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107-601: Elias Lönnrot ( Finnish: [ˈeliɑs ˈlønruːt] ; 9 April 1802 – 19 March 1884) was a Finnish polymath, physician, philosopher, poet, musician, linguist, journalist, philologist and collector of traditional Finnish oral poetry . He is best known for synthesizing the Finnish national epic, Kalevala (1835, enlarged 1849) from short ballads and lyric poems he gathered from Finnish oral tradition during several field expeditions in Finland, Russian Karelia ,

214-563: A Man. Elros became the first king of Númenor , and lived to be 500 years old. Akallabêth ("The Downfallen" ) comprises about 30 pages, and recounts the rise and fall of the island kingdom of Númenor, inhabited by the Dúnedain . After the defeat of Melkor, the Valar gave the island to the three loyal houses of Men who had aided the Elves in the war against him. Through the favour of the Valar,

321-576: A Silmaril from his crown. Amazed, Thingol accepted Beren, and the first union of Man and Elf occurred, though Beren was soon mortally wounded and Lúthien died of grief. Though the fates of Man and Elf after death would sunder them forever, she persuaded the Vala Mandos to make an exception for them. He gave Beren back his life and allowed Lúthien to renounce her immortality and live as a mortal in Middle-earth. Thus, after they died, they would share

428-832: A brief overview of the events leading up to and taking place in The Lord of the Rings , including the waning of Gondor, the re-emergence of Sauron, the White Council , Saruman 's treachery, and Sauron's final destruction along with the One Ring, which ends the Third Age. The inside title page contains an English inscription written in Tengwar script. It reads "The tales of the First Age when Morgoth dwelt in Middle-earth and

535-436: A descendant of Elros, and his sons Isildur and Anárion, who had saved a seedling from Númenor's white tree, the ancestor of that of Gondor. They founded two kingdoms: Arnor in the north and Gondor in the south. Elendil reigned as High King of both kingdoms, but committed the rule of Gondor jointly to Isildur and Anárion. The power of the kingdoms in exile was greatly diminished from that of Númenor, "yet very great it seemed to

642-588: A description of the Valar and Maiar , supernatural powers of Eä. The next section, Quenta Silmarillion , which forms the bulk of the collection, chronicles the history of the events before and during the First Age , including the wars over three jewels, the Silmarils , that gave the book its title. The fourth part, Akallabêth , relates the history of the Downfall of Númenor and its people, which takes place in

749-401: A draft of the writings that would later become The Silmarillion . Unwin rejected this proposal, calling the draft obscure and "too Celtic", so Tolkien began working on a new story that eventually became The Lord of the Rings . The Silmarillion has five parts. The first, Ainulindalë , tells in mythic style of the creation of Eä, the "world that is ." The second part, Valaquenta , gives

856-467: A fantasy author. It tells of Eä , a fictional universe that includes the Blessed Realm of Valinor , the ill-fated region of Beleriand , the island of Númenor , and the continent of Middle-earth , where Tolkien's most popular works— The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings —are set. After the success of The Hobbit , Tolkien's publisher, Stanley Unwin , requested a sequel, and Tolkien offered

963-635: A few of the Maiar. It tells how Melkor seduced many Maiar—including those who would eventually become Sauron and the Balrogs —into his service. Quenta Silmarillion (Quenya: "The History of the Silmarils" ), the bulk of the book in 24 chapters, is a series of interconnected tales set in the First Age that narrate the tragic saga of the three forged jewels, the Silmarils . The Valar attempted to fashion

1070-540: A fictional editor , whether Ælfwine or Bilbo Baggins . As such, Gergely Nagy considers that the fact that the work has indeed been edited actually realises Tolkien's intention. The events described in The Silmarillion , as in J. R. R. Tolkien 's extensive Middle-earth writings which the book summarises, were meant to have taken place at some time in Earth's past. In keeping with this idea, The Silmarillion

1177-525: A group of eternal spirits or demiurges , called "the offspring of his thought". Ilúvatar brought the Ainur together and showed them a theme, from which he bade them make a great music . Melkor —whom Ilúvatar had given the "greatest power and knowledge" of all the Ainur—broke from the harmony of the music to develop his own song. Some Ainur joined him, while others continued to follow Ilúvatar, causing discord in

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1284-414: A letter. Another major theme is sensitively analysed by Flieger in her 2002 book Splintered Light , which Nagy notes was the first full monograph on The Silmarillion . Flieger shows that a central theme of Tolkien's writing is the progressive fragmentation of the light from the moment of the creation; light symbolises both the divine creation and the author's subcreation . Key symbols including

1391-523: A literary event of any magnitude". He suggested that the main reason for its "enormous sales" was the "Tolkien cult" created by the popularity of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings , and predicted that more people would buy The Silmarillion than would ever read it. The School Library Journal called it "only a stillborn postscript" to Tolkien's earlier works. Peter Conrad of the New Statesman stated that "Tolkien can't actually write" and

1498-421: A mariner named Eriol (in later versions, an Anglo-Saxon named Ælfwine ) who finds the island of Tol Eressëa, where the Elves live, and the Elves tell him their history. In "The Cottage of Lost Play", Tol Eressëa, corresponding to England, or in early versions Kortirion, corresponding to Warwick , linked the tales to England's lost mythology . Tolkien never completed The Book of Lost Tales ; he left it to compose

