern epic in the English language!

Something I'd like to add, is that you really do need to read it more than once. Certain characters sound like they'll be important then end up not being important. Once you've read it once and remember the key points, you'll have a better idea of which characters to devote your memory to your second reading.

It's a History book. Read it like a historical tale. Focus on Lineage, characters succession, developments, dates of important milestones, success, tragedies. Referring to Genealogies is helpful. Unfortunately, the one in the book are inadequate, and it is better to find detailed charts on Tolkien websites online. I tackled it by making my own in a Journal. I found reading the illustrated edition by Ted Nasmith helpful in absorbing the world of Arda. It helps in mental visualisation, a construct that some readers may find themselves challenged with. Finally, using the Tolkien Atlas of the middle Earth by Karen Waynn alongside makes the whole experience exhilarating. Hope this helps.

My first time reading the Silmarillion was COMPLETELY different from the second time. First read-through took ages, and in the end I barely understood anything. Second time, however, spanned over about two and a half days, and it didn't even feel difficult.

I picked-up The Silmarillion in high-school (35+ years ago) after becoming entranced in the Tolkien universe. I re-read The Lord of the Rings and kept The Silmarillion by my side. As soon as a new character or landmark popped-up I would search the name in The Silmarillion. What a wonderful series of rabbit holes that led me through. I then went back and read The Silmarillion from front to back. I think it's time to do that again.

I was drawn to learning about the lore and reading the books due to my curiosity of Morgoth. I'm currently on the Fellowship of The Ring and am really looking forward to when it's time for the Simarillion. This video helped give a sigh of relief for reading it and with anything in life to enjoy the journey and adventure.

I'm happy to see Prof Craig address this thorny little corner of fantasty literature. I've only read it once but hope to revisit again.

Nice video! I read the complete Silmarillion and I did not really enjoy it nearly as much as Tolkien's far richer and more vivid novels and short stories. But my curiosity kept me going because I wanted to know more about the history of that wonderful place called Middle Earth. The comparison with the Bible - especially with the Old Testament - has actually a lot of merit. My favorite story of Fingolfin's fight against Morgoth might well have been inspired by the story of David and Goliath, although Fingolfin unfortunately did not win 😞 If the Silmarillion is Tolkien's Old Testament, The Lord of The Rings trilogy is a bit like the New Testament, which covers a much shorter time span. Frodo and to a certain degree Gandalf are Christ-like characters who through their personal sacrifices save Middle Earth from being conquered by eternal evil. Gandalf even dies and is resurrected! And Frodo is willing to die in order to accomplish his mission. The ring which gets heavier and heavier is the cross which he has to carry. However, maybe you should have mentioned that Tolkien did not write the Silmarillion as we know it today. Tolkien had assembled a huge amount of story outlines and facts about Middle Earth, and he constantly tinkered with his creation. But he never published this material, because he assumed that no one would want to read it. If he would have decided to publish his material, he would have presented his material in a more refined shape, and his heroes and villains would have been less cardbord-like. The Silmarilion as we know it today has been selected, shaped and then published by Christopher Tolkien who painstakingly went through his dead father's material. We have to be very grateful, because without Christopher Tolkien's monumental efforts we would have never learned more about the history of Middle Earth, and that would have been truly sad. But we have to keep in mind that Tolkien had just left the raw material. Everybody who has read The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings knows that Tolkien was a consummate and skillful story teller. If he would have decided to publish his Silmarillion material he most likely would have presented these stories in a very different shape.

I was given The Hobbit to read first and I loved it! Then I got the Silmarillion, read the first page, then read it again and continued very slowly and coukdn't stop. I took my time and enjoyed it. I read LOTR after, then read the Silmarillion again.

I've read it several times and it's still difficult. I don't retain information well, so every time I re read it it's nearly a fresh experience. Absolutely one of my favorite books ever

The Simarillion is an OUTSTANDING book. Greatest book ever.

