Good book

In the collection of stories about the history and creation of Middle Earth, author J.R.R. Tolkien skillfully uses diction to help describe his different elaborate worlds and uses the diction to help relate the separate stories in the novel to each other as well as to relate the plots to other stories in different novels.
Tolkien's diction in the stories helps the reader to understand and identify all of the characters and their relationships with each other. He uses very descriptive word choice throughout the novel, but he describes the differences between the major villain Melkor and the numerous heroes of the novel not only directly in the plot but indirectly through the fact that Tolkien uses more civilized and elegant words to describe the heroes in contrast to the crude and sinister words that Tolkien used to describe all of the evil in the novel. One of the key components in The Silmarillion is the jewels the Silmarils, which are the most valuable and beautiful jewels in Middle Earth. Tolkien describes The Silmarils with different words depending on who possesses the Silmaril at the time, Melkor or a hero.
The word choice in The Silmarillion is reflected in the diction of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, with similar, if not the same, words used to describe situations and plot threads that are related in the two stories. The most well-known of this is the love stories of Beren and Luthien in The Silmarillion, compared to the later story of Aragorn and Arwen in The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien would make Luthien and Arwen both very beautiful with his descriptions, and he would make Beren and Aragorn both willing to do anything so that they would be allowed to love the beautiful Elves.
Tolkien's diction is very distinctive and influential in this story as well as in his other novels and it helps to create the depth and believability that has been common and expected of Tolkien's novels.

SO much better the second time through...

I first read this book in January, 1978, right after it came out. At the time I was nineteen and had just read _The Hobbit_ and _The Lord of the Rings_ the year before for the first time. Like many Middle-Earth readers, I found _The Silmarillion_ to be a difficult read, and not nearly as satisfying as LotR. Now, 25 years later I have just read _The Silmarillion_ for a second time, and I have a completely different response to it.

What made me like this book so much better the second time around? I think two things were at work: age and 'commentaries'. Taking the latter first; in all the blizzard of Tolkein hoopla recently, I came across Tom Shippey's books about Tolkein and Middle-Earth. Both books were erudite, yet illuminating about Tolkein's work. While these books focused primarily on LotR, they also each spent considerable space 'commenting' on the Silmarillion. From these books I received a greater understanding of what Tolkein was doing, and also the motivation I needed to revisit the Silmarillion.

But I think that age and maturity were really the primary factors in my greater enjoyment the second time through _The Silmarillion_. Even though we all read Shakespeare, Milton and the Greeks in high school and college; most of us don't really appreciate it. Many of us don't yet have the life experience to appreciate and understand tragedy. And I believe that is what made this book inaccessible to me the first time around. This time I found the book fascinating, gripping, and full of heartfelt emotion. I was brought to tears by the rash deeds of the Noldor: the kinslaying at Alqualonde and the burning of the ships at Losgar. And O the story of Turin... I realize now much better than I did 25 years ago, how closely the themes of these stories resemble the reality we live in.

So... with a caveat to the reader about accessibility, I heartily recommend this book. Especially if you read it once before years ago, and were disappointed. Revisit it, I urge you.

Waste of time

After reading LOTR & the Hobbit I was hungry for more Tolkien. I couldn't even finish this one. If I want to read about history I'll read a book on real history. Don't waste your time. So overrateted.