1605-501: A nit-picking classicist" and only the "technical research into languages and families". In The Space Trilogy by C. S. Lewis , the main character, Elwin Ransom, is a philologist – as was Lewis' close friend J. R. R. Tolkien . Dr. Edward Morbius, one of the main characters in the science fiction film Forbidden Planet , is a philologist. Philip, the main character of Christopher Hampton 's 'bourgeois comedy' The Philanthropist ,

1712-478: A parody of the book, The Sellamillion . In a 2019 article, Le Monde called The Silmarillion a "cornerstone of Tolkien's imagination" and "the book by J. R. R. Tolkien that rules them all". Academic criticism of Christopher Tolkien's 1977 text concentrated on his father's intention to complete the work: Since he did not do so, his plans for the overall narrative, out of the large collection of draft texts, were not clearly discernible. That in turn meant, argued

1819-534: A prisoner to Númenor. There he quickly enthralled the king, Ar-Pharazôn, urging him to seek the immortality that the Valar had apparently denied him, fanning the envy that many of the Númenóreans had begun to hold against the Elves of the West and the Valar. The people of Númenor strove to avoid death, but this only weakened them and sped the gradual diminishing of their lifespans. Sauron urged them to wage war against

1926-473: A reconstructed text accompanied by a " critical apparatus ", i.e., footnotes that listed the various manuscript variants available, enabling scholars to gain insight into the entire manuscript tradition and argue about the variants. A related study method known as higher criticism studies the authorship, date, and provenance of text to place such text in a historical context. As these philological issues are often inseparable from issues of interpretation, there

2033-531: A script used in the ancient Aegean, was deciphered in 1952 by Michael Ventris and John Chadwick , who demonstrated that it recorded an early form of Greek, now known as Mycenaean Greek . Linear A , the writing system that records the still-unknown language of the Minoans , resists deciphering, despite many attempts. Work continues on scripts such as the Maya , with great progress since the initial breakthroughs of

2140-399: Is a Finnish traditional instrument); Kalevala , 1835–1836 (the "old" Kalevala), an edited collection of epic poems collected orally and representing a mythology for Finland; Kanteletar , 1840; Sananlaskuja , 1842 ( Proverbs ); an expanded second edition of Kalevala , 1849 (the "new" Kalevala). Lönnrot was recognised for his part in preserving Finland's oral traditions by appointment to

2247-588: Is a professor of philology in an English university town . Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld , the main character in Alexander McCall Smith 's 1997 comic novel Portuguese Irregular Verbs is a philologist, educated at Cambridge. The main character in the Academy Award Nominee for Best Foreign Language Film in 2012, Footnote , is a Hebrew philologist, and a significant part of the film deals with his work. The main character of

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2354-417: Is and how (within the imagined world) it came to be. This I now think to have been an error. In October 1996, Christopher Tolkien commissioned the illustrator Ted Nasmith to create full-page full-colour artwork for the first illustrated edition of The Silmarillion . It was published in 1998, and followed in 2004 by a second edition featuring corrections and additional artwork by Nasmith. The Silmarillion

2461-527: Is derived from the Greek φιλολογία ( philología ), from the terms φίλος ( phílos ) 'love, affection, loved, beloved, dear, friend' and λόγος ( lógos ) 'word, articulation, reason', describing a love of learning, of literature, as well as of argument and reasoning, reflecting the range of activities included under the notion of λόγος . The term changed little with the Latin philologia , and later entered

2568-446: Is however in his view "immensely problematic" as it is not a "work" as usually understood: "The Silmarillion" (in roman ) is the enormous corpus of documents and drafts that J. R. R. Tolkien built up throughout his creative life, while " The Silmarillion " (in italics ) is the 1977 book that Christopher Tolkien edited. The corpus is now published in the twelve volumes of Christopher Tolkien's The History of Middle-earth . The corpus

2675-516: Is no clear-cut boundary between philology and hermeneutics . When text has a significant political or religious influence (such as the reconstruction of Biblical texts), scholars have difficulty reaching objective conclusions. Some scholars avoid all critical methods of textual philology, especially in historical linguistics, where it is important to study the actual recorded materials. The movement known as new philology has rejected textual criticism because it injects editorial interpretations into

2782-486: Is not a single work but many versions of many works, while the book "is often regarded as not an authentic 'Tolkien text'". Tolkien did not authorise the 1977 text; he did not even write all of it; and he did not define the frame in which it was to be presented. Nagy notes that in 2009, Douglas Charles Kane published a "hugely important resource", his Arda Reconstructed , which defines "exactly from what sources, variants, and with what methods" Christopher Tolkien constructed

2889-417: Is treated amongst other scholars, as noted by both the philologists R.D Fulk and Leonard Neidorf who have been quoted saying "This field "philology's commitment to falsification renders it "at odds with what many literary scholars believe because the purpose of philology is to narrow the range of possible interpretations rather than to treat all reasonable ones as equal". This use of falsification can be seen in

