The Elves - What have they ever done for us?

[Wayland]

Originally Posted by B?icho

the entire Silmarillion is an account of the Elves of Beleriand fighting a centuries-long war against Morgoth.

Appendices A and B in the LOTR is the source of a lot of this information--there are probably others as well.

Thanks guys, I'll check the appendices. I was unsure regarding the Silmarillion. I borrowed it from the library many years ago and had to renew it several times in order to get through it. For the life of me, I can't remember a single thing I read in it - just a vague memory of a tsunami of names. I recall finally handing it back to the smug librarian (finished are we?) with a kind of blurred zombified feeling.

Having read the Silmarillion thread, I should perhaps gird my loins, think of England and do battle with this tome once more!!!

Or perhaps not just yet... I'll check the appendices first.

[Břicho]

Silmarillion was tough for me to get through the first time, but if you can manage to do it, and if you look at it from the right angle it's really an amazing creation by ole T'.

[goldfinger]

Wayland, go read Appendix A and B. They will tell you all about it.

[Mithalwen]

Hi Wayland,

I found the names in the Silmarillion confusing the first time and (the second!) I was lucky that I had both the Tolkien Companion (JEA Tyler ) and Fosters "Complete Guide to Middle Earth" to help me through.

I seem to remember preferring the Tyler but either would be useful and are available on Amazon fairly cheaply if the library hasn't got them.

The Silmarillion is great but it is a much harder read than the LOTR though shorter.

You may want to try "Unfinished Tales" as well as the appendices. Although they are ideas and drafts a lot of it is more "user friendly" then the Silmarillion and has some more information on Galadriel and Celeborn, Thranduil's elves at the Last Alliance, Elvish interraction with the men of Numenor as well as stuff about the wizard and the palantiri and Gandalf's version of the beginning of the Hobbit.

Christopher Tolkien has edited a complete version of "The tale of the Children of Hurin" (Of Turin Turambar from the Silmarillion plus other elements published later in Unfinished Tales and the History of Middle Earth) Although the heros are mortals there is a lot of elvish involvement and this single more developed storyline may be more approachable when it is published in April.

You may well be able to get the "Tolkien Audio Collection" through the library too - It has JRRT reading bits of the Hobbit and LOTR and Christopher reading quite long extracts from the Silmarillion. I found it helped hearing it read - and you get a more or less definitive pronounciation guide on some of those names...

[Lalaith]

Argh, I only skim-read your response, Mith - got all excited, rushed over to amazon...only to find, as you of course pointed out, that it isn't published til April. I can't wait...I think it's the best story Tolkien wrote. I'd like to know how Christopher resolves the despair issue that we debated on the Downs a while back - does Hurin die in despair, or with the anger passed from him as in the Sil....?
Anyway, this is thread-hijacking of the worst kind. Sorry. I just get easily carried away about Hurin....

[Mithalwen]

This links to the official website which Davem posted in Announcements a while back.

[The Might]

Just wanted to add that the Silmarillion and the UT are indeed good sources of information.
But the History of Middle-earth series also provides you with some very interesting texts on the Eldar and their customs and history. Some are quite in-depth, so if you are interested I strongly recommebd buying this book.
The Letters of Tolkien might also add some other pieces of information, but aren't really a must.