The Silmarillion

By: J. R. R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien

Narrated by: Andy Serkis

Length: 19 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's summary

The forerunner to The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion tells the earlier history of Middle-earth, recounting the events of the First and Second Ages, and introducing some of the key characters, such as Galadriel, Elrond, Elendil and the Dark Lord, Sauron.

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 on the recording are several shorter works. The Ainulindalë is a myth of the Creation and in the Valaquenta the nature and powers of each of the gods is described. The Akallabêth 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.

This brand-new unabridged recording is read by the acclaimed actor, director and author, Andy Serkis.

©1977 The Tolkien Estate Limited and C.R. Tolkien (P)2023 HarperCollins Publishers

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

TL;DR - strongly recommended

When I heard about Andy Serkis reading for a Silmarillion audiobook I was excited and cautiously optimistic but worried about two things: (1) whether he has the right voice to read this story, and (2) whether he'd get the Elvish pronunciation right.

(1) I enjoyed Serkis' reading of the Hobbit and LOTR, but the Silmarillion is a very different book so I wasn't sure whether he'd pull it off. I needn't have worried. Serkis is not just some actor from the movies who got roped in to doing the audiobooks as a movie tie-in. He's a master storyteller. His reading is absolutely mesmerizing and spellbinding. He even made the boring foreword and preface by Christopher Tolkien sound interesting. He also does character voices, even for Christopher and JRR Tolkien in the front matter, which was neat. I give him an A+ for his reading.

(2) His Elvish pronunciation is very good overall, though sadly not perfect. He makes a pretty good fist of it, and is correct most of the time. It starts strong, then dips, and then gradually improves as the book goes on. He beautifully rolls his r's, no doubt having learned to do this from Morfydd Clark in the Rings of Power show. However, he sometimes reverts to natural English language vowel sounds instead of the correct Elvish ones. My biggest fault with his pronunciation is his letter 'i' which should sound like the "ee" in "keen" or "seen," but he often says like a regular 'i,' especially early on. The names of most of the Noldorin princes suffer from this issue.

Fortunately, by the time he gets to Numenor he's mostly nailing this. He also sticks to one pronunciation for each name for the whole book. This is good, as changing pronunciation of a name mid-book is jarring, as was sometimes done by Kate Redding in the Wheel of Time audiobooks. His worst-pronounced name is Maedhros, which he pronounces "May-dross" (it should roughly be "My-thross, with "dh" making a "th" sound). It's just a shame since he does so well for so much of it that we can see how he could have done it perfectly, but didn't quite get there. I give him an A- for pronunciation.

Comparison to Shaw: Although I enjoyed the Martin Shaw audiobook, Serkis is an improvement all round. Shaw has a grim and powerful voice which is appropriate for the material but is a bit ponderous, while Serkis is captivatingly emotive. Serkis is better overall at the pronunciation, too, with some of his mistakes probably coming from listening to Shaw.

The Silmarillion itself: the book is a masterpiece, perhaps even surpassing LOTR. It's a challenging read, but if you can manage it, the rewards are great. It's not a normal book, being written in a mythic and historical style that feels more like an oral story that is told around a campfire than a novel. There is almost no descriptive prose, but rather a continual narrative that feels more like a plot summary. With such terse prose the story moves through thousands of years of Elvish history at breakneck pace, with many names to learn (some of which are confusingly similar to each other). Edited together posthumously from drafts, the prose is sometimes cringeworthy (e.g., "wounded with many wounds") but is often astoundingly beautiful (e.g., "Then he began a long and secret labour, and he summoned all his lore, and his power, and his subtle skill; and at the end of all he made the Silmarils.") It's also a bit disjointed, being essentially several interconnected legends stitched together to create a whole. But the whole is majestic.

I recommend reading (or listening) to this along with the Children of Hurin, a more fleshed-out novel that corresponds to the two Silmarillion chapters on Turin Turambar. When you get to those chapters, read/listen to that book instead. You will also need to refer to a map of Middle-earth in the First Age, and a family tree. These are included in the printed book but obviously aren't in the audiobook. Pause often and refer to these. Then you'll have a better time. Enjoy the journey!

Andy Serkis, unsurprisingly, brings the gravitas

As the title says, Andy Serkis brings the gravitas required of reading a tale spanning from a cosmogonic myth to a variety of romantic fairy-stories. This is what Tolkien himself stated his intention was in setting down the Silmarillion. His son, Christopher, then took his disparate notes and forged them into something greater than the sum of its parts. All of it is interconnected, and all of it has in some way to do with the History of the Elves. Yes, there are a lot of names. Yes, it's almost impossible to remember them all. That is not the point. When listening to Andy Serkis's deep, weighty narration you are carried away to this world of myth and fairy-story. You are caught up in the world-changing love of Beren and Luthien. You are horrified at the rise of the first Dark Lord, Morgoth. The listening in itself is somewhat of a religious experience, which seems apt when considering Tolkien's aims and his own personal faith, even though he explicitly stated that it was "fatal" for any legend of England to contain the Christian religion. This story is not Christian. It is English. And it is very great, in the eyes of Elves and the hearts of Men.