2996-527: The Elves made war upon him for the recovery of the Silmarils to which are appended the downfall of Númenor and the history of the Rings of Power and the Third Age in which these tales come to their end." Inside the back cover is a fold-out map of part of Middle-earth , Beleriand in the First Age . While the writings are Tolkien's, they were published posthumously by his son, Christopher. Christopher selected

3103-576: The Kola Peninsula and Baltic countries. In botany, he is remembered as the author of the 1860 Flora Fennica , the first scientific text written in Finnish rather than in Latin. Lönnrot was born in Sammatti , in the province of Uusimaa , Finland, which was then part of Sweden . He studied medicine at the Academy of Turku . The Great Fire of Turku coincided with his first academic year. As

3210-647: The Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel in 1978. The Silmarillion was criticised for being too serious, lacking the light-hearted moments that were found in The Lord of the Rings and especially The Hobbit . Time magazine lamented that there was "no single, unifying quest and, above all, no band of brothers for the reader to identify with". Other criticisms included difficult-to-read archaic language and many difficult and hard-to-remember names. Robert M. Adams of The New York Review of Books called The Silmarillion "an empty and pompous bore" and "not

3317-622: The Second Age . The final part, Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age , tells the history of the rings during the Second and Third Ages , ending with a summary of the events of The Lord of the Rings . The book shows the influence of many sources, including the Finnish epic Kalevala , Greek mythology in the lost island of Atlantis (as Númenor) and the Olympian gods (in the shape of

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3424-845: The Two Trees of Valinor , the Silmarils themselves, the transformation of Eärendil the Mariner and his ship Vingilot into the Morning Star , and the White Tree of Númenor all embody the light. The Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey writes that The Silmarillion is most obviously a calque on the Book of Genesis in the Bible (whereas the Shire is a calque upon England ). Shippey quotes Tolkien's friend C. S. Lewis , who stated that even Satan

3531-466: The Valar , while the lesser Ainur became the Maiar . The Valar attempted to prepare the world for the coming inhabitants (Elves and Men ), while Melkor, who wanted Arda for himself, repeatedly destroyed their work; this went on for thousands of years and, through waves of destruction and creation, the world took shape. Valaquenta ("Account of the Valar" ) describes Melkor, each of the fourteen Valar, and

3638-521: The "Sketch", Tolkien developed a fuller narrative version of The Silmarillion called Quenta Noldorinwa (also included in Volume IV). The Quenta Noldorinwa was the last version of The Silmarillion that Tolkien completed. In 1937, encouraged by the success of The Hobbit , Tolkien submitted to his publisher George Allen & Unwin an incomplete but more fully developed version of The Silmarillion called Quenta Silmarillion , but they rejected

3745-573: The "remarkable set of legends conceived with imaginative might and told in beautiful language". John Calvin Batchelor , in The Village Voice , lauded the book as a "difficult but incontestable masterwork of fantasy" and praised the characterisation of Melkor, describing him as "a stunning bad guy" whose "chief weapon against goodness is his ability to corrupt men by offering them trappings for their vanity". In 2004, Adam Roberts wrote

3852-446: The 1977 book. The Silmarillion is thematically complex. One key theme is its nature as a mythology, with multiple interrelated texts in differing styles; David Bratman has named these as "Annalistic", "Antique" and "Appendical". All of these are far from the approachable novelistic styles of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings , lacking a single narrative thread, and without the benefit of Hobbits as guides, as Tolkien noted in

3959-573: The Chair of Finnish Literature at the University of Helsinki in 1853. Lönnrot undertook the task of compiling the first Finnish-Swedish dictionary ( Finsk-Svenskt lexikon , 1866–1880). The result comprised over 200,000 entries, and many of the Finnish translations were coined by Lönnrot himself. His vast knowledge of traditional Finnish poetry made him a definite authority in Finland and many of his inventions have stuck. Finnish scientific terminology

4066-612: The Dúnedain were granted wisdom and power and longer life, beyond that of other Men. Indeed, the isle of Númenor lay closer to Aman than to Middle-earth. The fall of Númenor came about through the influence of the corrupted Maia Sauron , the chief servant of Melkor, who arose during the Second Age and tried to conquer Middle-earth. The Númenóreans moved against Sauron. They were so powerful that Sauron perceived that he could not defeat them by force. He surrendered himself to be taken as

4173-813: The Elves to live in Aman. This led to the sundering of the Elves ; those who accepted and then remained in Aman were the Vanyar ; those who went to Aman and later (mostly) returned to Middle-earth were the Noldor ; those who refused were the Teleri , including those who became the Sindar , ruled by Thingol and Melian . All the Vanyar and Noldor, and later many of the Teleri, reached Aman. In Aman, Melkor, who had been held captive by

4280-577: The Elves. Beren , a Man who had survived the latest battle, wandered into Doriath, where he fell in love with the Elf maiden Lúthien , daughter of Thingol and Melian. Thingol believed no mere Man was worthy of his daughter, and set a seemingly impossible price for her hand: one of the Silmarils. Undaunted, Beren set out, and Lúthien joined him, though he tried to dissuade her. Sauron , a powerful servant of Melkor, imprisoned Beren, but with Lúthien's help, he escaped. Together, they entered Melkor's fortress and stole

