Like reading an encyclopedia. Was quite a rough read.
this post was submitted on 25 Feb 2024
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I loved LotR as a child so my parents got me the Silmarillion for my 10th birthday..was 16 when I finally read it
Have you finished it in the meantime?
I tried to read few times but never succeeded to...
I HIGHLY recommend the audiobook by Andy Serkis. It's free if you have Spotify Premium or a subscription to a VPN!
free if you have Spotify Premium or a subscription to a VPN
I don't think "free" means what you think it means
What can I say, Bilbo Baggins is an inspiration to us all
Sneaksy little thief!
Cool! I'm not sure how palatable it will be after 10+ years since first read... But I do have Spotify premium
This is something I noticed people have been saying, but I never had such problem. I think it might be because Ive had read a Czech translation, so it might have been more palatable than the original Tolkiens English, which can get rather verbose.
Then again, I like reading wiki articles about my favorite games’ lore, so it might be just me being massive nerd.
World's fanciest, most fantastical infodump. 5 new characters, 4 new places, and 3 new events every page, as well as further development of many other characters, places and events from earlier pages, with new references and connections and associations for you to keep track of. Fun.
the only way i finally got sort of a handle on that one was by actually making an outline on several pages of legal pad.. and now that i think about it, it was absolutely worth it..
Every race has at least one fatal flaw. For the elves, it's basically pride/conservatism (in the original sense of stopping change). Dwarves, greed. Humans, thirst for power. Hobbits, small mindedness. Ents, laziness. Orcs are only flaws basically. They do seem to be able to build machines of war rather well, so they are industrious at least, but only with a strong leader behind them.
Even in the movies it was pretty clear that elves are racist as fuck. If they ran middle Earth they'd genocide the dwarves and enslave the men.
No. Not even close.
The dwarf breathes so loud we could have shot him in the dark.
Tl/Dr dwarves and elves have a complicated history. They do not all hate each other and they do not all love each other.
The elves and dwarves of Tolkiens legendarum have animosity towards one another. But saying "the elves would genocide the dwarves" no, the Elves as a whole would not wish to exterminate the dwarves as a race. There were some among the Noldor (a part of the population of High Elves that left Valinor to reclaim the Silmarils from Morgoth) that believed the dwarves had cheated them. The Dwarves tell it another way, Tolkien is unclear on the truth of the matter. However those dwarves were not the clan of Longbeards. The Longbeards do not come into the tales of the first age. Their halls were east and south of Belariand. In Khazad-Dum.
All that to say the animosity between the elves of Lothlorian and the Dwarves of Khazad-Dum can probably be traced to the fact that most of the Elves present are dark elves/green elves. Who also has their own unrecorded spats with dwarves of different clans. (Also the fact that the dwarves unearthed a balrog probably doesn't help matters)
So yes there is animosity between the two races. But there is also friendship. The elves of Holand and the dwarves of Khazad-Dum were united in friendship. A fact somewhat touched on, in the recent show the Rings of Power. (Although poorly done in my opinion)
Edit a word and some other added context
Why do you think the friendship between Legolas and Gimli was so notable? Cause dwarves and elves get along? No, cause they historically despise each other, talk down about each other, and distrust each other. Elrond, as well as all the elves of Lorien are openly hostile and intolerant towards Gimli and the dwarves and talk about them like they're animals. I dunno what you call that but racism
I've already commented on another post with the why and how the dwarves and elves might dislike one another. But to say the Elves would "genocide dwarves and enslave men" if they ruled Middle Earth (spoiler they did rule Middle Earth for a time and none of that occured) is blatantly wrong and antithetical to Tolkien's work.
Well, the Elves did hunt the Dwarves before they realised they too were Children of Iluvatar.
What are you talking about? Those Teleri bastards were asking for it.
I've never actually heard someone say that. Lol Or maybe I have and just tuned them out?
Haven't read the sil yet but my impression of the elves from the trilogy was that they're a bunch of intelligent, nostalgic, racist, isolationist weirdos who just so happen to be good hosts and don't wear their bigotry on their sleeves (most of the time)