One of the greatest stories ever told, by just as great a narrator

I have long been a listener of the Silmarillion; it is probably my favorite work of literature. It is tough to listen/read for the first time, but Andy certainly makes it a ton of fun to listen to, especially as someone who knows what is going on. I was so stoked when I heard that this iteration was coming out. Could not have been happier with it!!!! Please give it a listen!!!

Not For Typical ‘Fantasy Fans.’ But Brilliant If You Study Mythology!

The ironic thing is that Tolkien made this book expanding on The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit universe, but made it for a totally different audience than the people who normally like those books. Namely: this is not a book for the typical fantasy fan. If you are only familiar with fantasy novels, but haven’t read any actual Greek, Norse, Christian or other mythology (and to a relatively large extent too), you’re probably going to have a bad time with this. It doesn’t have a traditional ‘narrative’ and it’s written in an intentionally (though beautifully, if you understand what it’s going for) archaic and roundabout way. Major events are underplayed, and relatively uninteresting events are overplayed. Stories overlap and revert back in time in confusing ways at the start of each new section. It doesn’t go out of its way to connect any of the dots you may have wondered about from reading Tolkien’s novels, either. In other words, it’s absolutely not ‘fanservice’ as we understand it today.

It’s much better than that. What we get with this book is a gorgeous love letter, not only to the ancient mythologies of our world, but more specifically the joy of searching out various texts and piecing together a mythology’s puzzle for yourself. The Silmarillion’s stories are intentionally created as self-contained myths, implied to be written by various fictional ‘authors.’ That’s why one chapter might cover the same ground that the previous did, because that new ‘author’ was telling his own story, in which it’s not assumed that the audience (possibly hundreds of years later) already knows some tidbit we heard already by reading the entire collection at the same time. Different tales are told with different styles, even, which is incredibly difficult to do. And the breadth of mythology established is immense.

These stories are all bound up in one book within our world, but the best way to properly understand it is to imagine it more like sitting in some library in Rivendell, picking up various epic tales off the shelf. In Middle-earth, this would be a series of unconnected texts, among an even larger collection of tales and songs and poems.

In our own world, the experience of reading The Silmarillion is most akin to seeking out Homer’s epic poems, then reading Aeschylus, afterwards trying Apollonius, Euripides, and eventually the Aeneid. Each one of these poets sheds more light on some aspect of the Trojan War, telling different stories and focusing on different perspectives. Some tell what happened before, some after, and some use the same characters. Some don’t even tell anything about it, but she’s light on the gods and characters who lived before the war was even conceived. But every story ties into this pivotal event in one way or another. The Silmarillion is more like that experience of learning Greek mythology through the copious reading of different poets, but rolled into one book. It’s not just a story, like The Lord of the Rings. It’s an entire cultural history. And I’m blown away every time I read it.

This was my first time reading Andy Serkis’ new narration as well, and I hugely enjoyed it! It was also my first time reading it in Tolkien’s originally intended order, right after The Hobbit. Definitely changes your perspective on his universe, though I still like reading it after LOTR the best.

最初にこの話は読みにくかった、ぼくにとって。けどいろんなギリシャ神話や宗教な神話読んだ後で、やっとこの話はわかります。集めた中つ国の神話です。ロードオブザリングのようの一つの話じゃない。サーキス俳優のナレーションがもちろん素晴らしい。彼はこれもやった良かったね！

Best production of the work so far!

Only thing missing is that it should just be accompanied by PDF of the maps

Excellent Narrator

Andy Serkis, once again, does a fantastic job at narrating this detailed deep dive into Tolkien’s wonderful fantasy world. The Simarillion builds on the history and lore of these stories and characters and fantasy that we all love. Highly recommend.

Fantastic

Having never read or listened to the Silmarillion before I didn’t know what to expect. Now that it’s over I just want more. Tolkien is amazing and as usual Andy was phenomenal in his narration! Highly recommend.

Andy serkins

The book is great and Andy serkins reading it just makes it all the more better lol

The best of Tolkien's work with great narration!

Serkis maintained the same excellent quality he showed with his Hobbit and Lord of the Rings performances.

Stunning

Stunning stunning beautiful stunning beautiful amazing fabulous fantastic fantasy reading by one of our generations best.

He’ll help you understand The Silmarillion with ease.