4387-571: The Elvish kingdom of Doriath , ruled by Thingol and Melian. Melkor was defeated in the first of five battles of Beleriand and barricaded himself in his northern fortress of Angband. Fëanor swore an oath of vengeance against Melkor and anyone who withheld the Silmarils from him, even the Valar, and made his seven sons do the same. He persuaded most of the Noldor to pursue Melkor, whom Fëanor renamed Morgoth , to Middle-earth. Fëanor's sons seized ships from

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4494-899: The English language in the 16th century, from the Middle French philologie , in the sense of 'love of literature'. The adjective φιλόλογος ( philólogos ) meant 'fond of discussion or argument, talkative', in Hellenistic Greek , also implying an excessive (" sophistic ") preference of argument over the love of true wisdom, φιλόσοφος ( philósophos ). As an allegory of literary erudition, philologia appears in fifth-century postclassical literature ( Martianus Capella , De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii ), an idea revived in Late Medieval literature ( Chaucer , Lydgate ). The meaning of "love of learning and literature"

4601-611: The Maia Olórin (Gandalf) as an "Odinic wanderer". The influence of the Bible is seen in the conflict between Melkor and Eru Ilúvatar, a parallel of Lucifer 's with God. Further, the creation and fall of the Elves parallels the Genesis creation narrative and the Book of Genesis ' fall of Man. As with all of Tolkien's works, The Silmarillion allows room for later Christian history, and one draft even has Finrod speculating on

4708-591: The Nauglamír and the Silmaril. Further fighting amongst the elves causes the ruin of Doriath. Huor's son, Tuor , became involved in the fate of the hidden kingdom of Gondolin. He married Idril, daughter of Turgon, Lord of Gondolin (the second union between Elves and Men). When Gondolin fell, betrayed by the king's nephew Maeglin, Tuor saved many of its inhabitants. All the Elvish kingdoms in Beleriand fell, and

4815-498: The Rings for publication. Tolkien wished to make the mythology more believable by bringing it into line with the Round World version of the creation story. He was persuaded not to do this in 1946; later attempts conflicted with the already published texts of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings . In the late 1950s, Tolkien returned to The Silmarillion , working mostly with the theological and philosophical underpinnings of

4922-489: The Rings works where possible, ultimately reaching as far back as the 1917 Book of Lost Tales to fill in portions of the narrative that his father had planned to write but never addressed. In one later chapter of Quenta Silmarillion , "Of the Ruin of Doriath", untouched since the early 1930s, he had to construct a narrative practically from scratch. Christopher Tolkien commented that, had he taken more time and had access to all

5029-679: The Rings ) as possible, given the many conflicting drafts. He enlisted the help of the Canadian Guy Gavriel Kay , now the author of a fantasy trilogy inspired by Arthurian legend (the Matter of Britain ); Kay, chosen due to family connections, spent a year with him in Oxford editing the materials in secret. As explained in The History of Middle-earth , Christopher Tolkien drew upon numerous sources, relying on post- Lord of

5136-434: The Ruin of Doriath". The Silmarillion was commercially successful, but received generally poor reviews on publication. Scholars found the work problematic, not least because the book is a construction, not authorised by Tolkien himself, from the large corpus of documents and drafts also called "The Silmarillion". Scholars have noted that Tolkien intended the work to be a mythology , penned by many hands, and redacted by

5243-430: The Silmarils burnt their hands. In anguish, Maedhros killed himself by leaping into a fiery chasm with his Silmaril, while Maglor threw his jewel into the sea and spent the rest of his days wandering along the shores of the world, singing his grief. Eärendil and Elwing had two children: Elrond and Elros. As descendants of immortal elves and mortal men, they had the choice of lineage: Elrond chose to be an Elf, his brother

5350-652: The Teleri, killing many of them, and betrayed others of the Noldor, leaving them to make a perilous passage on foot across the dangerous ice of the Helcaraxë. The elves who did not go to Valinor, the Sindar, settled in Beleriand and traded with the dwarves. The Maia Melian set a magical protection, the Girdle of Melian, around the realm of Doriath. Upon arriving in Middle-earth, the Noldor defeated Melkor's army, though Fëanor

5457-459: The Tolkien scholar Charles Noad , that Silmarillion criticism ought first to "evolve approaches to this textual complex as it [was], including Christopher Tolkien's 1977 Silmarillion ". Gergely Nagy writes that The Silmarillion is long both in Middle-earth time and in years of Tolkien's life; and it provides the impression of depth for both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings . It

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5564-527: The Valar are also influenced by Norse mythology , with characteristics resembling various of the Æsir , the gods of Asgard . Thor , for example, physically the strongest of the gods, can be seen both in Oromë , who fights the monsters of Melkor, and in Tulkas , the physically strongest of the Valar. Manwë , the head of the Valar, exhibits some similarities to Odin, the "Allfather". Tolkien also said that he saw

5671-400: The Valar to seize the immortality denied them. Ar-Pharazôn raised the mightiest army and fleet Númenor had ever seen, and sailed against Aman. The Valar and Elves of Aman, stricken with grief over their betrayal, called on Ilúvatar for help. When Ar-Pharazôn landed, Ilúvatar destroyed his forces and sent a great wave to submerge Númenor, killing all but those Númenóreans who had remained loyal to

