After reading the Silmarillion, I feel like The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings have been placed in proper context for me. I first noticed this perception change when I realized that Sauron is not the biggest threat and advocate for evil in Middle Earth, because he is under the "authority" of Melkor. This has allowed me to appreciate Gandalf's recognition of greater evil at work behind all the events throughout The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings without feeling like he's overreacting to Sauron's plots (which Good ends up overcoming). I also noticed my perception change when I didn't skip one of Gandalf's historical explanations to Pippin, during which he discussed how prominent characters of the Silmarillion (who I now know better) had created an influential article in the work of Saruman with Sauron. Before reading the Silmarillion, I would've glossed over the names and history of the piece, but I found myself reading the names and events with a deeper understanding and appreciation for their influence.
Have any other Silmarillion first-timers experienced eye-openers or "Aha!" moments like these?
2 comments:
I also felt an eye-opening moment to the scale of The Lord of the Rings. When looking through The Silmarillion it is clear that when the books take place many stories have already been told and ages have already passed. The Third Age is not the most important timeline in Middle-earth nor will it be the last. Also, it was interesting to read the creation of the world and why Middle-earth is the way it is. The world we read about in The Lord of the Rings has long been formed and has undergone much hardship by the time the rings were formed. I think The Silmarillion is an important book to read to better understand the context and grandeur of Middle-earth and its history.
Some of the most intense eye-opening moments for me included (like you), finding out that Sauron wasn't the "king of evil" so to speak, and was even just a workhorse for Melkor. This fact helped a lot in terms of making this mythology real and historical. Most fairytales have a universe that is good, but corrupted by one evil being. I felt that this was how these stories were, until I learned about Sauron's history from the Silmarillion. This new information made the LOTR and The Hobbit far more realistic for me.
I truly loved learning about Yavanna and her creation of the Ents. I had always wondered where they came from, why they were so passionate, and why they really mattered. Now I understand their origin to the beginning of time, and understand so much more of what Treebeard was saying.
I too, gained a better understanding of Gandalf because of the Silmarillion. Instead of being some old guy who is very optimistic about "this not being the end of the world" but potentially "changing everything", I understood that he was familiar with the history of Middle-earth more than most characters might be and was speaking to history and the continued battle between good and evil. Gandalf ceased to be some stereotypical wise old man and became a historian of sorts. I do believe that Tolkien could have used Gandalf to tell more of the stories of Middle-earth, but presume that Tolkien would have wanted it to be a history that the readers have to take time to learn about--just like in real life.
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