A reader's guide to The Silmarillion

the long version

From Inside Cover: In writing Master of Middle-earth: The Fiction of f. R. R. Tolkien, Professor Paul Kocher performed" an unmistakable labor of love. . . the sort of preface C. S. Lewis might have written/' according to Kirkus Reviews. And Richard C. West said of his book: "I know of no other single volume which provides so full a picture of Tolkien's theory and practice of fantasy." Yet any critical understanding of Tolkien was necessarily incomplete until the publication of The Silmarillion. Now Paul Kocher offers a fresh perspective on the magic of Middleearth with this interpretation of Tolkien's great posthumous book. Tolkien worked on The Silmarillion from the beginning of his writing life, to the end and considered it his most important work. It is a complex book, rich in the fabulous legends of Middle-earth. Kocher helps the reader understand how The Silmarillion, which goes back to the first age with Ihivatar's creation, is) both a beginning and a completion for Tolkien's masterpiece of Middle-earth mythology. It is the underlying root system from which the legendary creatures and stories spring forth in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The reader also learns haw Middle-earth probably first took form, beginning with Tolkien's fascinated study of Norse mythology and his desire to create a counterpart for England. A Tolkien expert of repute, Kocher demonstrates that in understanding The Silmarillion we also discover more about the other Middle-earth books. He writes with the same incisiveness that characterizes his earlier work, Master of Middle-earth.