5778-463: The Valar, though these also resemble the Norse Æsir ). Because J. R. R. Tolkien died leaving his legendarium unedited, Christopher Tolkien selected and edited materials to tell the story from start to end. In a few cases, this meant that he had to devise completely new material, within the tenor of his father's thought, to resolve gaps and inconsistencies in the narrative, particularly Chapter 22, "Of

5885-486: The Valar, was released after feigning repentance. Fëanor , son of Finwë , King of the Noldor, created the Silmarils, jewels that glowed with the captured light of the Two Trees. Melkor deceived Fëanor into believing that his younger half-brother Fingolfin was trying to turn Finwë against him. Fëanor drew his sword and threatened Fingolfin; this led the Valar to banish Fëanor from the city of Tirion, whereupon he created

5992-493: The Valar. The world was remade, and Aman was removed beyond the Uttermost West so that Men could not sail there to threaten it. Sauron's physical manifestation was destroyed in the ruin of Númenor. As a Maia, his spirit returned to Middle-earth, though he was no longer able to take the fair form he had once had. The loyal Númenóreans reached the shores of Middle-earth. Among these survivors were Elendil , their leader and

6099-458: The War of Wrath. The first edition was brought out in hardback by Allen & Unwin in 1977. HarperCollins published a paperback edition in 1999, and an illustrated edition with colour plates by Ted Nasmith in 2008. It has sold over a million copies, far fewer than The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings which have each sold over 100 million copies. Its sales were sufficient for it to reach

6206-601: The War of the Last Alliance, in which Elves led by Gil-galad and the remaining Númenóreans led by Elendil united to defeat Sauron, bringing the Second Age to an end. The Third Age began with the claiming of the One Ring by Isildur after Sauron's overthrow. Isildur was ambushed by orcs and killed at the Gladden Fields shortly afterwards, and the One Ring was lost in the River Anduin . The section gives

6313-412: The ancient languages of the Near East progressed rapidly. In the mid-19th century, Henry Rawlinson and others deciphered the Behistun Inscription , which records the same text in Old Persian , Elamite , and Akkadian , using a variation of cuneiform for each language. The elucidation of cuneiform led to the decipherment of Sumerian . Hittite was deciphered in 1915 by Bedřich Hrozný . Linear B ,

6420-414: The birds, led by the Eagle Thorondor, defeated Melkor's dragons, who were led by Ancalagon The Black . Most of Beleriand sank into the sea; the Valar expelled Melkor from Arda. This ended the First Age of Middle-earth. The last two Silmarils were seized by Fëanor's sons, Maedhros and Maglor. However, because of the evil way the brothers had gained the Silmarils, they were no longer worthy to receive them, and

6527-485: The comparative philology of all Indo-European languages . Philology, with its focus on historical development ( diachronic analysis), is contrasted with linguistics due to Ferdinand de Saussure 's insistence on the importance of synchronic analysis . While the contrast continued with the emergence of structuralism and the emphasis of Noam Chomsky on syntax , research in historical linguistics often relies on philological materials and findings. The term philology

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6634-423: The debate surrounding the etymology of the Old English character Unferth from the heroic epic poem Beowulf . James Turner further disagrees with how the use of the term is dismissed in the academic world, stating that due to its branding as a "simpleminded approach to their subject" the term has become unknown to college-educated students, furthering the stereotypes of "scrutiny of ancient Greek or Roman texts of

6741-562: The divine harmony—more familiar to us today in the notion of the " music of the spheres "—served as bases for this telling of creation. Celtic influences were of several kinds. Dimitra Fimi has documented the influence of Celtic mythology in the exile of the Noldorin Elves, borrowing elements from the story of Irish legends of the Tuatha Dé Danann . Welsh influence is seen in the Elvish language Sindarin ; Tolkien wrote that he gave it "a linguistic character very like (though not identical with) British-Welsh ... because it seems to fit

6848-406: The famous decipherment and translation of the Rosetta Stone by Jean-François Champollion in 1822, some individuals attempted to decipher the writing systems of the Ancient Near East and Aegean . In the case of Old Persian and Mycenaean Greek , decipherment yielded older records of languages already known from slightly more recent traditions ( Middle Persian and Alphabetic Greek ). Work on

6955-416: The fortress Formenos, further to the north. Finwë moved there to live with his favourite son. After many years, Fëanor returned at the command of the Valar to attend a festival, where he made peace of a sort with Fingolfin. Meanwhile, Melkor killed the Two Trees with the help of Ungoliant , a dark spider spirit. Melkor escaped to Formenos, killed Finwë, stole the Silmarils, and fled to Middle-earth. He attacked

7062-431: The fourth century BC, continued by Greeks and Romans throughout the Roman and Byzantine Empire . It was eventually resumed by European scholars of the Renaissance , where it was soon joined by philologies of other European ( Romance , Germanic , Celtic ), Eurasian ( Slavic , etc.), Asian ( Arabic , Persian , Sanskrit , Chinese , etc.), and African ( Egyptian , Nubian , etc.) languages. Indo-European studies involve