THANK YOU! I needed this! As you said, so many people lament and wax poetic about how difficult it is to read this darn thing. But not many people can articulate very well how to approach reading it. You accomplished something few people have and that is to convince me and to prepare me to read The Silmarillion. 🥳❤

I read the whole thing in two weeks when I was 19. Had a headache for days afterwards, and I can relate to the idea of not having a clue what the heck I had just read. Decided to rest on my laurels there and didn't think much of it afterwards. Then, about 4 years later I picked it up again an reread it. I couldn't believe how much easier and far more enjoyable it was the second time around. Now that I knew what to expect, I could grasp the material far better than before. The story flew by and I was genuinely sorry when it ended. It has since remained one of my favorite books!

You did a great job explaining how not only to read the Silmarilian, but how to appreciate it as well. I wish someone was around in the late '80s to have told me this when I read it for the first time. Much like your experience I had no idea what I had read and didn't get it. It was only going back to it a second time a few years later that it all clicked for me. And after some 30 years it is one of my go to books to re-read periodically. I hope this video can make it more accessible to more people up front. Nice done, Prof. Craig! PS - Looking forward to that video on why Tolkien values grief and suffering so highly in his works.

Great video! I read The Silmarillion several years ago, and enjoyed it quite a bit. History was one of my favorite subjects back in school, so that may have been part of it. I hope to re-read it sometime. Thanks for sharing this :)

I was given 3 books Fellowship of the ring The Two Towers The Return of The King I'am almost finish with the 3 On April I'll be getting The Silmarillion Thanks for the Information or advice Sir.

This is a treat. Love the gentle approach you have, I think you will succeed in your goal to encourage people to give The Silm a try. It made me want to set aside my current TBR and reread! Also, love that your camera angle is positioned just enough to show you are indeed wearing pants to complete the whole get up. Now that's a man I could trust.

I need more videos from Professor Craig!

Great video Craig! My friend just finished Lotr and asked me about The Silmarillion, now I can show him this!

Thanks. Have tried multiple times since the 70's. Your discription is a real help. It also inspired me to use my Shakespeare method. Read the sparknotes/cliff notes, learn character and chapter info, language etc and then read the book/play. Listen to an audio book and/or watch movies. It's kinda involved, but you can get a pretty deep understanding in a relatively short amount of time. Thanks again

This was such a great video. Thanks! Here we go with Round 2 of the Silmarillion.

Thanks Craig. Your take on how to approach this made sense for me. I had read the Hobbit at the age of 8, and the LOTR by 9. The Silmarillion I started when I was 14 and bored with school. I always understood it to be olde English and historical in nature and was very pleasantly surprised when you highlighted the fact that it should be read as such. I was a reasonably talented landscape artist from around 7 onwards and drew/painted my own versions of how I imagined Middle-earth. The Silmarillion, with all its descriptions and now basic but beautiful artwork by Ted Naismith, has become my go to Tolkien read (plus the Histories of Middle-earth) in picturing the vistas and characters, but also appreciating the subtleties of Tolkien's imagination and writing. My thanks again.

it took me 25 years to get through it. but what helped me greatly is the narration of the book read by Martin Shaw I was able to appreciate it and have read it 20 times since. Tolkien's masterpiece.

A really great and well explained video, thanks!

Wow, what a find your channel is! Subscribed and bingeing!! 😘😘😘

I read it at 16, right after Lord of the Rings, said 'what' ?, then a few months latet tried again, with a certain determination. Deliberately went slow (I tend to read very fast), I frequently re-read a page before turning it, looked up every name if I wasn't sure who it was (seems nearly character has 5-6 names). Ended of loving it! It's an incredible story.

Excellent video! I also see that you have some awesome books in your collection my friend! You have good taste *bows to you*

Definitely interested in a video discussing his preoccupation with grief and sorrow!

Thank you for giving us ideas on how to read the works of J.R.R Tolkien. I read about Beren and Luthien and my thoughts were hard to understand the story it's because of the prose style. Now I am ready to re-read the book and I am still looking for The Silmarillion book for me to fully understand the story of this entire franchise. Your videos are very helpful and also give us a better understanding.

