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143-725: The game was initially released in 2001 to coincide in with the film The Fellowship of the Ring . New box sets with updated rules were also released for The Two Towers and The Return of the King films. Later, beginning with the Shadow and Flame supplement, Games Workshop began to add content that was featured in the original book but not in the film adaptations: e.g. Tom Bombadil and Glorfindel . Games Workshop has also expanded its licence with original material on areas such as Harad and Khand , with mixed reactions. Another complete edition of

286-658: A Jungian perspective in The Individuated Hobbit: Jung, Tolkien, and the Archetypes of Middle-Earth (1979). O'Neill finds Bombadil to be the manifestation of the Self archetype and a vision of man's beginning and destiny: A common and potent archetype is Original Man, which Jung often calls Anthropos , emerging as a conscious representative of the Self. Bombadil, despite his apparently humble digs in

429-694: 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 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

572-532: A supporting character in Tolkien's novel The Lord of the Rings , published in 1954 and 1955. In the first volume, The Fellowship of the Ring , Frodo Baggins and company meet Bombadil in the Old Forest . The idea for this meeting and the appearances of Old Man Willow and the barrow-wight can be found in some of Tolkien's earliest notes for a sequel to The Hobbit . Bombadil is mentioned, but not seen, near

715-521: A 10 mm scale for the normal warriors, and a larger "heroic" scale for the named characters. Games Workshop has not acquired the rights to The Silmarillion , which is still the exclusive property of the Tolkien Estate, but has the right to develop its own derivative intellectual property to fill in the gaps in The Lord of the Rings universe . This is particularly true of Harad, which has

858-480: A 1934 poem called " The Adventures of Tom Bombadil ", which also included The Lord of the Rings characters Goldberry (his wife), Old Man Willow (an evil tree in his forest ) and the barrow-wight , from whom he rescues the hobbits . They were not then explicitly part of the older legends that became The Silmarillion , and are not mentioned in The Hobbit . Bombadil is best known from his appearance as

1001-511: 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,

1144-719: A Tom Bombadil card exists in The Lord of the Rings Trading Card Game by Decipher, Inc. (part of the trilogy's merchandise). The model portraying Bombadil on this card is Harry Wellerchew. Bombadil is a non-player character in the MMORPG game The Lord of the Rings Online , serving as a main character in Book 1 of the epic quests. Bombadil appears as a playable character in the LEGO The Lord of

1287-437: A blue coat and a long brown beard; his eyes were blue and bright, and his face was red as a ripe apple, but creased into a hundred wrinkles of laughter. In his hand he carried on a large leaf as on a tray a small pile of white water-lilies. — The Fellowship of the Ring , book 1, ch. 6, "The Old Forest" In The Fellowship of the Ring , Tom Bombadil helps Frodo Baggins and his Hobbit companions on their journey to destroy

1430-841: 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

1573-436: 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

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1716-566: A division of Games Workshop focused on specialist resin miniatures and conversion kits as well as the Specialist Games ranges, assumed production of The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game and all supplements. In the 1980s, Games Workshop produced a range of miniatures for The Lord of the Rings , using original character designs based on fantasy art popular of the time. This was the first range of Lord of

1859-644: 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 , was sent to Doriath, leaving his mother and unborn sister behind in his father's kingdom of Dor-lómin (which

2002-477: 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 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

2145-414: 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

2288-523: 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

2431-521: A long dagger taken from the treasure in the barrow . He refuses to pass the borders of his own land, but he directs them to the Prancing Pony Inn at Bree . Towards the end of The Return of the King , when Gandalf leaves the Hobbits, he mentions that he wants to have a long talk with Bombadil, calling him a "moss-gatherer". Gandalf says, in response to Frodo's query of how well Bombadil

2574-421: 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

2717-585: A model of Peter Jackson as one of the Corsairs of Umbar from The Return of the King . Similar to Warhammer Fantasy Battle players, Lord of the Rings players commonly collect and paint one army (or more) of their choice and find opponents (with similarly collected armies) to play against. Armies can be built up from through the purchase of boxed sets (usually having 10 or 12 plastic miniatures in each) or "blister packs" (usually containing no more than four finely detailed metal or resin miniatures) to build up