7169-461: The most complete stories and compiled them into a single volume, in line with his father's desire to create a body of work that spanned from the Creation of the World to the destruction of the One Ring. Due to this circumstance, the volume sometimes exhibits inconsistencies with "The Lord of the Rings" or "The Hobbit," with varying styles and featuring fully developed stories like Beren and Lúthien, or more loosely outlined ones, such as those dedicated to

7276-439: The music. This happened three times, with Eru Ilúvatar successfully overpowering his rebellious subordinate with a new theme each time. Ilúvatar then stopped the music and showed them a vision of Arda and its peoples. The vision disappeared, and Ilúvatar offered the Ainur the opportunity to enter into Arda and govern the new world. Many Ainur accepted, taking physical form and becoming bound to that world. The greater Ainur became

7383-412: The name Lönnrot, possibly alluding to the Finnish author, for the diligent detective in his story Death and the Compass ( La muerte y la brújula ). The main belt asteroid 2243 Lönnrot was named after Lönnrot. Philologist Classical philology studies classical languages . Classical philology principally originated from the Library of Pergamum and the Library of Alexandria around

7490-450: The nature and means of Elvish rebirth, the flat world and the story of the Sun and Moon. In any event, with one or two exceptions, he wrought little change to the narratives during the remaining years of his life. For several years after his father's death, Christopher Tolkien worked on a Silmarillion narrative. He tried to use the latest writings of his father's and to keep as much internal consistency (and consistency with The Lord of

7597-405: The necessity of Eru's eventual Incarnation to save mankind. Verlyn Flieger sees the influence of medieval Christian cosmology especially in the account of the creation of the universe as the manifestation of a sort of song sung by God with which the angels harmonise until the fallen angel introduces discord. St. Augustine's writings on music, as well as the extensive medieval tradition of

7704-672: The northwest. Fingolfin's second son Turgon and Turgon's cousin Finrod built hidden kingdoms, after receiving visions from the Vala Ulmo. Finrod hewed cave dwellings which became the realm of Nargothrond, while Turgon discovered a hidden vale surrounded by mountains, and chose that to build the city of Gondolin. Maeglin, grandson of Fingolfin and son of the dark elf Eöl, had a hopeless love for his first cousin Idril , whom he could not marry. He moved to Gondolin and became close to Turgon. Because of

7811-412: The original principles of textual criticism have been improved and applied to other widely distributed texts such as the Bible . Scholars have tried to reconstruct the original readings of the Bible from the manuscript variants. This method was applied to classical studies and medieval texts as a way to reconstruct the author's original work. The method produced so-called "critical editions", which provided

7918-524: The origins of older texts. Philology also includes the study of texts and their history. It includes elements of textual criticism , trying to reconstruct an author's original text based on variant copies of manuscripts. This branch of research arose among ancient scholars in the Greek-speaking world of the 4th century BC, who desired to establish a standard text of popular authors for both sound interpretation and secure transmission. Since that time,

8025-615: The phonetic approach championed by Yuri Knorozov and others in the 1950s. Since the late 20th century, the Maya code has been almost completely deciphered, and the Mayan languages are among the most documented and studied in Mesoamerica . The code is described as a logosyllabic style of writing. In English-speaking countries, usage of the term "philology" to describe work on languages and works of literature, which had become synonymous with

8132-581: The poems " The Lay of Leithian " and " The Lay of the Children of Húrin ". The first version of The Silmarillion was the "Sketch of the Mythology" written in 1926 (later published in Volume IV of The History of Middle-earth ). The "Sketch" was a 28-page synopsis written to explain the background of the story of Túrin to R. W. Reynolds, a friend to whom Tolkien had sent several of the stories. From

8239-632: The practices of German scholars, was abandoned as a consequence of anti-German feelings following World War I . Most continental European countries still maintain the term to designate departments, colleges, position titles, and journals. J. R. R. Tolkien opposed the nationalist reaction against philological practices, claiming that "the philological instinct" was "universal as is the use of language". In British English usage, and British academia, philology remains largely synonymous with "historical linguistics", while in US English , and US academia,

8346-477: The rather 'Celtic' type of legends and stories told of its speakers". At the time of release, reviews of The Silmarillion were generally negative. The Tolkien scholar Wayne G. Hammond records that the book's publisher, Rayner Unwin , called the reviews "among the most unfair he had ever seen". The book was a commercial success, topping The New York Times Fiction Best Seller list in October 1977 . It won

8453-473: The refugees fled to a haven by the sea created by Tuor. The son of Tuor and Idril Celebrindal, Eärendil the Half-elven , was betrothed to Elwing , herself descended from Beren and Lúthien. Elwing brought Eärendil Beren's Silmaril; the jewel enabled Eärendil to cross the sea to Aman to seek help from the Valar. They obliged, defeating Melkor and destroying Angband. Eärendil, flying in his ship Vingilot, with

8560-449: The relationship between languages. Similarities between Sanskrit and European languages were first noted in the early 16th century and led to speculation of a common ancestor language from which all these descended. It is now named Proto-Indo-European . Philology's interest in ancient languages led to the study of what was, in the 18th century, "exotic" languages, for the light they could cast on problems in understanding and deciphering

