Silmarillion Readalong: November Post

You know how people talk about the holidays being an extremely busy time? For some reason, I have never really experienced that before. I was busy, but I was so used to being busy anyway that I suppose it didn't feel any different. WELL, this year, I'm feeling it. My parents hosted Thanksgiving at their house for the first time ever, meaning that Thanksgiving was crazy busy, we are going on a cruise in two weeks, meaning I need to get Christmas ready and I feel like I need to squeeze 25 days worth of traditions into 18, and of course, the ever-present finals blues are already sinking in. I have slept 9 hours of the last 48. I guess 9.5, if you count the illicit nap I took this afternoon.

Why am I telling you all of this? Because I am making excuses for my woefully short and poorly thought-out post on the Silmarillion. Yeah, if I am going to write woefully short and poorly thought-out blog posts, I should probably just skip the post altogether. But... here it is anyway:

So, the Silmarillion is an LOTR nerd's paradise. It gives background into the origins of the Elves, before men ever came to earth. We learn about the early lives of characters like Galadriel and Elrond. We also receive glimpses into some of the songs and stories that are told when the characters are journeying. For this, my inner nerd rejoices.

However, occasionally it is guilty of giving a little bit more information than I care about, I am finding. For example, there are paragraphs and pages of information about the division of the lands, the rulers of the different areas, etc. etc. I avoid maps at all costs, so these chapters were like chloroform for me. Also, there are many, many Elven characters whose names start with the letter F. Fingolfin, Feanor, Finwe, Felegund, shall I go on? I occasionally become confused, trying to keep track of which character offended the Valar and which character lead the Noldor and which type of Elf (I feel like I never see "Elf" in the singular in Tolkien's books... seeing it in the singular makes me think of elves as in Santa) lives where. My book is very convenient in having a glossary at the back, but occasionally I get tired of looking things up. Even though I am a closet LOTR nerd, sometimes I don't care quite enough to study the material. I just want to read it, if that makes sense.

However, there are certainly good moments. There are two stories in particular that I have read over the last month that are intriguing and passionate -- I loved reading about Aredhel and the way she grew tired of her home, went into the shadowy forest, and fell into an unhappy, oppressive marriage -- stories like that seem more relatable than the epic battles sometimes. And I'm right in the middle of the story of Luthien and Beren -- that is an exciting tale. I love that Luthien goes right into the center of the action with Beren -- no standing back and waiting to be rescued for this lady. I also absolutely adore the hound Huan, even though I am a self-professed hater of "dog books" -- this character is so faithful and human-like and endearing.

To sum up my experience this month, there are a lot of pages that I have been skimming... yes, I admit it... but there have also been a few that have great stories, stories that I might even revisit. There is plenty of good material in The Silmarillion if you are willing to dig a bit.

If you are participating in the read-along, feel free to link up below!