My introduction to Fantasy was the Belgariad by David Eddings and The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan. It may surprise some that I’ve never been into Tolkien much. I’ve enjoyed the films, but I’ve never made much progress reading his work. I skipped right over Tolkien, and anytime I would try to go back and dive into his stories, I struggled to get into his voice. I would get about fifty pages in and stop. It was probably a bad idea to make my first time reading Tolkien be The Silmarillion. But I set a goal to try and get into his work this year. So here I am.

My approach to reading Tolkien was to come at it from a student’s perspective, as if I’m studying the history of Fantasy.

One thing I didn’t realize, getting into this was that “The Silmarillion” is only a portion of the book. There are two Prologues, Ainulindalë, then the Valaquenta, and then you finally make it to the Quenta Silmarillion, which winds up being the bulk of the book. This story is “an account of the Elder Days or the First Age of the World.” I’ve learned that The Lord of the Rings takes place at the end of the Third Age, (I honestly didn’t know this) so basically this is the genesis story of how that land came to be. (I can hear a million Tolkien fans quietly laughing at my lack of knowledge.)

So far, I’m enjoying it. Although several podcasts and commentaries have helped. It makes me appreciate Tolkien a bit more, and gives me the desire to dive into more of his works. I’m only on Chapter Nine, but the story is unfolding fantastically.

In a few weeks, I’ll be recording a podcast with a friend of the Show, David Wright, for Geeky Dad’s Talk About Geeky Things. We will not be able to cover everything there is to discuss during that one episode. So, I’ll blog a few of my thoughts occasionally. Like I said, this is my first time reading Tolkien, and I’m enjoying it so far.