Tag: the silmarillion

Nerdist Book Club: Ch. 1-4

As I mentioned in last week’s post, I’m participating in the Nerdist Book Club as they read The Silmarillion. Yesterday we discussed Ch 1.4, which goes further into the origin of species in Middle Earth. This first part starts off slow but it’s still cool seeing how the world we know in Lord of the Rings forms. It’s especially cool seeing why the Ents were created and the origins of them being made the protectors of the forest. We also get to see that the dwarves have a different origin than elves and man and why their loyalties are more towards things they make with their own hand instead of nature. My favorite part, however, has to be the origin of the orcs. It seems like they were captured elves that Melkor transformed. That fact really changes how you view future battles that happen in later works.

This has been my reaction to the first four chapters of The Silmarillion. I promise I’m not turning the whole site into a grounds to discuss one book, but this is what I have to talk about for now. There’s big news regarding a certain ska band that’s featured here *cough*ThePandemics*cough* so stay tuned for that. I’ve also been doing a lot of writing over at Nerds in Babeland so definitely go check that out if you’re looking for some new content of the nerdy variety. Until next time folks!

Nerdist Book Club: The Silmarillion

the-silmarillion-coverOur friends over at Nerdist have decided they are doing a book club where they invite everyone to join along in reading The Silmarillion together. Amy Ratcliffe, the nerd heading this little adventure, said that it was the one Tolkien book she hadn’t tackled yet and figured if other people read along with her that would be good motivation. Since this is the one book I also had trouble motivating myself to read, I decided to join them. The discussions just started this past Tuesday and will happen every week until we finish on September 30th. I know that sounds like a long time for people who are speedy readers, but it means we’re reading about 30 pages a week. Also, as with other things written by Tolkien, some parts are a little dense to get through, so the way the discussions are broken up feels less intimidating.

The first discussion was only on the introductory chapters, which mainly show you how the world was created. I especially love seeing how the first “evil” was formed and a familiar name in the Tolkien-verse he was connected to. I definitely plan on keeping up with this and maybe even contributing thoughts here instead of just in the comment threads and Twitter. Either way I wanted to share the club with you and let you know what that “Nerdist Book Club” hashtag on Twitter was all about. If I end up converting some people over to our discussion then all the better.