Very informative - thank you - it explained a lot about my problems with it

Well put. I feel you first have to churn through and love the hobbit/lord of the rings several times to build a curiosity for that history. It also took me a few reads of those earlier works to appreciate the sub themes that aren’t as obvious. Teenage me gave up quickly so I think maturity/ appreciation for poetry and spirituality helps too. Knowing what you’re in for helps a lot, like making sure you keep track of the various names and places, which is why this video is so good.

I'm actually in the process of attempting it for the third time lol. I think the biggest challenge for me is that even though most chapters are mercifully short the sheer volume of characters and information is so big I typically have to consult the index at least once every chapter.

Thanks Professor Craig!

Just started my journey with Silmarillion, the video was so useful

✨AMAZING & A MUST READ✨ Audiobook helps😊 I'm on my 4th re-read and LOVE IT

Thank you for your input.

I am listening to the audio book read by Martin Shaw and loving it. He really does a great job. Well I only got to the part where Feanor leaves for Middle Earth for now, then I kinda go back to the beginning and start all over again. For like four or five times in the last month or so xD Ainulindale and Valaquenta are still my fave. I will eventualy get further, when I feel comfortable enough with me knowing current characters.

I first read LOTR, then all the stories of the ancient world, and in that order it was such an enlightment of deep endless discoveries. Tying to match old and new world's maps was such a delight!

I'm in the midst of my first read of The Silmarillion and, while I had realized early on that taking my time and reading roughly a chapter at a time was going to be the way to go, it does help to know I'm on the right track as far as how to tackle it. Great video!

thank you so much for the advice

Thanks for this, soon as l finish my latest l will re read it, trying to remember all the names made it a struggle and remembering that struggle made it hard to pick up again, this will change things.

Wow! I love this channel 🤣 Im glad i found it

When I read it I loved that it was written in that way. I found it to be beautiful. It was also amazing to unfurl the depth of the history of the ones that came before the LOTR character and gave me a better understanding of who they were and where they came from. I now understood them.

Indeed, expectations play a big role! I was expecting another novel when I read The Silmarillion, and found something entirely different. I liked it anyway, but it took some adjustment on my part to get in synch with the book as it is instead of as I was hoping it to be, hahaha. :) This was very interesting, as all of your videos. THANK YOU! :)

Thank you for picking my favorite quote to reference. " for if joyful...." I knew it was special when I first read it.

Excellent video, I will recommend it to a stubborn friend. I myself have read and listened to it many times. The first read was the toughest but I found it better with each repeat.

Cool! Thanks!

I have been a fan of Tolkien for over 30 years. I first started reading The Silmarillion when I was about 22. After reading a few dozen pages, the book threw me off. I was overwhelmed by the huge amount of names and land names. At that point, I decided not to read any further. I put the book aside for a few years, then picked it up again. I guess I had to grow up to it, because the second time the number of proper names didn't bother me at all. And at that moment I felt more or less as if I had been run over by a road roller and pressed into the ground. My mind refused to accept that a single person could come up with something so brilliant. The world he created struck with its vastness, but also with details that worked together perfectly. Even then I knew that I had just read the greatest story ever created by man in history. In my opinion, there are two factors that make The Silmarillion so great. It is the coherence of the created world and the Tolkien dry and sparing prose style that gives the reader a lot of room for imagination. It's hard to find at least two people who imagine the same way the Music of the Ainur, the creation of the two Trees, the birth of the Elves, the creation and appearance of the Silmarils, the duel of Fingolfin with Morgoth, the War of Wrath, and especially the duel of Earendil with Ancalagon the Black. All these events stimulate the reader's imagination and this is the greatest joy and reward that the reader gets after reading this book. Throughout the reading of The Silmarillion (especially the part concerning the struggle of Elves and Men with Morgoth in the first era) there is an indefinable sadness, a sadness into which Tolkien has wove an undying hope for a good ending. And even though Morgoth is finally defeated, the sadness of the lost things does not leave us.

