The Silmarillion I

(AINULINDALË, VALAQUENTA, QUENTA SILMARILLION CHAPTERS 1 TO 9)

Since everyone has been going crazy over J R R Tolkien lately, we decided to do something Tolkien-related. Like reading The Silmarillion. We will be reviewing it as we read.

The Ainulindalë and the Valaquenta both tell of the creation of the world, Arda/Eä, and establish its mythology. They could easily have been combined into one, which frankly doesn’t bode well for the rest of the book. Tolkien’s descriptions manage to be both magical and bland, probably because he decided to sanitize the Celtic and Norse myths on which he based his pantheon and wrap up their chaotic naughtiness in prim Christian order. You get the typical nature-based deities, the Ainur/Valar, led by the most powerful one, Manwë, but don’t expect to find a goddess of love. Instead, there’s chronically depressed Nienna, who helps people endure suffering with hope and compassion. Opposing them is Melkor, also an Ainur, greedy, selfish, as powerful as Manwë, and intent on taking over Arda. Below them in power and importance are the Maiar, spirits that can be either good or bad. These include balrogs and Sauron. Above everyone is Eru/Ilúvatar, who created all and knows everything. The good Ainur follow him and accept his judgement in everything. Bad Melkor, on the other hand, wants to do his own thing and thinks he knows better. Obviously, he’s wrong. There’s a reason people say that morality in Tolkien is simplistic and so far, we found nothing to disprove that assertion.

The Valar are too well-intentioned and nice… and passive. They basically allow Melkor to go around ruining their work and gathering supporters before they decide to fight him. However, by then he’s already so powerful that all of them together can’t vanquish him, merely force him into hiding. Temporarily. He later returns and forces them to leave Middle Earth. And what do the Valar do about it? They just make another city, Valinor, in Aman, and let Melkor keep the lands they worked so hard to create. While in Valinor, the Valar do mostly nothing. There are, however, two potentially interesting conflicts that are resolved too easily and too quickly.

Tired of waiting for the children of Ilúvatar, the Quendi and the Atani, to arrive, Aulë creates the Dwarves. Eru isn’t happy when he finds out and explains that, since Aulë doesn’t have his power, his creations are merely an extension of him and not independent beings. Ashamed of his behaviour, Aulë offers to destroy the Dwarves, but of course Eru not only stops him but gives them life (and then puts them to sleep because he doesn’t want anything messing up his plans). This, of course, brings to mind Abraham and Isaac. Unlike God, however, Eru gets to both ascertain his dominance and show his magnanimity and benevolence without having to demand a sacrifice. Meanwhile, Aulë’s wife, Yavanna, realizes that all the natural beauty she created and still lives in the Middle Earth will suffer with the coming of Ilúvatar’s children. She doesn’t want that and after begging him, he promises that her creations won’t go down without a fight, which wasn’t what she was complaining about. Aulë gets this and quietly points out that the future inhabitants of Middle Earth will still need wood. Let’s face it, it was never going to be possible to keep Yavanna’s creations untouched, but she just accepts Eru’s lame assurances and doesn’t reply to her husband’s statement. Later, the Elves will build homes and ships, but we won’t hear any more complaints from her. Either one of these situations could’ve led to a bigger, deeper conflict between the Ainur and their creator, but instead both husband and wife quickly submit to Eru’s wishes. It’s moments like these that make us feel that underneath all its intricacy, Tolkien’s creation can be pretty hollow.

Despite all their eagerness for the arrival of Ilúvatar’s children, it takes a very long time until the Valar realize that the first batch, the Quendi (Elves), has already appeared in Middle Earth. It’s only after they have spent a considerable amount of time being terrorized by Melkor and his allies, which includes being kidnapped and turned into Orcs, that the Valar show up. This time, they keep fighting until they capture Melkor, drag him back to Valinor, and lock him up. Well, FINALLY! Unfortunately, they neglect to check the tunnels under his fortress which are filled with dark, evil, creepy things. They also decide to invite the Elves to live with them. After years of travelling (which, surprisingly, only takes Tolkien a couple of pages to describe), during which some of the elves went their separate ways, most of them are safely at Aman. There are three tribes: the Vanyar, who are fair, the Noldor, who are great at arts and crafts, and the Teleri, who have ships. Spoiler Alert: this will not go well.

Remember how the Elves were all wise and perfect in The Lord of the Rings? Well, get ready to see them acting like idiots and screwing everything up. Though, to be fair, none of this mess would’ve occurred if Manwë hadn’t at one point decided to release Melkor. Yes, they had agreed on a finite jail sentence, but how could they believe he repented? Oh, right, because unlike his Celtic and Norse counterparts, Manwë is just so innocent and good that he can’t conceive of an evil as big as Melkor’s. Naturally, the moment he’s allowed to move freely among the Elves, Melkor begins spreading conspiracy theories about the Valar, which somehow never reach them. Seriously, how can they not have noticed anything? We don’t care how many times Tolkien praises Manwë, any king who misses the spread of dangerous rumours by a former enemy he just released is an idiot.

