The Silmarillion

By: J. R. R. Tolkien

Narrated by: Martin Shaw

Length: 14 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's summary

The complete unabridged audiobook of J.R.R Tolkien's The Silmarillion.

The Silmarillion is an account of the Elder Days, of the First Age of Tolkien’s world. It is the ancient drama to which the characters in The Lord of the Rings look back, and in whose events some of them such as Elrond and Galadriel took part. The tales of The Silmarillion are set in an age when Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, dwelt in Middle-Earth, and the High Elves made war upon him for the recovery of the Silmarils, the jewels containing the pure light of Valinor.

Included in the book are several shorter works. 'The Ainulindale' is a myth of the Creation and in the Valaquenta the nature and powers of each of the gods is described. 'The Akallabeth' recounts the downfall of the great island kingdom of Númenor at the end of the Second Age and 'Of the Rings of Power' tells of the great events at the end of the Third Age, as narrated in The Lord of the Rings.

©1977 The Tolkien Estate Limited and C.R. Tolkien (P)1977 HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Critic reviews

"How, given little over half a century of work, did one man become the creative equivalent of a people?" ( The Guardian)
"Demanding to be compared with English mythologies...at times rises to the greatness of true myth." ( Financial Times)
"A creation of singular beauty...magnificent in its best moments." ( Washington Post)
"A grim, tragic, brooding and beautiful book, shot through with heroism and hope... its power is almost that of mysticism." ( Toronto Globe & Mail)

Finally!

I’ve been waiting for a good audiobook version of the Silmarillion for a while. Here it is, and it’s great! The narrator does a good job, I think. You could argue that his delivery is a tad too stentorian or declamatory, but the text is a hard one to read naturally, and this way of reading it is not inappropriate. As far as I know, he gets all the pronunciations right, which is nice. The music may not win an academy award, but it feels appropriate in tone.

The Silmarillion is not for everyone. Even people who consider themselves fans of The Lord of the Rings may find it pretty off-putting, because it’s written in an extremely “high mythic” style. But if you want to understand all the obscure references in LOTR and The Hobbit to the elder days (Gondolin, Elbereth, Eärendel, Gil-galad, etc), then this is the place to come.

There are a few small audio glitches as of this writing, although they don’t impact the overall experience significantly. I’ve notified Audible about them and they say they are looking into it. [UPDATE: The audio glitches have been fixed as of January 2019.]

classic

at first this is a difficult book to grasp however, after the second or third time through it's awesome!! normally it's not available for purchase in the US and,I travel to California for work and lo and behold it was available to purchase on Audibe. that was a great day!

Pretty good

For some reason part of the audiobook is weird. in that it repeats the title of the chapter throughout the whole chapter. which is annoying. otherwise, great book!

Beautiful from beginning to end

An absolute delight to hear the story told verbally truly bringing to life the beauty that is the world tolkien created.

