[Child of the 7th Age]

I have read the Hobbit and LOTR many times as well as a fair amount of Tolkien biography and literary criticism. But shame on me, I'm just reading the Silmarillion for the first time. I've done a fair amount of reading in medieval literature over the years and it seems to work out best if I approach it like that, as if I'm reading a chronicle or original source material from the middle ages. I am enjoying it, but there are a couple of problems. First, I know Tolkien wrote most of the Silmarillion early on and only later wrote the Hobbit and LOTR. So many of his ideas and allusions originate in the Silm. and then radiate out into the other books.

I think in the exact opposite direction. As I'm reading along in the Silm., I'll see something that shoots up bells of recognition because I'm familiar with it from the story of the Rings. For example, there's a big grin on my face when I read about Olorin and how he took pity on the sorrows of the Children of Iluvatar since I know that I'm really seeing the young Gandalf here. Or I learn how Ulwe who comanded the waters never abandoned Elves or Men. Since his spirit, like water, runs in all the veins of the earth, he often heard about the griefs of Arda even before Manwe. Then the wheels in my little brain start turning because I have an image of Frodo and Sam on the plains of Mordor. For one instant, the wind shifts and the darkness is driven back a bit and they come upon a little trickle of water. It looks "ill fated" in appearance, but still a seeming miracle, like a message sent from beyond. Knowing what we know about Ulmo and how he could see the griefs of Arda, this looks less like chance and more like a sending from beyond the Shadow.

All these connections are great, but how do we put the later history out of our heads and read the Silmarillion on its own terms? Does anyone ever start with the Silm. and then read the other books only later? I can't imagine doing that but, in some ways, it would seem to bring a truer reading. And I have a feeling that, if I do manage to get through the Silm, I will have a different feeling about the Lord of the Rings the next time I read that through, since I will understand more of the background and structure.

Finally, I have one other gut feeling. I think most people who love the Lord of the Rings tend to fall into one of two camps: they are an elf, or they are a hobbit. (My apologies to the occasional Valar, dwarf, Ent, or human out there.) There are those who love the grace and beauty of high art and poetry who want to be with the Elves, and those who love the simple earth and homely pleasures of hobbit life. I truly think those who lean towards the Elves in temperament and values have an easier time with the Silmarillion.

Fortunately or unfortunately for me, I am a hobbit. I might be like Sam and yearn for elf songs once in a while. And I'd most definitely be like Bilbo and Frodo, nonconformist hobbits whose neighbors thought them a bit strange at times! But a hobbit I would certainly be with nice, big feet firmly planted on the ground. The only problem is that the Silm. is really a book for Elves, the whole look and feel of it. So here I am, lacking the grace of an Arwen or the high tragedy of a Galadriel, yet still trying to plod along through the Silmarillion. Has anyone else out there had this same feeling, or is it just me?