[Child of the 7th Age]

This is a confession. I am a long-time reader and lover of LotR and the Hobbit, but have always had trouble connecting to Silmarillion. I read Silm when it was first published in the 70s, but it never sunk in. I have always blamed this on the fact that, by inclination, I am a hobbit rather than an Elf. I always figured people with Elf leanings had it easier in this regard.

Well, just like Bilbo I have finally made the breakthrough to Middle-earth history and, for me, it came from three separate things:

1.Reading the volumes of HoMe;

2 Shifting my thinking to view Silm as "history" rather than literature; and,

3. Getting involved in a very complex RPG that drew on the history of Beleriand and Numenor.

I am a historian by training and profession and I found it fascinating to look at all the different "sources" that Tolkien created in HoMe. Some said one thing, some said another, and there I was, as the historian, deciding which one made the most "sense". This was a "game" I could understand.

So, now I am hooked. I will be on vacation from the board July 19-29. (Child sobs and goes through withdrawal symptoms remarkably similar to those which afflicted Frodo after the destruction of the Ring.) But my little paperback Silm will come along with me, and this time I think I will both enjoy it and learn more than I have before.

Has anyone else had a "breakthrough" with Silmarillion, or are you still struggling to make the connection? If you did manage to break through to the material, how did you do it?

sharon, the 7th age hobbit