...and now you know *promote

Personally had no clue about any of that.

Promoting this video and sending it back into the queue for one more try; last queued Wednesday, December 17th, 2014 7:42am PST - promote requested by eric3579.

I was irked when he described the Maiar as low level angels, when they're more like demigods. So I wanted to find flaws in the rest of the video.

Nothing to criticize. The information in the video is 100% accurate and very well summarized. A great source of information for anyone smart enough NOT to read the Silmarillion. Seriously...don't read it.

Ah, this video would have been nice twenty years ago when I had a week long nerd argument with someone about the nature of wizards. I insisted they were like the Olympians and were basically the demi-gods of Middle Earth while my opponent was convinced they were men, citing Gandalf's apparent focus on men and hobbits. I had to trawl through a bunch of JRR and Christopher's material to win that argument - a 4 minute video may have saved me some stress!

Like JRR, I haven't been able to finish the Silmarillion (managed the first two parts only), though I did enjoy The Music of the Ainur as one of the coolest creation stories I've come across.

*learn *books *history *geek

Adding video to channels (Books, Geek, History, Learn) - requested by ant.

The Silmarillion reads very differently than Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit, or any novel really... It has a sort of scripture / Biblical feel about it, even beyond the creation story that starts the book being a Tolkien-style Genesis.

But even beyond that, there is a lot of great material in there if you can get around the denseness of it. The story of the war that finishes off the first age is really, really good.

But before you give the book a shot, know that 1 page of Silmarillion takes longer to digest than 1 page of most texts. Very helpful to get the footnote annotated edition that has an appendix to refer to to help remind you when characters pop up that haven't been mentioned for a LONG time, etc.

Never having read any of the Tolkien books, I made the questionable decision to read the Silmarillion before any of the other books (except the Hobbit). I gained one distinct advantage in reading through the LOTR books in that I already knew almost all of the stories that are only briefly told by the various characters. But was it worth it? Yes, though only the second half of the book was really captivating for me.

Sadly, some quick google searching indicates that the Silmarillion is still owned by the Tolkien estate who doesn't appreciate PJ's treatment of the LOTR/Hobbit. Maybe someday another studio/director might get the chance...

The Silmarillion is strictly for Tolkien completionists. Most of it is incredibly dull history with name after name, who begat who and who they fought with.

It's like reading actual dull history, only fictional.

I admire Tolkien for writing it though. True devotion, even obsession with his world.

Imagine if Tolkien did the Hubbard thing. That would have turned out much more interesting.

*related=http://videosift.com/video/The-One-Ring-Explained-Lord-of-the-Rings-Mythology-Part-2

The One Ring Explained. Lord of the Rings Mythology Part 2 has been added as a related post - related requested by Grimm.