8667-508: The results of human mental processes. This science compares the results of textual science with the results of experimental research of both psychology and artificial intelligence production systems. In the case of Bronze Age literature , philology includes the prior decipherment of the language under study. This has notably been the case with the Egyptian , Sumerian , Assyrian , Hittite , Ugaritic , and Luwian languages. Beginning with

8774-572: The same fate. The Noldor, emboldened by the couple's feat, attacked Melkor again, with a great army of Elves, Dwarves , and Men. But Melkor had secretly corrupted some of the Men, and the Elvish host was utterly defeated in the Fifth Battle. Húrin and Huor were brothers; Huor died in battle, but Melkor captured Húrin and cursed him to watch the downfall of his kin. Húrin's son, Túrin Turambar ,

8881-508: The same time. In 1831, the Finnish Literature Society was founded, and Lönnrot, being one of the founders, received financial support from the society for his efforts to collect folk tales. Lönnrot went on extended leaves of absence from his doctor's office; he toured the countryside of Finland, Sapmi (Lapland), and nearby portions of Russian Karelia . This led to a series of books: Kantele , 1829–1831 (the kantele

8988-466: The science fiction TV show Stargate SG-1 , Dr. Daniel Jackson , is mentioned as having a PhD in philology. Silmarillion The Silmarillion ( Quenya : [silmaˈrilːiɔn] ) is a book consisting of a collection of myths and stories in varying styles by the English writer J. R. R. Tolkien . It was edited, partly written, and published posthumously by his son Christopher Tolkien in 1977, assisted by Guy Gavriel Kay , who became

9095-482: The secrecy of the Elvish cities of Beleriand, they were more secure from Melkor's armies. Turgon took great care to keep Gondolin secret, and it was one of the last Elven strongholds to fall. After the destruction of the Trees and the theft of the Silmarils, the Valar created the moon and the sun; they were carried across the sky in ships. At the same time, Men awoke; some later arrived in Beleriand and allied themselves to

9202-497: The smith of the Valar, created the Dwarves; Ilúvatar gave them life and free will. Aulë's spouse, Yavanna, was afraid the Dwarves would harm her plants, but Manwë said that spirits would awaken to protect them. Soon, stars created by Varda began to shine, causing the awakening of the Elves . Knowing the danger the Elves were in, the Valar decided to fight Melkor to keep the Elves safe. After defeating and capturing Melkor, they invited

9309-404: The text and destroys the integrity of the individual manuscript, hence damaging the reliability of the data. Supporters of new philology insist on a strict "diplomatic" approach: a faithful rendering of the text exactly as found in the manuscript, without emendations. Another branch of philology, cognitive philology, studies written and oral texts. Cognitive philology considers these oral texts as

9416-535: The texts, he might have produced a substantially different work. In his foreword to The Book of Lost Tales 1 in 1983, he wrote that by its posthumous publication nearly a quarter of a century later the natural order of presentation of the whole 'Matter of Middle-earth' was inverted; and it is certainly debatable whether it was wise to publish in 1977 a version of the primary 'legendarium' standing on its own and claiming, as it were, to be self-explanatory. The published work has no 'framework', no suggestion of what it

9523-467: The top of the October 1977 lists. It has since been translated into at least 40 languages. Tolkien began working on the stories that would become The Silmarillion in 1914. He intended them to become an English mythology that would explain the origins of English history and culture. Much of this early work was written while Tolkien, then a British Army officer returned from France during World War I,

9630-606: The university was destroyed in the fire, it was moved to Helsinki , the newly established administrative center of the Grand Duchy of Finland . Lönnrot followed and graduated in 1832. Lönnrot lived in the village of Paltaniemi , when he got a job as district doctor of Kajaani in Eastern Finland during a time of famine and pestilence in the district. He began writing about the early Finnish language in 1827 and began collecting folk tales from rural people around

9737-401: The wider meaning of "study of a language's grammar, history and literary tradition" remains more widespread. Based on the harsh critique of Friedrich Nietzsche, some US scholars since the 1980s have viewed philology as responsible for a narrowly scientistic study of language and literature. Disagreements in the modern day of this branch of study are followed with the likes of how the method

9844-438: The wild men of Middle-earth". The concluding section of the book, comprising about 20 pages, describes the events that take place in Middle-earth during the Second and Third Ages . In the Second Age, Sauron re-emerged in Middle-earth. The Rings of Power were forged by Elves led by Celebrimbor , but Sauron secretly forged One Ring to control the others. War broke out between the peoples of Middle-earth and Sauron, culminating in

9951-481: The work as being obscure and "too Celtic ". The publisher instead asked Tolkien to write a sequel to The Hobbit . Tolkien began to revise The Silmarillion , but soon turned to the sequel, which became The Lord of the Rings . He renewed work on The Silmarillion after completing The Lord of the Rings , and he greatly desired to publish the two works together. When it became clear that would not be possible, Tolkien turned his full attention to preparing The Lord of

10058-452: The work rather than with the narratives. By this time, he had doubts about fundamental aspects of the work that went back to the earliest versions of the stories, and it seems that he felt the need to resolve these problems before he could attempt a "final" version. During this time, he wrote extensively on such topics as the nature of evil in Arda, the origin of Orcs , the customs of the Elves,

