I read it around 13 years ago, and the only things I can remember are that the elves had some spiffy ships, and Morgoth petitioned a GM to change his name, and some guy sliced Melkor up a bit before getting squished, and, uh…that’s about it. (Edit: Oh yeah, and he stole the Silmarils, which is probably kind of important.)
It was still an interesting read, but it was so dense with relatively unimportant details that I was forgetting things within pages.
The reason I love the Silmarillion is that it’s so dense with overwhelmingly important details. It’s history–no reams of description, no travelogues, just the high points. Can’t get enough of it.
PS: it’s Melkor who petitions for the name change :-). Feanor renames him Morgoth, and the guy who slices him up a bit is Fingolfin.
I found the Silmarillion unreadable. But then again, I also skipped all the elf songs when reading Lord of the Rings.
The Unfinished Tales was very accurately named. I had no chance.
The blue wizards were Alatar and Pallando. They feature in the Middle Earth: The Wizards CCG.
The Silmarillion is not so much a story as a collection of legends, many of which are mere outlines which Tolkien intended to flesh out later. It is a very incomplete work, and if it had truly been complete, would probably have taken up more volumes than even LoTR did.
That’s a big reason why it’s a tough read.
That, and it’s interminably boring.
That, and it’s interminably boring.
Says you. I think it is the best of Tolkien. I love it.
I like the History channel Idea. Who do we petition for this?
I still have a complete set sitting in my closet in binders. Haven’t touched it in years and it was the only CCG I ever got into.
Lighten up, Francis. It was a joke.
You questioned his Tolkien street cred. Not cool. Them’s fightin’ words where I come from. :P
I got the impression that the Ents had been compatriots with “the White Wizard” for a long time. Certainly longer than the two weeks or so since Gandalf got a buff and some new lewt (White Robes of Badassedness). This coupled with his speech about time passing “a day like the age of the earth” and shit.
It makes sense in light of the rest of the thread, though, that they were referring to the “occupation” of White Wizard, previous occupied by Sarumon and now by Gandalf, not by the particular person holding it.
No, they have known Gandalf as an individual for a long time. They are aware of his recent promotion, though, so they refer to him as the White Wizard. He’s not Clark Kent, so the Ents aren’t comp[letely baffled by the costume change.
I like the History Channel idea, too. I’d totally watch all 26 hours of it. What’s Ken Burns up to these days? It would be really expensive if it tried to live up to the films’ production values. But they could totally interview Tolkein scholars between reenactments and stuff. They’ve done a number of shows using computer games to visually illustrate battles in Brothers in Arms, Rome: Total War and flight sims. They could do something like that with Battle for Middle Earth IV, once the technology progresses to the point it could do the First and Second Ages justice.
The Ents are also incredibly wise. They know the history of the world, and probably recognize things more clearly than most. Of course, TreeBeard didn’t recognize Hobbits, but I can’t tell the difference between a wood ant or a fire ant until it bites me.
Same here, though I recently acquired two complete sets, so that my wife and I can play.