Ages since I read it but I agree the speech came across as very true and in character for the event. I remember it as one of the few points where we get to listen to Faenor and also that it made him into one of the most disagreeable characters in The Silmarillion, which is quite the feat.

I know right? Re-reading it, for this video had me struck by the force of the words, the clever turn of phrase and by the sheer madness that Feanor is pushing forward. He definitely is one of the most interesting and disagreeable characters in the Silmarillion (which as you rightly point out has a lot of disagreeable characters in it).

I guess Faenor must do this. Part of the force of Tolkien's writing is how he drives the narrative through to inevitable points. Destiny, fate. Many characters are destined to keep behaving a certain way and the reader knows this. Each narrative thread will come to a close. I love it.

Excuse me, but have you read Malazan?

Look, there are maybe 5 people on this good earth who love Feanor more than I do, but 'in all of fiction' is...a bit much.

I also think he was basically right about almost everything, but I won't get into that further than to say: Well, the Valar aren't human, and I don't think they understand the Children of Iluvatar well enough to rule over them competently. The elves shouldn't have been brought to Aman to begin with, they shouldn't have let all of creation except their own little paradise go to shit, and they should have at the absolute least clarified the extent to which they felt entitled to interfere with the elves' internal affairs before bringing them over.

They literally sat there while a spider killed the 2 trees and their brother invaded and murdered Feanor's dad. What. The. Fuck. Of course he was pissed!

It's not entirely germane to an evaluation of Feanor and his speech, but it's interesting that the Valar only decided not to let Morgoth destroy Middle Earth after Earendil proved that holding a silmaril lets you reach Aman in spite of the Valar’s defenses, and Morgoth still had two. That's the kind of selfless justice I like in my angelic overlords, for sure!

My main take away from this is that I really need to sit down and read The Silmarilion. I've picked up little bits and pieces of the book over the years through people who are way deeper into Tolkien than me and from my understanding it's both his hardest to read and his most awesome work. Like, every little bit I hear about it sounds like it was downright inspired.

It never ceases to amaze me how complete and consistent of a work Tolkien produced in his lifetime. Has one wonder just how much more awesome he could've added to it if he got around to finishing some of it.

The number of characters and locations is hard to keep up with, but if you take some time to become familiar with the family lineages and map it's a lot easier IMO. Good luck, and happy reading.

It was a difficult read for me but worth it. I don't have a background education in literature beyond a couple 101 courses I took for credit in uni. If you're in the same boat I reccomend reading alongside a podcast that breaks it down.

For me this broke the book down into manageable chunks, helped link larger ideas and themes together, and provided some context from the world of literature that Tolkien came up in.

People over hype how hard it is, IMO. Just don’t go in expecting a traditional novel, it’s much more like a history book or chronicle. There’s very little dialogue in it. I feel like a lot of people get turned away because they’ve heard that it’s a very difficult read, but as long as you come at it with the right expectations, I don’t think it’s hard to get through.

Maybe just be prepared to keep a genealogy chart handy, there’s a lot of very similar names that you’ll want to keep straight.

I did read Lord of the Rings when I was 15 and Dune last year (another series I need to read more of). Got sucked into The Odyssey and Illiad a bit in the meantime. Those last two are something alright. I think I should be able to handle it if I put my mind to it.

I'm a history student, you're doing a great job selling me on the book. If it's a bit like The Illiad and Odyssey then I should be able to handle it.

I wouldn’t really compare it to them so much, it’s more of a historical overview of the story with several more focused stories peppered throughout, more in the vein of Livy’s work I’d say.

If you do like epic poetry though, Tolkien actually wrote different versions of some of those stories in the Silmarillion as epic poems, though unfortunately I don’t think he ever finished any of them. They are all collected in one book, the Lays of Beleriand, and they tell slightly different versions of the complete stories told in the Silmarillion. If you like seeing the development of his work through its early stages, I’d recommend picking that up (and the other books in the 12 volume series!) after reading the Silmarillion.

EDIT: Didn’t realize autocorrect didn’t recognize Livy.

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