The Silmarillion

[GST_Nemisis]

i have been trying to read The Silmarillion recently but it is very confusing. its seems more expert intensive and so it can be hard to understand. infact i have given up readng it and i prefer to look on the internet at middle earth encyclopedias (i search for things like melkor, valar and maiar) because its language is better, but of course it doesnt tell the story, just facts. seeing as i know some people have a passion for literature (and if you hadnt realise people always talking about literature here) would anyone be able to explain the story to me please?

 

[Ralle]

Posts are not allowed to point to a single person... please remove this

 

[Malufa]

He is asking in general for help.

The Silmirillion is a collection of stories chronicling the history of Middle Earth, but there is an overall plot to many of them. To speak very basically of it:

Ao created the Maiar and Valar, who sang of Creation. Melkor, who spent much time alone, sang a different song, and a third of the other "spirits" sang this different tune with him. This was the begining of what is called evil as it is different from that which Ao had designed. Well, that is how the Valar thought, but in actuality Ao knew that there would be a different song.

Valar go to Middle Earth; two-thirds go to what will be called Valinor (home of the Valar) and create two large lamps to light the land. The rest go with Melkor to the east.

The Smith God gets lonely, creates dwarves, Ao hides them as he wants Elves to be the First Race.

Elves come from the trees, start talking to trees, Ents and Treants and Hourons are "made". Many Elves begin their journey to the land of Valinor.

Melkor then goes to Middle Earth and begins to torture and corrupt any Elves he captures, turning them into Orcs.

I gotta go now, I will finish this later.

 

[Ralle]

He is asking in general for help.

The name William was included in beginning before.

Last edited by GST_Nemisis on 14 Jun 2005 03:27 pm; edited 1 time in total

 

[Malufa]

Ah, I see.

The Elves were first awakened by Ao when the Valar created the Lamps of Valar, two large lamp constructions that illuminated all of their land. It took a great deal of effort, requiring the powers of all of the Gods (excpet Melkor and the ones that went with him) and took considerable energy. When Melkor learned of this he and some of his people went and destroyed the Lamps in order to return Middle Earth to complete darkness.

The Lamps were entirely destroyed, but luckily some of their light was preserved by the Goddess of the Woods. She captured their dying light in two seeds, which she then planted and helped to grow. These became the Trees of Light, one gold, the other silver, the sapling of which became the Tree for the Numenoreans, whose sapling was given to Aragorn millenia later.

While the Wood Goddess was doing this, the Queen of the Valar decided that Middle Earth was too dark, so she went up to the heavens and created the stars to light the darkness. Many of the creatures of the night (actually all save the Valar and Maiar under Melkor's control) did not like this. This is actually the reason Shelob went crazy when Samwise Gamgee of the Shire shined the Evenstar into her liar.

While this was happening the Elves were busy learning and growing wise, building great works of art and technology, learning and using magick, and all sorts of neat things like this. Near the end of this time period there was a great Elf smith, who actually managed to capture some of the light from the Trees and fastened them into two pieces of jewlry. These he called the Silmirils (where the book gets its name obviously) and they are the most powerful artifacts to have ever been made.

Melkor did not like what was happening to the West, so he decided to go with the Spider (I forget her name, but she was the mother of Shelob, who was considered the runt) to destroy the Trees. The Spider poisoned them, killed them, the Valar were sad, Melkor stole the Silmirils and almost had to feed them to the Spider. Then the Spider attacked Melkor, who, with the minor help of some Balrogs, killed her instead.

This concludes story time for now 8)

 

[GST_Nemisis]

wow this is soo much better than readin it, it also explains alot i didnt understand before. thanks

 

[Malufa]

A part of the light from the Trees is also saved in two orbs, which are placed in the heavens to make the Moon and the Sun.

Hot in pursuit of Melkor, the smith Elf and many of his kin (four types of Elves) left for Middle Earth. There they started setting up a fortress, and they met their first human. They were amazed at how frail and fragile they were, how easily killed, how weak, how how inept they were in general. When an Elf dies, their soul journeys to the Hall of Eternity, and can even be reborn if so desired. Yet the fate of mankind is known only to Ao.

After several minor skirmishes (decades later) the Elves learn of another interesting fact about humanity. The first one they met (sorry I forgot his name) dies, not of battle, not of posion, or hapstance, he simply dies of old age. This baffled the Elves, who were ageless and unchanging, making them realize that there is something more to this Race than they know.

Melkor fastens the Silmirils into a black iron crown that he wears.