Just about to read the Silmarillion, and your video has been hugely helpful. I feel relatively prepared 😅 Many thanks 🙏🏻

Wow. That quote about the fountain is so deep! 😍 Something tells me I may actually like this very much 😁 (Came back to edit, because I realized the unintended pun 😄 )

Great video, thanks. One reading left me overwhelmed with keeping track of all the characters and places. Trying to remember who's who, what group they belong to, and where they are, etc.. This is not a "read in bed" work. Felt like I needed three computers and a wall map open at the same time.

On the style: reading it aloud often helps to clarify what is happening.

I read it when I was 14 years old and it was best experience ever. I read it all over again and again, every time I learned new things. I didn't read it in English. I read Polish version, and it wasn't translated to match archaic Polish. I suppose that allowed me to understand everything pretty well. I might give it a go in it's original language and see how I do!

I started on page one, and read the pages in order until I got to the end. 😁 It really is an amazing book, what a feat of imagination!

The Silmarillion was the first Tolkien's book I read, and have loved it ever since. I re-read it, or listen to the audiobook with Martin Shaw, every couple of years or so.

im about to dive in again, its beenyears. i thanks for the introduction and encouragement. I got hooked on the LOTR living card game over covid and now I cant get enoughh tolkien lore.

I usually don’t comment on videos. But I cannot thank you enough for this video. So happy I watched it before reading, it allowed me to be in the right mindset for the book. Thank you for the work you put into this.

Read it 4 times. 2 of them during my 4 years of hemodyalisis, when I had 12 hours per week to burn during treatments. I love this book with a passion and would love to some passages of it adapted,.

You are absolutely right. The Silmarillion is actually the first piece of Tolkien I've ever read and I'm listening via audiobook. I look up a chapter summary on UKposts from time to time to check I have understood it and help extract the important names from the lists. I studied classics at school a decade ago and with that foundation of language it is much more understandable. If you come to it expecting a modern epic in structure and language, it's much more digestible and enjoyable!

I think you missed a major point here.. use the index! On a first read almost everyone will get lost among the many, many names of people, places and also factions. For example you can refer to the Elves as a race, or you could speciically refer to the Eldar or the Sindar or the Noldor.. each of these branches of the Elves is different and there's a lot of them! The Index is very helpful if you feel yourself starting to get lost :D

Wow, the quality of production on this is amazing. I would of thought you had at least a million subs, you def deserve that. (also great vid with great info on the book :D)

I love the way Tolkien writes!

I read the Silmarillion before reading The Hobbit and LOTR. I was pleased with this approach because it sets the "setting" and the backstory to prepare for the specific stories that chronologically followed BUT it needed to be approached with a "history" perspective. In so doing, I was able to pick up on some of the nuances in the Hobbit and LOTR stories that I otherwise would not have noticed had I not started the Tolkien experience with the grand backdrop of the Silmarillion.

7:18 The Silmarillion really is the fine red wine of literature and you found a perfect example for this ♥️

Only read it once, but for me the protagonist is either the world itself, or Melkor, least from my perspective. Amazing book. Loved every tale in it. Especially love the wording and conveyances, you develop a great sense of how much meaning people afforded simple things by how they talk about them.

Thank you for this video. I tried reading The Silmarillion a long time ago(when I was about 15) having read and re-read LOTR repeatedly but I just could not do it. I have recently started reading The Hobbit and LOTR again with the intention of going through everything Tolkien related with The Silmarillion up next on the list.(I know there will be repetition between The Silmarillion and Beren and Luthien for example)

Great video! Although I didn't watch it until after I read the book since I didn't wanna be discouraged from reading it lol

I read it with "The Atlas of Middle Earth" by Karen Wynn Fonstad as a reference to follow along. A glossary of names comes in handy too when you fforget who is who.

i read it 6 times.

I’m tempted to read it because I’ve become interested in all the Second Age stuff from the Amazon tv show

Make sure you have a map of Beleriand and family tree of Finwe handy while reading it

thank you, i will give it another try since i loved LOTR and the Hobbitt both , great lesson on the book

I didn’t know people had a problem with the Silmarillion. It was the first hardcover book I bought at the age of thirteen. I had zero issue. I enjoyed the language that Tolkien used

The Silmarillion is amazing! Dense and complicated, often misunderstood even by the most well-intentioned fans, and archaic in its delivery…yet enticing as it draws the reader into a world that pierces through modernity. It may not be for everyone, but its sheer scope leaves even scholars breathless.