10165-415: The world for Elves and Men, but Melkor continually destroyed their handiwork. After he destroyed the two lamps, Illuin and Ormal, that illuminated the world, the Valar moved to Aman , a continent to the west of Middle-earth, where they established their home, Valinor . Yavanna created the Two Trees , Telperion and Laurelin, which illuminated Valinor, leaving Middle-earth to darkness and Melkor's wrath. Aulë,

10272-458: Was supposedly translated from Bilbo 's three-volume Translations from the Elvish , which he wrote while at Rivendell . The book covers the history of the world, Arda, up to the Third Age, in its five sections: Ainulindalë ( Quenya : "The Music of the Ainur " ) takes the form of a primary creation narrative. Eru ("The One" ), also called Ilúvatar ("Father of All"), first created the Ainur,

10379-609: Was among the inspirations for J. R. R. Tolkien 's the Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings . Lönnrot was the main motif for the Finnish Elias Lönnrot and folklore commemorative coin , minted in 2002. On the reverse, a feather (as a symbol of an author) and Elias Lönnrot's signature can be seen. The Finnish graphic artist Erik Bruun used Lönnrot as a motif for the 500 markka banknote in his banknote series. The Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges used

10486-458: Was born, the dragon lifted the enchantment. Nienor took her own life, and Túrin threw himself upon his sword. Húrin, a broken man, is finally set free. He hears his wife Morwen crying in a dream, and arrives to find her dead; he buries her. At Nargothrond, he kills the dwarf Mîm and takes the Nauglamír necklace from the dragon Glaurung 's hoard. He takes it to Doriath. Húrin leaves, and drowns himself. Fighting between elves and dwarves breaks out over

10593-569: Was created good; Tolkien has the character Elrond in The Lord of the Rings say "For nothing is evil in the beginning. Even [the Dark Lord] Sauron was not so." Shippey concludes that the reader is free to assume "that the exploit of Morgoth of which the Eldar [Elves] never learnt was the traditional seduction of Adam and Eve by the [Satanic] serpent ", while the Men in the story are Adam's descendants "flying from Eden and subject to

10700-408: Was deficient in imagination. A few reviewers praised the scope of Tolkien's creation. The New York Times Book Review acknowledged that "what is finally most moving is ... the eccentric heroism of Tolkien's attempt". Time described The Silmarillion as "majestic, a work held so long and so powerfully in the writer's imagination that it overwhelms the reader". The Horn Book Magazine lauded

10807-433: Was famed throughout Scandinavia , as it was among the first common-language scientific texts. The second, expanded version was co-authored by Thomas Saelan and published in 1866. The Flora Fennica was the first scientific work published in Finnish (instead of Latin). In addition, it includes many notes on plant uses in between descriptions of flowers and leaves. The Kalevala, the Finnish national epic that Lönnrot compiled,

10914-422: Was in hospital and on sick leave. He completed the first story, " The Fall of Gondolin ", in late 1916. The Ainulindalë followed in 1917. He called his collection of nascent stories The Book of Lost Tales . This became the name for the first two volumes of The History of Middle-earth , a book series by Christopher Tolkien which include these early texts. The stories employ the narrative framing device of

11021-483: Was in particular influenced by Lönnrot's work and therefore many abstract terms that have a Latin or Greek etymology in most other European languages appear as native neologisms in Finnish. Examples from linguistics and medicine include kielioppi (grammar), kirjallisuus (literature), laskimo (vein) and valtimo (artery). Botanists remember Lönnrot for writing the first Finnish-language Flora Fennica – Suomen Kasvisto ("Flora of Finland") in 1860; in its day it

11128-496: Was influenced by many sources. A major influence was the Finnish epic Kalevala , especially the tale of Kullervo . Influence from Greek mythology is also apparent in the way that the island of Númenor recalls Atlantis , and the Valar borrow many attributes from the Olympian gods . The Valar, like the Olympians, live in the world, but on a high mountain, separated from mortals. The correspondences are only approximate;

11235-454: Was killed by Balrogs. After a period of peace, Melkor attacked the Noldor but was placed in a tight siege, which held for nearly 400 years. The Noldor built up kingdoms throughout Beleriand. Fëanor's firstborn Maedhros wisely chose to move himself and his brothers to the east, away from the rest of their kin, knowing that they would easily be provoked into war if they lived too close to their kinsmen. Fingolfin and his eldest son Fingon lived in

11342-413: Was narrowed to "the study of the historical development of languages" ( historical linguistics ) in 19th-century usage of the term. Due to the rapid progress made in understanding sound laws and language change , the "golden age of philology" lasted throughout the 19th century, or "from Giacomo Leopardi and Friedrich Schlegel to Nietzsche ". The comparative linguistics branch of philology studies

11449-481: Was sent to Doriath, leaving his mother and unborn sister behind in his father's kingdom of Dor-lómin (which was overrun by the enemy). Túrin achieved many great deeds of valour, the greatest being the defeat of the dragon Glaurung. Despite his heroism, however, Túrin fell under the curse of Melkor, which led him to unwittingly murder his friend Beleg and marry and impregnate his sister Nienor Níniel, who had lost her memory through Glaurung's enchantment. Before their child

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