Fëanor, son of the Noldor king, is this book’s jewel-obsessed character. He creates the silmarils, three jewels containing the light of the special trees of Valinor, and immediately becomes very possessive of them. Who else wants them? Melkor, of course. Though Fëanor doesn’t like him, he’s also the first one to take action based on his lies. It’s only after Fëanor loses it and accuses his half-brothers of conspiring against him and the Valar of keeping the Elves prisoners, that the Valar find out about Melkor’s fake news campaign. The Noldor heir is put under house arrest and Melkor escapes. Again. Upon hearing this, the Valar look for him near his old haunts but since they can’t find him, they just stop looking, even though they know how dangerous he is. In fact, during all the time they had Melkor in chains, they just gave up on Middle Earth, which allowed those dark, evil, creepy beings we mentioned earlier to just hide and wait. Though, of course Eru could’ve done something, too, but he didn’t (except maybe invent popcorn so he has something to munch on while enjoying the show). Seriously, there’s so much idiocy on display that we can’t even complain about the Eagles anymore. At least there you could argue that Sauron would’ve seen them coming and could’ve launched an attack, but there’s simply no excuse for many of the Valar’s choices.

Melkor enlists the help of Ungoliant, a light-addicted giant spider, to sneak back into Valinor during the annual harvest festival in honour of Eru, which Manwë decides not to postpone despite the fact that their biggest, most powerful enemy is out there somewhere. He even hopes it will help cheer people up. Yeah, no. Three things happen: Fëanor’s half-brother, Fingolfin, swears an oath stating that nothing will ever come between them again; Ungoliant drinks all the light from Valinor’s special trees leaving everything in darkness; and Melkor attacks Fëanor’s keep, killing his father and stealing the silmarils. He escapes, again, before the Valar even realise what happened. Later, greedy Ungoliant turns against her ally, but he’s saved at the last minute by his faithful balrogs, who managed to escape the taking of his fortress because the Valar couldn’t be bothered to check underneath the damn building. If they had been a little more thorough, Melkor would’ve been eaten by a giant spider right then and there, which would’ve spared everyone a lot of future grief. Instead, he survives, rebuilds his fortress, calls back his followers, and makes a new crown with the silmarils.

Back in Valinor, Fëanor is asked to give the silmarils so Yavanna can use the special light stored in them to revive the trees. He refuses before everyone finds out about their theft and then it really doesn’t matter anymore, except to make him look like a selfish jerk. He swears to avenge his father and retrieve the jewels and tries to convince the other Noldor to follow him. Not everyone is interested, though Fingolfin’s oath leaves him no choice but to help him. Galadriel, Fëanor’s niece by his other half-brother, Finarfin, is eager to leave because she wants to see the Middle Earth and start her own kingdom. A small number of them decide to stay, but most agree to follow him, with varying degrees of enthusiasm. It’s only when everyone is ready to go that Manwë sends a messenger assuring them they won’t be stopped by the Valar yet asking them to stay because there will be great suffering if they do leave. He also sentences Fëanor to exile. This ends up helping him rally his people even more and the Noldor begin their march back to Middle Earth. However, to leave Aman, they need the Teleri’s ships, which their leader, Olwë, refuses to give them because the Teleri are as attached to them as Fëanor is to the silmarils. Fëanor’s attempt to take the ships by force and the Teleri resistance turns into a massacre when the rest of the Noldor arrive. Victorious, they sail away. Since Manwë said they wouldn’t stop the Noldor’s flight, the sea spirits can’t help Olwë when he asks them to bring the ships back. Though apparently that doesn’t stop the angry sea from wrecking a great part of the fleet. So, the Valar just allowed a loyal Elvish tribe to be attacked and almost let the culprits get away with no punishment? Manwë really sucks as a king.

As soon as the Noldor set foot on land everything goes to hell. First, they get a visit from Mandos, the god of the dead/judge of the Valar, who says they will never be allowed to return to Valinor and also that they are essentially doomed. Finarfin is so horrified by that prophecy that he and many of his people, though not his children, follow him back to Valinor, where the Valar forgive them. Wait, what? Wasn’t the first thing Mandos said that they would never be allowed back? Anyway, that leaves Fëanor and Fingolfin and their respective followers, until Fëanor betrays them. He, his sons, and the people he considers loyal take all the ships and leave Fingolfin and his people stranded in a frozen wasteland. He even burns the ships so no one can follow him. Since Fingolfin and his followers are too ashamed to go back to Valinor, the only path is forward. After a desperate march, they finally arrive in Middle Earth. Shockingly, all this is described in a single paragraph.

The situation with Fëanor escalates too quickly and this last betrayal is just unbelievable. Given that he didn’t want the ships, why did he refuse to send them back to get the others? What did he think they were going to do? Besides, he’s going after Melkor, who’s an immensely powerful being. So, why would he leave part of the Noldor army behind? This makes no sense. It’s like Tolkien wanted to make sure Fëanor was fully irredeemable.

And this is the end of Chapter 9 of the Quenta Silmarillion. We were expecting something a bit more complex, but so far, it’s actually more readable than The Fellowship of the Ring’s prologue about Hobbits. The biggest problem are the characters, which appear to be split between bland and evil. Hopefully, Tolkien will add some nuance in the following chapters.