Finally->The Silmarillion
 

Finally. After months of being on the libraries waiting list, I now have the Silmarillion on my desk. Wish me luck.
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luck! hope you love it, for it really is a great story, although it is hard to read. so you'll need 1) a bunch of luck and 2) even more perseverance.

navaer. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

Good luck. My advice it take it slowly and read it three-four times.

Vardamar: Might I also add that some good maps of Middle-Earth would be a good investment. The stories are excellent, but I was having trouble keeping track of various locations and their relationship to each other. I purchased an Atlas of ME, and it really helped me. Good luck!!

Good Luck!! I've only read the first 10 pages of it, but, from what I've read, I can tell you to read slowly!!! I'm trying to get my hands on a copy of one, but I've had no such Luck so far.

Some wise, wise, WISE person on this board-- I really wish I could remember who!-- suggested reading the Sil with a pad of paper and pencil handy, and building your own list of geneologies, relationships, names, places, etc etc. For me, this made the difference-- the Sil had been a struggle and it became a delight.

I haven't even finished the Sil yet...couldn't get through it! [img]smilies/frown.gif[/img] But, mark, that's a really good idea to write everything down; and even though it wasn't your idea originally, thanks tons for posting it. I think I'll try to tackle the Sil again using this method, plus the maps (thanks too, Alatáriël).

I remember the Silmarillion. It was truly fantastic. Suggestion: If you decide, like me, to skip straight to chapter one, DON'T. You definately need to EVERYTHING. Believe me it makes a huge difference.

I hope you enjoy the wonderful tales, especially Tolkien's adaptation of the Lay of Leithian. Its magnificent work. The imagery of the entire book is fantastic.

I know you'll finish it [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img],
Iarwain

Enjoy, its an awesome book to read!!!!!!! [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

The reading is slow going but worth it. Remebering the names is a bit of a problem though.

Actually I heard all this stuff about it being hard to read, I actually got through it pretty fast. It is not really hard in some ways, it is just difficult to keep the charaters straight. There are so many, and they all seem to have similar names, but it is a very cool book [img]smilies/cool.gif[/img]

I looked in the back of the book, and found some real nice hand drawn maps of ME that someone had stapled in their. Real nice.
Ill just use the appendices for the names, although I never have trouble with them.

[ March 15, 2003: Message edited by: Vardamar ]

I have to admit that I gave up on the Simarillion on first attempt, many years ago. I just couldn't get through those first few chapters.

But I tried it again recently, and boy am I glad that I did. I still found the first few chapters hard going - all a bit too abstract for me. But once I got into the main body of the book, I found it to be a fantastic read. The tale of Turin is truly marvellous. I cannot overstate how much it captivated and moved me.

And one further thing. Once you've finished with the Silm, move on to the Unfinished Tales as soon as you can. I'm reading it at the moment and enjoying it tremendously (even more on the trials and tribulations of Turin [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] ).

Don't worry, Saucepan, I did the same thing. After I finished LotR, I started looking in the library for new Tolkien material. One of the first books I found was the Silmarillion. I was in the Third Grade at the time, so after reading the first two or three pages, I realized that this book just wasn't for me. Ever since then, I've always had an odd image of the Great Lamps in my head when I think of the Silmarillion in general. About two years later, I picked the book back up and I've read it three times since.

Iarwain