All tagged Book Club
I’m so pleased to share that our book club has voted and chosen to read The Fall of Númenor: And Other Tales from the Second Age of Middle-earth next! This is a brand new collection of all of Tolkien’s works pertaining to the Second Age of Middle-earth and I know it’s going to be so fun to journey through these tales together!
“There at the last they looked upon death and defeat, and all their valour was in vain; for Sauron was too strong. Yet in that hour was put to the proof that which Mithrandir had spoken, and help came from the hands of the weak when the Wise faltered. For, as many songs have since sung, it was the Periannath, the Little People, dwellers in hillsides and meadows, that brought them deliverance.”
Despite their long lives, the Númenóreans grew to fear death and wondered how they might escape their fate. The Númenóreans murmured against their mortality and the Ban, asking why they should die when the Valar and the Eldar would not? Why should they not go to Avallone? Why should they not even travel all the way to Valinor?
“Here ends the Silmarillion; and if it has passed from the high and the beautiful to darkness and ruin, that was of old the fate of Arda Marred; and if any change shall come and the Marring be amended, Manwë and Varda may know; but they have not revealed it, and it is not declared in the dooms of Mandos.”
Finwë was wed to Míriel, and their son Fëanor was born. However, after the birth of Fëanor, Míriel languished and was unable to continue living. She went to Lórien to rest, and her spirit departed from her body and went to the Halls of Mandos. Finwë was grieved at the loss of his wife. Fëanor grew swiftly and was the most subtle in mind and skilled in hand of the Noldor. Fëanor devised letters that bear his name (Fëanorian letters), and was the first who discovered how to make gems. Fëanor was married to Nerdanel.
The Silmarillion is one of Tolkien’s most challenging works and yet also the most beautiful and important in my opinion. Many Tolkien fans new and old often feel intimidated by its depth and bewildered by its vocabulary, but it’s become my goal to encourage, equip, and inspire Tolkien fans to not only pick up The Silmarillion — but to finish it as well!
To celebrate the wrap-up of our Silmarillion book club, we’ve got activities going on all week! These are my way of saying thank-you to everyone who read along with us and participated in our discussions. I hope you’ll have a wonderful summer break and will join us in the fall to read The Lord of the Rings together!
"There at the last they looked upon death and defeat, and all their valour was in vain; for Sauron was too strong. Yet in that hour was put to the proof that which Mithrandir had spoken, and help came from the hands of the weak when the Wise faltered. For, as many songs have since sung, it was the Periannath, the Little People, dwellers in hillsides and meadows, that brought them deliverance."
“...Yet it seems that you desire now to have the good of both kindreds, to sail to Valinor when you will, and to return when you please to your homes. That cannot be. Nor can the Valar take away the gifts of Ilúvatar. The Eldar, you say, are unpunished, and even those who rebelled do not die. Yet that is to them neither reward nor punishment, but the fulfilment of their being. They cannot escape, and are bound to this world, never to leave it so long as it lasts, for its life is theirs. And you are punished for the rebellion of Men, you say, in which you had small part, and so it is that you die. But that was not at first appointed for a punishment. Thus you escape, and leave the world, and are not bound to it, in hope or in weariness. Which of us therefore should envy the others?” - JRR Tolkien
"Hail Eärendil, of mariners most renowned, the looked for that cometh at unawares, the longed for that cometh beyond hope! Hail Eärendil, bearer of light before the Sun and Moon! Splendour of the Children of Earth, star in the darkness, jewel in the sunset, radiant in the morning!"
"At last, in the year when Eärendil was seven years old, Morgoth was ready, and he loosed upon Gondolin his Balrogs, and his Orcs, and his wolves; and with them came dragons of the brood of Glaurung, and they were become now many and terrible." - Of Tuor and the Fall of Gondolin
“Morgoth hath bewitched thee; for he that seeth through Morgoth’s eyes, willing or unwilling, seeth all things crooked. Long was Turin thy son fostered in the halls of Menegroth, and shown love and honour as the son of he King; and it was not by the King’s will nor by mine that he came never back to Doriath. And afterwards thy wife and thy daughter were harboured here with honour and goodwill; and we sought by all means that we might dissuade Morwen from the road to Nargothrond. With the voice of Morgoth thou dost now upbraid thy friends.”