I had only seen the movies before reading The Silmarillion and it blew my mind. I loved the depth it gave to the world of Tolkien, and I do understand why people find it intimidating. It has a very tough start to get through the vague 'creation of the world' narrative. But it fascinated me to learn how this world was made through music all the way up to the distruction of Beleriand. After this I took a break, and continued a month later with the numenor story. Still intriguing but not as much as the stories of the first age had been to me.

I read LoTR at age 16 and the Silmarillion at age 17. In my native language, which is not english. It was ok, and not nearly as intimidating as I though it was gonna be. Then I read The Children of Hurin, The fall of Gondolin and the adventures of Tom Bombadil in english at age 31. Now. Not only am I an avid reader, but despite beeing swedish, I also read at least 90 percent in english. Frankly, if a book's originally written in english, I am likely to read it in english, evan old classics, such as Frankenstein. But Tolkien really was a challenge in english. A real challenge, evan as a 30 + year old.

Thank I am listening to the silmarillion on audiobook at the moment for the first time now I know to treat it like a history book not a storybook thank you Paul

I started at the beginning. Worked for me.

Something that helped me was to identify an antagonist (Morgoth) that I was invested in before reading the book.

I first read The Silmarillion when I was 13. Every summer my stepmom would get us passes for the local pool and take us there to swim every day. My 13th summer I had gotten badly burned across my stomach so I wasn't able to swim. I still had to go though, since my stepmom didn't want to leave me at home alone. I had read Lord of the Rings the first time a year prior and wanted to try reading The Silmarillion. Luckily, there was a library across the street from the pool so I checked out a copy of The Silm and every day for a couple of weeks I would sit on the poolside and read while my siblings swam. Honestly, besides the burn, one of the best summers I ever had. There were a few pages here and there that I struggled with reading, but for the most part I was completely engrossed. The story of the Sons of Feanor, Beren and Luthien, Turin Turambar, I thought it was all fascinating and made the rest of Tolkien's world that much more colorful and complete. Last year I finally reread The Silmarillion, 14 years after my first read through, and enjoyed it immensely once again. Just started The Unfinished Tales and am enjoying that read as well.

typically i prefer to read histories in physical book format so that i can write notes in the margins or highlight stuff, but for The Silmarillion, i have found that the best way for me to engage with it was through audiobook and i could easily skip around and re-listen to sections easily.

Great read.

I had to restart it about 3 times before getting into it big time back in Grade 12. The narrated Luthien and Beren by Chistopher was excellant.

Last year, I searched "order of reading of LOTR books" on the internet and clicked on the first link. It gave me a chronological order, with The Silmarilion on top. I bought the book, without knowing anything about it. But as soon as I started, I fell in love with it. It took something around 2 and a half months to finish it, and I did find it difficult in some parts, but never boring. After that, I read The Children of Húrin, Beren & Lúthien and The Fall of Gondolin. Loved all three, specially The Fall of Gondolin, mostly by the descriptive and poetic character of the book. It really feels like you're on a journey through a magical world. It is my favourite book of all time. Now, I'm reading The Hobbit and can't wait to put my hands on the LOTR trilogy.

As someone who has been reading since the age of three and was devouring classic literature by the age of eight, I can say that for me personally, the Silmarillion was and remains the hardest read I have ever encountered in my native tongue. 😅😂🤓 And it is my favorite too.

The audiobook helps a lot

I read it fairly easily and even finished it in less than a month. I had a little help identifying each character, and I noticed how some chapters slightly overlap others. Ex: Tour comes across his cousin Turin while journeying to Gondolin. (After Turin defeated Glaurung the first dragon).

playing the audiobook during your work commute (if you have one) is the way to go. It makes understanding what's going on 1000% easier

This was great. We’ll see if the local library has a copy :)