Things you need to know before you begin

This book is probably the best Tolkien work, but is very difficult to get into. Whether or not you will find it rewarding is totally dependent on what you wanted to get out of it - if you wanted more Lord of the Rings, this isn't it. This is an epic - more in the tradition of an old tome written by a monk in a secluded monastery. The tales are at times written in the style of the great histories written in the middle ages, spanning story arcs that last thousands of years, and involving characters that live for thousands of years. There is a brief creation section which sets the stage and the main conflict of the curse of the Sons of Feanor, and the miseries that befall the Noldor over the millennia spanning the time from when the light of the trees was stolen by Melkor until the breaking of the earth. This is a foundational work in the sense that the appendices to LOTR deliver very dense exposition that are given context only after probably three readings of the main story of LOTR - if you enjoyed those appendices, The Silmarillion will be utterly fascinating. If you found those appendices simply boring, just skip The Silmarillion - and I really am doing a favor by giving that advice. but if you are into the LORE, this book is orgasmic. Breathing life into the dynamics between the various factions of the elves, their rivalries and bitterness, their ultimate tragedies related to their own hubris and arrogance, the valor and majesty of the great houses, the interactions between the elves and the first men, and the constant struggle against the great enemy of Melkor. It reads like a combination of epic, mythology, and history; and not necessarily the most exciting ways. You will find no hobbits, no silliness, no humor, and yet knowing that with very few exceptions all of the tales covered by the book end in tragedy, bitterness, and loss. But, if you ever wanted to know why the elves were the way they were, this is the way to find out. Also I see more than a few comments regarding the narration; I really don't understand what the problem is, so it must be purely subjective - which is fine. There's no need to look down on that completely valid opinion. This is one of those books that is definitely not for everyone. For my taste, the narration is absolutely amazing there's not a lot of dialogue, and much of what is there reads like a translation of a translation; like conversation in a holy book of some time. You have to do a lot of your own work to find the value here. That's normally not good, but for this particular case and this particular author, it's a never-ending source of discovery that gets better every time you read it. Tolkien is not a good "writer." But, he is undoubtedly the grandfather of modern epic fantasy world building, and this book is 100% world building with a very solid epic; but it's not a "fantasy novel" in the respect that Lord of the Rings is a "fantasy novel." It's dark mythology, with no attempt at teaching a morality lesson, and that's exactly how it reads. This is a long, slow-building tragedy that delivers a big payoff without any traditional character development whatsoever. The characters are who they are, and they don't change. They are flawed, and they play out their tragic roles. There are no real happy endings. The world is broken, and the majesty and glory of Gondolin sinks under the sea, and the sons of Feanor lose everything because of their oath and curse; and they nearly take all of middle-earth with them. Did I mention that there is not a hobbit in sight? And if you really wanted the origin of the nature of the evil in Sauron, you will find it here, and nowhere else. It's an experience not for everyone, and I can't even say that those who will end up loving this book will feel that way until they've read it 2 or more times. So, I can't even recommend it. You may be drawn to it. . . if so, then buy it and give it a shot. You've got to get 1/2 way through these dense exposition filled pages before you will know.

Masterful

Excellent narration! I wish Mr. Shaw had read all the other books of Tolkien’s Legendarium!

best reading!

the voice for this audiobooj was spot on. perfect for the book. id live to hear him do the orher Tolkein bioks as well.

Mandatory Tolkien-Read

To the first-time reader, the first 1/3 is sort of tedious, but after you grasp the content it’s excellent to re-explore the foundation of Tolkien’s world. If you have “the illustrated atlas of middle earth” on hand by Karen Wynn Fonstad, The Silmarillion will make way more sense. This book is a must read if you liked the trilogy, the scale and skill of the story is second to none, and it makes the events of the Return of the King seem trivial while at the same time providing an excellent framework. Martin Shaw’s voice possesses a natural “epic” quality, it’s too bad that he hasn’t done the trilogy. Of all the audiobooks I’ve been through, he’s my favorite narrator. 5 stars all around, and to the folks at Audible, I request that Martin Shaw reads The Book of Unfinished Tales.

Delightful!

I have been a long-time J.R.R. Tolkien reader and have read The Silmarillion several times. I’m 22 and in graduate school now and this was the first audiobook I have tried out. Martin Shaw is an amazing narrator and he brings even more beauty and life to this story. I highly recollection purchasing this book! I played a portion of it for my Significant Other and he thought the narrator was Sean Bean. So, if nothing else, it sounds like you are being read to by Boromir himself.

This book is just of one man who has one great min

The title alone makes this book for of fantasy leads the reader in a world of Light who fights up against the Dark to rule the land.
It is one fantastic, out all the books he wrote he has a mind that goes beyond most writers, when some one reads his books he or she is sent into another world be on reality just like J.K Rowling sent us all into the world Harry Potter and she has sent into
the world of NEWT in Fantastic Beasts and were to fine them, Now we're back in The Crimes of Grindelwald
All these writer like C. Dickens, E.A Poe, etc