Silmarillion: initial notes
Thank you for participating in yesterday's silly poll. I don't actually care if I'm a BNF, but felt like asking on a whim. I'm glad, in fact, that such a large contingent answered "No." :)
Anyhow:
I am finally tackling The Silmarillion. I'm only 146 pages in (my version has 378, not counting indexes and glossaries and genealogies and such), but have a few early observations.
Firstly, it isn't a novel, it isn't near as great as The Lord of the Rings, but it's still interesting. It's akin to watching the DVD extras about how they made the sets and costumes, sort of. It's a mythology, and as such, does sweep through a lot of interesting sub-stories at a fast clip, with very little detail.
However, considering how much stuff happens...dude, you could make ten 3-hour movies out of just the stuff I've read so far. It would need a lot of expanding-upon, but it could be truly amazing. Think if Peter Jackson got his hands on Shelob's mom vs. the Balrogs! (Ungoliant is probably not Shelob's mother directly, but I am amused by the phrase "Shelob's mom.")
The rise and fall of Fëanor, and related subplots, could make a gorgeous flick. Not sure what you'd call it. "Fëanor," as a title, is a bit tricky. I can just hear the screenwriters: "It's called 'Fëanor.'... F-E-A-N-O-R. With an umlaut over the E. ...An umlaut is those two dots, like over the I in 'naïve'... yeah, you're supposed to put two dots over that. ...You want to call it what? ...'Elves on Ice'?"
But back to the story: it is good to see Elves acting rash and somewhat stupid, the way Men and Hobbits and Dwarves do in LOTR, by which point Elves are all calm and perfect and slightly boring.
Oh, and I'm sure I'm not the only one to catch this bit of foreshadowing, or parallelism, or tribute, or whatever it should be called:
Fingon sets out to find his old friend Maedhros, who has been captured by Melkor and chained to the top of a cliff by one hand. (Ow.) "...he took his harp and sang a song of Valinor... Thus Fingon found what he sought. For suddenly above him far and faint his song was taken up, and a voice answering called to him. Maedhros it was that sang amid his torment." ("Of the Return of the Noldor," Silmarillion)
Compare:
"...moved by what thought in his heart he could not tell, Sam began to sing.
"His voice sounded thin and quavering in the cold dark tower: the voice of a forlorn and weary hobbit that no listening orc could possibly mistake for the clear song of an Elven-lord. ...new strength rose in him, and his voice rang out... then he stopped short. He thought that he had heard a faint voice answering him." ("The Tower of Cirith Ungol," The Return of the King)
Isn't that lovely? It makes me happy, anyway.
The Eagles rescue both pairs, too--right after that passage in the case of Fingon and Maedhros; and of course later, on Mount Doom, for Frodo and Sam. Also, Maedhros loses the hand that was chained to the precipice; Frodo similarly loses his Ring-finger. The parallels, they're all over the place, I tell ya.
I'll stop for now, as you're all out for the weekend anyway. Just had to get this down for my own records. La!
Anyhow:
I am finally tackling The Silmarillion. I'm only 146 pages in (my version has 378, not counting indexes and glossaries and genealogies and such), but have a few early observations.
Firstly, it isn't a novel, it isn't near as great as The Lord of the Rings, but it's still interesting. It's akin to watching the DVD extras about how they made the sets and costumes, sort of. It's a mythology, and as such, does sweep through a lot of interesting sub-stories at a fast clip, with very little detail.
However, considering how much stuff happens...dude, you could make ten 3-hour movies out of just the stuff I've read so far. It would need a lot of expanding-upon, but it could be truly amazing. Think if Peter Jackson got his hands on Shelob's mom vs. the Balrogs! (Ungoliant is probably not Shelob's mother directly, but I am amused by the phrase "Shelob's mom.")
The rise and fall of Fëanor, and related subplots, could make a gorgeous flick. Not sure what you'd call it. "Fëanor," as a title, is a bit tricky. I can just hear the screenwriters: "It's called 'Fëanor.'... F-E-A-N-O-R. With an umlaut over the E. ...An umlaut is those two dots, like over the I in 'naïve'... yeah, you're supposed to put two dots over that. ...You want to call it what? ...'Elves on Ice'?"
But back to the story: it is good to see Elves acting rash and somewhat stupid, the way Men and Hobbits and Dwarves do in LOTR, by which point Elves are all calm and perfect and slightly boring.
Oh, and I'm sure I'm not the only one to catch this bit of foreshadowing, or parallelism, or tribute, or whatever it should be called:
Fingon sets out to find his old friend Maedhros, who has been captured by Melkor and chained to the top of a cliff by one hand. (Ow.) "...he took his harp and sang a song of Valinor... Thus Fingon found what he sought. For suddenly above him far and faint his song was taken up, and a voice answering called to him. Maedhros it was that sang amid his torment." ("Of the Return of the Noldor," Silmarillion)
Compare:
"...moved by what thought in his heart he could not tell, Sam began to sing.
"His voice sounded thin and quavering in the cold dark tower: the voice of a forlorn and weary hobbit that no listening orc could possibly mistake for the clear song of an Elven-lord. ...new strength rose in him, and his voice rang out... then he stopped short. He thought that he had heard a faint voice answering him." ("The Tower of Cirith Ungol," The Return of the King)
Isn't that lovely? It makes me happy, anyway.
The Eagles rescue both pairs, too--right after that passage in the case of Fingon and Maedhros; and of course later, on Mount Doom, for Frodo and Sam. Also, Maedhros loses the hand that was chained to the precipice; Frodo similarly loses his Ring-finger. The parallels, they're all over the place, I tell ya.
I'll stop for now, as you're all out for the weekend anyway. Just had to get this down for my own records. La!