I have never read The Silmarillion, and I probably never will. I enjoyed reading The Lord of the Rings, but I don’t have much interest in the very detailed history behind it. I will, however, probably reread The Lord of the Rings at some point in my life. Shippey does a good job exploring different parts of The Silmarillion, but when he starts mentioning names and places that aren’t referred to in The Lord of the Rings I became confused. Sometimes I feel that Shippey assumes his readers are just as well versed in Tolkien’s writings as he is. Some of his readers might be, but I’m not.
I thought the section on Elves was really interesting. Shippey notes that in many other texts there is not a strong distinction between elves and dwarves. He writes that “The OED seems to accept this solution, cross-referring ‘dwarf’ and ‘elf’ rather vaguely to each other” (229). Tolkien was not pleased with this categorization and it seems he went out of his way to redefine the different races. In The Lord of the Rings there are very clear differences between elves and dwarves. Not only that, but he created an animosity between the two races. There is an undeniable hate between elves and dwarves. It is interesting to note that this spiteful relationship is turned around when Legolas and Gimli become best friends. Tolkien made it clear in his work that the terms elves and dwarves are not interchangeable.
Throughout all the chapters I have noticed that a single word can carry a lot of importance. Tolkien even addressed this topic saying his writings are “fundamentally linguistic in inspiration” (230). I think this fact is undeniable. The foundation for his work was the different languages he created. The names of his characters also have a great amount of significance. I feel that to have a better understanding of Tolkien’s work, a reader has to keep a dictionary handy while reading.
I remember discussing in class how Tolkien viewed The Lord of the Rings as a Catholic book. I found this interesting because there are no religions present in Middle Earth. Shippey points out that religious connections can be made within The Silmarillion as well. One of the examples he gives is that Melkor’s rebellion is similar to that of Lucifer. There isn’t a direct parallel between these two events, but there are strong echoes. I believe the similarities are intentional, but I also feel that Tolkien didn’t want his work to just be a reiteration of biblical stories. He was trying to create a mythology for England, and these religious references are only part of the greater creation.
Throughout this book Shippey makes references to the work Tolkien’s son, Christopher, has done with The Lord of the Rings. It seems that Christopher is really devoted to his father’s work. Perhaps Christopher’s devotion to the continuation of his father’s work has helped it remain so popular for so long.
