I am still in the process of reading the Silmarillion now (having abandoned the effort some 15 years ago--should definitely have read LOTR first, but tried to start with the Sil!). I find that, when I am reading it, it is deadly serious, but then I step back and it looks ridiculous in places! I mean, the death of Fingolfin seems very much like a Monty Python scene! Morgoth squashes him under his foot, for crying out loud! But it was affecting and I had a strong feeling for the fierce conflict and final lashing out of Fingolfin in his last extremity to hew Morgoth's foot so that he was ever halt thereafter...it is funny to me if I think of the Foot of Morgoth as if it were drawn by Terry Gilliam!
Also, for some reason, I have this image of dead Fëanor, freshly slain, with a recording upon him: 'This elf will explode in 5...4...3...2...1...BOOM!' The image of Fëanor, the Exploding Elf, threatens to become a theme with me! I wonder if the Monty Python version of the Silmarillion would elucidate more of this very black humor?
Cheers,
Lyta (who has only gotten to the Beren and Luthien section of the Silmarillion as she speaks)
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“…she laid herself to rest upon Cerin Amroth; and there is her green grave, until the world is changed, and all the days of her life are utterly forgotten by men that come after, and elanor and niphredil bloom no more east of the Sea.”
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