Why is it so difficult?

[TheOrcWithNoName]

Originally Posted by narfforc

The amount of times I have heard people say: I liked LotR, but couldn't get into The Silmarillion. I now tell them that once reading LotR again go straight to the back of The Sil and read Of The Rings of Power and The Third Age. Therein they meet familiar Characters and Places, and also new ones, you can almost read the chapters backwards, like researching your family history. Everyone who has read LotR should have an inkling of what The Downfall of Numenor is about. I think there are three different parts of The Sil, they are:

1. The Beginning: Nearly impossible to take in at first, an alien story.

2. The Middle: The Edges of your mind and memory are touched by the faintest beginnings of recognition.

3. The End: Hey I know that name, I've heard this somewhere before.

I really quite like the old book now.......HOOOOOOOM

My first attempt on The Silm (sounds' like I'm trying to conquer Everest here, and in some respects the analogy is true), was about 30 years ago when I was a teenager with lots of spare time on my hands.

I had just completed & enjoyed both The Hobbit & Lord Of The Rings, so felt in the mood to carry on with Tolkien's adventure and purchase The Silm, rather naively expecting it to be a standard novel either following on from LOTR or some kind of backfil between the two tomes. How very very wrong I was!

I think by about page 30 I just gave up. Clearly this was no story in the typical or logical sense, but just a collection of random ideas, sketches & disorganised ramblings, was my initial critique of the book. And I believe it sat on my bookshelf gathering dust for another 15 years or so before I attempted the same task again.

But even second time around I found it to be quite inaccessible, confusing and generally quite frustrating with even trying to complete a couple of pages! So again I gave up the ghost and moved on.

I consider myself to be of average intelligence and enjoy books of all kinds; I even completed Stephen Hawkins' "A Brief History Of Time" twice and loved every moment. However, The Silm, is just out there on its own as a book I have failed to complete. But then after reading some of the opinions on here, I guess my expectations were set too high and that perhaps this book should not be read in the usual front2back way; but is a book to be dipped in back & forth. It is not a story in the true sense just a collection of historical events portrayed in various time lines and from different points of view.

I feel encouraged to read LOTR again very soon, but on completion I will then continue with The Silm, but this time taking the advice of Narfforc and read the chapters concerning The Third Age and The Rings of Power to begin with, and then more or less read the book backwards, which will hopefully accommplish my ambition if conquering The Silmarillion once and for all.