Eventually Melkor kidnaps Luthien, who is half Elf and half Maiar. She is fairer than any other Elf from all of time, the stars themselves shine brighter when she walked under them. Her lover, Beren, comes to rescue her from the clutches of the Black Lord. He came not with sword, nor spell, nor bow, but with his harp and voice. He sang his way into the heart of the Deep Mountain and came before the Dark King. His song was one of longing, yearning for his beloved, and of the heart ache he felt within his soul. The song was so touching that Melkor wept a single tear, released Luthien, and even crowned her with one of the Silmirils.

When they left Luthien decided to do something that was unprecendted at the time, and which only one other has done since then; she decided to become mortal. She thought it would be too tragic if Beren died and she could not join him in whatever eternity awaits his kind, so she joined him in his unkown destiny. When they returned to her lands her father, who was king, knew of what had happened, yet his wife was too overjoyed to notice. He let them leave, and never bothered them again, leaving them in each others company and joy for the rest of their short lives.

This is the end of story time yet again, I will finish soon enough.

 

[GST_Nemisis]

so then what happens?

 

[Waaagh]

Ah, I see.


Melkor did not like what was happening to the West, so he decided to go with the Spider (I forget her name, but she was the mother of Shelob, who was considered the runt) to destroy the Trees. The Spider poisoned them, killed them, the Valar were sad, Melkor stole the Silmirils and almost had to feed them to the Spider. Then the Spider attacked Melkor, who, with the minor help of some Balrogs, killed her instead.

Wrong, the Balrogs managed to scare Ungoliant(that's her name) away with their whips. destroying the shadowy webs she had spun to strangle Melkor to death

She then fled to the Ered Gorgoroth(or how these mountains were called) and bred out a large number of her kind. Then, at a unknown time, she was so hungry that she devoured herself

so then what happens?

The time spans from the 3 ages of the stars to the end of the 1st age "of the sun", 2 ages before the war of the ring the 1st age ended in the War of Wrath, where Melkor was utterly defeated and banished out of Arda

 

[XxSniperWolfxX]

Just asking. Are you talking about "lord of the rings"?

 

[GST_Nemisis]

no the silmarillion. its the book that descrips the story of creation of Arda and how the valar came to make the earth. the lord of the rings is in the 3rd age and u know at the begging of the fellow ship of the ring film (the battle where sauron loses his hand) thats the war the ring (i think). when i said then what happens i mean, how does melkor get captured by the valar ect.. what happen after that point?

 

[Waaagh]

no the silmarillion. its the book that descrips the story of creation of Arda and how the valar came to make the earth. the lord of the rings is in the 3rd age and u know at the begging of the fellow ship of the ring film (the battle where sauron loses his hand) thats the war the ring (i think). when i said then what happens i mean, how does melkor get captured by the valar ect.. what happen after that point?

No, you're wrong- it's the Last Alliance shown in this(in my opinion pathetic[but still best of all the 3 parts]) film at the end of the 2nd age "of the Sun"

After that point, the continent known as Beleriand, where all the important things happened outside of Valinor in the Ages of the Stars and the 1st Age "of the Sun", this continent was destroyed by the powers that were unleashed in the War of Wrath- the Edain, the most noble Men that fought alongside the Elves, were given a island where they could live, called Numenor; most of the Elves departed to Valinor, the ones that kept staying in the "mortal lands"(Beleriand and Middle-Earth[which lies east-southeast of Beleriand(which is covered by a ocean after the War of Wrath)]) were ruled by the last High-King of the Elves, Ereinion Gil-Galad, who at last fell in the War of the Last Alliance
Numenor's power grue during the 2nd Age, until they began to wage war against Sauron- and won this war with ease. Sauron was captured, but he managed to corrupt the Numenoreans, so that they praised him, Sauron, and Melkor and got ready to wage war on the Valar. These did, of course, not tolerate such an course of action and destroyed Numenor, which sunk into the sea(Atlantis-style). Only few could escape this, and these were the Men that founded Gondor and Arnor

That's the story in short, the rest you should know

 

[Malufa]

As for Melkor, he was bound and chained in the Halls of Eternity, where the Goddess of Fate spins her tapestry. The tapestry records all of history, past, present, and future, within it. Her hall is infinite in size, but the tapestry fills the entire walls of it. The only thing she does not record, because she cannot record it, is the fate of mankind. Indeed, she cannot weave people into the tapestry at all, as Iluvater does not let her.