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THE LORD OF THE RINGS and THE HOBBIT are Tolkien's best known books. But the most important one may be THE SILMARILLION. It takes place thousand of years before the other books' time. | |
Tolkien hadn't written it as a book but as a collection of note books, dating back to the year 1917. He never finished them. In 1977, his son published the version which he thought was what his father had wanted. | ||
The book contains the mythology of Arda, Middle-Earth. It is the genesis of Tolkien's world. It is written like the Bible - which may be the reason why I don't know anybody who finished reading it. But in my opinion it is necessary to read it in order to understand THE LORD OF THE RINGS better. | Our western civilisation is based on Roman, Greek and Christian mythology. And like the Christian mythology is recorded in the Bible, the mythology of Arda is written down in the SILMARILLION, a lively and fascinating gate to Tolkien's worlds. |
Franziska Hördegen | LK Englisch 2001