2860-436: A mythical Age there must be some enigmas, as there always are. Tom Bombadil is one (intentionally)". In a letter to Stanley Unwin , Tolkien called Tom Bombadil the spirit of the vanishing landscapes of Oxfordshire and Berkshire . However, this 1937 letter was in reference to works which pre-dated the writing of The Lord of the Rings . Tolkien said little of Tom Bombadil's origins, and the character does not fit neatly into

3003-422: A new expansion entitled Legions of Middle-earth , centering on theming and army building. It is not a supplement or rulebook, as it contains no rules; instead, it provides army lists for players to theme their forces around, and scenarios which are designed to work in conjunction with them. However, Games Workshop also released supplement summaries online in conjunction with Legions of Middle-earth , so effectively

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3146-460: 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 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

3289-497: A number of unofficial fan supplements and other supplementary material on the internet; the most notable of which was The Age of the King , made by The One Ring . Although some of its subject matter was later covered by official rulesets, it is still considered "the benchmark against which all others are measured". In many cases, supplements are written for areas where Games Workshop's licence does not extend, such as The Silmarillion . As of August 2006, Games Workshop released

3432-478: 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

3575-415: A player only requires Legions of Middle-earth and the main rulebook in order to use the rules of the supplements. According to one review, the army lists would transform the game "from what has essentially been a scenario-based game that appealed mostly to collectors to a genuine tournament-compatible game system," although in this it "could have been a little bit more restrictive." Some of the miniatures for

3718-534: 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

3861-572: A range of invented places (such as "Kârna", "Badharkân", "Hidâr", "Nâfarat", "Abrakân", and "Dhâran-sar") and characters (such as the Hasharin and "Dalamyr, Fleetmaster of Umbar"). Four of the game's designers were in the extended Return of the King film as Rohirrim at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields : Alessio Cavatore , Brian Nelson, and Alan and Michael Perry . They can be seen near

4004-403: A reasonable-sized fighting force. Others simply collect the miniatures because they like the way they look. One popular way of collecting was through Battle Games in Middle-earth — a De Agostini magazine that came with one or more free miniatures (some of which were initially exclusive to the publication) and contained detailed hobby guides. As such, there are a wide variety of miniatures in

4147-424: A revival of the game. A third rebrand, to no longer focus on The Hobbit , took place. The rules were reworked and republished in a new edition in 2018 (effectively the 5th edition), and all the profiles of all models were revised and collected in two books: Armies of The Lord of the Rings and Armies of The Hobbit , uniting the older and newer ranges of miniatures into the same system. A new starter box set, based on

4290-525: A smaller Canada-based campaign with the same name. Hobby websites have been key in organising sides in the Worldwide Campaigns, and indeed in creating their own campaigns and competitions, such as the "Campaign of LoTRs", a collaboration between the two websites "The Dark Council" and "Cheeseweb". Another notable side of the community is the influence of its reaction to the company's products: many Tolkien purists , for example, reacted against

4433-465: A tall crown and a long blue feather stuck in the band. With another hop and a bound there came into view a man, or so it seemed. At any rate he was too large and heavy for a hobbit, if not quite tall enough for one of the Big People, though he made noise enough for one, stumping along with great yellow boots on his thick legs, and charging through grass and rushes like a cow going down to drink. He had

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4576-523: 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 a fantasy author. It tells of Eä , a fictional universe that includes the Blessed Realm of Valinor , the ill-fated region of Beleriand ,

4719-410: Is a list of all official editions of rulebooks and supplements released: For materials done under the previous iteration of the rules, there exist errata and FAQ files, to ensure potential rules conflicts between editions are resolved universally. In addition to the official rulesets, Games Workshop has also encouraged the writing of unofficial " house rules " by wargamers. As such, there have been

4862-417: 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

5005-422: Is challenged by various river residents on his journey, including birds , otters , and Hobbits, but charms them all with his voice, ending his journey at the farm of Farmer Maggot , where he drinks ale and dances with the family. At the end of the poem, the charmed birds and otters work together to bring Bombadil's boat home. The poem includes a reference to the Norse lay of Ótr , when Bombadil threatens to give

5148-579: Is getting along, that Bombadil is "as well as ever", "quite untroubled" and "not much interested in anything that we have done and seen", save their visits to the Ents . At the very end of The Lord of the Rings , as Frodo sails into the West and leaves Middle-earth forever, he has what seems to him the very experience that appeared to him in the house of Bombadil in his dream of the second night. Tolkien stated that he invented Tom Bombadil in memory of his children's Dutch doll . His Bombadil poems far pre-date

