The Silmarillion always seemed like a textbook to me. Tolkien’s twenty year long work is filled with facts and stories that are interesting and compelling, but fall short of becoming a popular novel. Tolkien of course did not care for that criticism however a lot of me agrees with Stanley Unwin in that I too wish to see many of these stories played out as individual novels, like The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The story of Beren and Luthien would have made an excellent read as it is filled with the love story that predates Aragorn and Arwen, yet involves more emotions than the appendices of The Return of the King. However, to see the individual stories played out would be nearly impossible as Tolkien’s collection of stories for “The Silmarillion” was a twenty year process.
Morgoth further proves Tolkien’s Catholic beliefs as he closely resembles Lucifer. Shippey even describes how Morgoth does not cause people to act evilly, but simply inspires them to do so. This idea relates to how Satan can tempt people, but he cannot force them to do his bidding.
Tolkien’s plan that the history of Middle-Earth being told by an early anglo-saxon reinvents English mythology. While it is known that much of early lore is passed down through oral tradition, it would make historical sense to say that “The SIlmarillion” is just the written form of oral folklore of the anglo-saxons. Given this idea, the folklore of the English is bridged from the early lore of the anglo-saxons like Beowulf to modern England without the inclusion of many French and Germanic stories and influences.
