Last month I decided I was going to re-read Lord of the Rings. Mostly I was curious about how often random names and references were made to stuff that doesn’t happen in LotR. Plus I have ALWAYS skipped the poems and this time I wanted to read them.
I got four chapters into LotR and started seeing weird names I didn’t know. I looked up one of the names and learned it was an old god’s name, which reminded me that for like twenty years I have intended to read the Silmarillion.
For those who don’t know, The Silmarillion is like a history textbook of Arda (the world where Middle Earth is located). Parts of The Silmarillion are written like creation myths, parts of it are like excerpts from The Bible, some parts are pure story, and other parts are like an actual history book.
Well I did it! It took me like three weeks, but I finally finished The Silmarillion! It took so long because in the middle I stopped and read Beren & Lúthien, The Children of Hurin, and snippets from The History of Middle Earth.
I won’t lie, it was grueling hard work. That being said, I really enjoyed it. The Hobbit is still my favorite, but I might like The Silmarillion more than Lord of the Rings. I’m going to have to go back to re-reading LotR now to decide which I think is better.