For the person in my messages who asked for tips on tackling the Silmarillion and then suggested that I put them in a post — here they are! This is just my personal opinion, and others have weighed in on this topic before. But in case it’s helpful:
1. Be kind to yourself about this task! There’s a reason lots of people find the Silm challenging, and if you do, too, that’s no judgment of you.
2. IMHO, the first few chapters are the hardest, so try not to let them intimidate you out of the whole thing. It starts off with this very formal, archaic tone, and the early chapters take on some very abstract, metaphysical ideas. But you get used to the tone, and the story comes down out of the clouds to something more grounded and closer to a traditional (but still mythological-style) narrative. (Note “hardest” does not mean “bad” — I love those chapters!)
3. Realistically, you are not going to remember every name, place, and detail, so have a plan for that. Everything’s got a thousand names and Tolkien doesn’t always do a good job telegraphing what info is significant and will come back later vs what will literally only ever be mentioned once in passing. So expect to take some notes or spend time flipping back to earlier chapters or to the index or just googling as needed to remind yourself exactly who that angry elf is and why it’s a big deal that his own magical dog wants nothing to do with him now.
4. Find someone to read along/discuss with you. Talking about it helps you retain the info better, puzzle out stuff you found confusing, and stoke your interest by letting you dive deep into characters or themes or ideas that are especially amazing (Gwindor my beloved!). You can read along with someone in real life, someone here (hi!) or with a podcast or YouTube series, of which there are a bunch that go through the book chapter by chapter in an accessible way. (If anyone wants recs for this purpose, just LMK!)
5. Embrace that the story is nuanced and complex, which means your reaction can be the same. If you read it and find yourself wondering, “I’m not sure how to feel about [cursed human X] doing [morally objectionable thing Y]” or “I don’t understand where [spider-shaped creature of darkness Z] came from and how she got so incredibly cool powerful?” — that doesn’t mean you read it wrong! There is room for interpretation, and a lot of questions raised by the book don’t actually have obvious answers. (Questions like, is evil ever justified? Can redemption be earned and how? What do we owe to others even at a cost to ourselves? Big stuff!)
6. DNF it if you want! There’s no rule that says you have to read the Silm to be a Tolkien fan, and you don’t have to suffer through something you find unpleasant just to earn some Tolkien Points. I think it’s a gorgeous book that feeds my need to wrestle with big Life Questions while giving me some indelible characters that will always stay with me, but you don’t have to think that. Art is subjective, and there are plenty of other ways to enjoy Tolkien if the Silm turns out not to be your thing.
