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The Silmarillion  By  cover art

The Silmarillion

By: J. R. R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien
Narrated by: Andy Serkis
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Publisher's summary

The forerunner to The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion tells the earlier history of Middle-earth, recounting the events of the First and Second Ages, and introducing some of the key characters, such as Galadriel, Elrond, Elendil and the Dark Lord, Sauron.

The tales of The Silmarillion are set in an age when Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, dwelt in Middle-earth, and the High Elves made war upon him for the recovery of the Silmarils, the jewels containing the pure light of Valinor.

Included on the recording are several shorter works. The Ainulindalë is a myth of the Creation and in the Valaquenta the nature and powers of each of the gods is described. The Akallabêth recounts the downfall of the great island kingdom of Númenor at the end of the Second Age, and Of the Rings of Power tells of the great events at the end of the Third Age, as narrated in The Lord of the Rings.

This brand-new unabridged recording is read by the acclaimed actor, director and author, Andy Serkis.

©1977 The Tolkien Estate Limited and C.R. Tolkien (P)2023 HarperCollins Publishers

Critic reviews

‘How, given little over half a century of work, did one man become the creative equivalent of a people?’ The Guardian

‘Demanding to be compared with English mythologies… at times rises to the greatness of true myth’ Financial Times

‘A creation of singular beauty… magnificent in its best moments’ Washington Post

What listeners say about The Silmarillion

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The middle earth bible

This is basically the Bible of Middle Earth. Very cool. And enlightening as to exactly how bad Amazon Studios botched their Rings of Power series.

It's such a shame that they were not allowed to tell the story of Morgoth and the Silmarills, because Holy crap, that could have been epic.

Instead, they had the rights to a very short chapter on how the Rings of Power were made. And it is extremely extremely vague. The harfoots, which were a huge part of the show, were not in the text. And the Wizards did not appear until later. And Sauron was swept out to sea in the great flood of Numenor and did not return until later. I dont know. There are some conflicting passages.

But one thing is sure. The Amazon show is horrible fan fiction that gets much more wrong that it tries to get right. For instance, Galadriel was only made so powerful by her acquiring of one of the rings!

Ugh

Anyway, this book was awesome.

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17 people found this helpful

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The Silmarillion > LOTR

I’ve enjoyed LOTR since I was in high school when the movies came out. I’ve read the books multiple times, but have only now read The Silmarillion. This story gives LOTR so much more context and makes it significantly more beautiful. The Silmarillion reads much more like a Greek tragedy than The Hobbit or LOTR. It is raw, but beautiful. Tolkien expertly depicts the heights and depths of human nature in this book. This work is truly an epic work and is a must read for any Tolkien admirer.

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Brings the book to life

Beautiful book made even more magnificent (if possible) by Andy Serkis' performance. I have read the book 3x completely and listened to the previous recording 2x. I will be listening to this performance again. Loved it!

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Love this performance. Andy Serkis brings the characters a life I was missing reading the story

I’ll be looking for other Audiobooks narrated by Andy Serkis. Very easy to listen to.

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Absolutely amazing!

Andy Serkis does such a good job narrating this!!! Absolutely loved it! Definitely recommend it.

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I really enjoyed it!

I really love this book and Andy Serkis did a really great job reading it

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Great book and great narration!

The Silmarillion has always been one of my favorite books and this narration by Andy Serkis was masterful! Such a good read/listen, I can't recommend it enough!

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Unbelievable. This reading will not be surpassed!

Some of the greatest prose ever written in the English language. Read with perfection and passion!

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Fantastic writing and well narrated

Love Tolkien and really cool to be taken through more of the creation mythos and “history” aspects of this IP. Loved the previous narration from I believe Martin Shaw(?) but Serkis does great bringing more expression to the characters.

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I need andy serkis to do the rest of the books

Plz and thank you love you hes perfect. This is asking me to do 15 words but theres not much more to say i love andy

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