5291-446: 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

5434-486: 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

5577-513: Is one of the Maiar , angelic beings sent from Valinor . The Tolkien scholar and philosopher Gene Hargrove argued in Mythlore in 1986 that Tolkien understood who Bombadil is, but purposefully made him enigmatic. Hargrove suggested that Tolkien left clues that Bombadil is one of the Valar , a god of Middle-Earth, specifically Aulë , the archangelic demigod who created the dwarves . Along with

5720-470: Is seen that the One Ring has no power over Bombadil; he can see Frodo when the Ring makes him invisible to others and can wear it himself with no effect. He even tosses the Ring in the air and makes it disappear but then produces it from his other hand and returns it to Frodo. The idea of giving him the Ring for safekeeping is rejected in Book Two's second chapter, "The Council of Elrond". Gandalf says that it

5863-513: Is the spirit of a place, a genius loci . Old Tom Bombadil was a merry fellow; bright blue his jacket was and his boots were yellow, green were his girdle and his breeches all of leather; he wore in his tall hat a swan-wing feather. He lived up under Hill, where the Withywindle ran from a grassy well down into the dingle. — " The Adventures of Tom Bombadil " The original version of Tolkien's poem "The Adventures of Tom Bombadil"

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6006-470: Is true for pieces from other manufacturers. As of September 2005, the rules for the Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game were in their fourth edition. The first three editions of the rulebooks were released with The Lord of the Rings films , but Games Workshop used the magazine White Dwarf and various supplements to "go beyond what is presented in the films of The Lord of the Rings and delve into

6149-453: Is unwise to consider Tom as having power over the Ring and that rather, "the Ring has no power over him...". He suggests that Tom would not find the Ring to be very important and so might simply misplace it. Before sending the Hobbits on their way, Tom teaches them a rhyme to summon him if they fall into danger again within his borders. This proves fortunate, as the four are trapped by a barrow-wight . After rescuing them, Tom gives each Hobbit

6292-461: The 25mm miniature scale . (The rights to produce a role playing game version of the films were sold to another firm, Decipher, Inc. ) They also have the rights to produce Battle of Five Armies , a game based on the battle of similar name from The Hobbit , using smaller miniatures to enact larger battles (more akin to the Warmaster system). Under this separate licence, the game was done using

6435-611: The Book of Exodus , an idea which Tolkien denied as an influence. The Tolkien scholar David Elton Gay writes that Tolkien was inspired by the poetry of the Kalevala , Elias Lönnrot 's 1849 collection of Finland's oral tradition. Gay suggests with a detailed comparison that Tom Bombadil was directly modelled on the Kalevala 's central character, the demigod Väinämöinen . The Tolkien scholar Verlyn Flieger writes that if there

6578-584: 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

6721-647: 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

6864-658: The Oliphaunt when Peregrin Took goes searching for Meriadoc Brandybuck among the debris from the battle, and are also on the base of Games Workshop's Mûmak miniature. Games Workshop created two miniatures of Peter Jackson , based on his appearance as a Breeland man during the Fellowship of the Ring : one is owned by the director, and the other is kept on display at Warhammer World in England. Games Workshop has also released

7007-571: The One Ring , whose only purpose is power and domination. Jane Beal, in the Journal of Tolkien Research , writes that Bombadil can be considered using "the four levels of meaning found in medieval scriptural exegesis and literary interpretation". These are different ways of understanding a text, rather than necessarily contradicting each other. The psychologist, fiction author and camouflage expert Timothy R. O'Neill interpreted Bombadil from

7150-787: 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 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

7293-521: The Two Trees , Telperion and Laurelin, which illuminated Valinor, leaving Middle-earth to darkness and Melkor's wrath. Aulë, 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

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7436-739: 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

7579-511: The fays , spirits, and elementals (including the Maia ): "Thus Melian is a 'fay', (as, in all probability, are Goldberry and Bombadil; the one a nymph, the other a genius loci )". The later poem "Bombadil Goes Boating" anchors Bombadil in Middle-earth, featuring a journey down the Withywindle to the Brandywine river, where Hobbits ("Little Folk I know there") live at Hays-end. Bombadil

7722-521: 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

7865-573: 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

8008-446: 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

8151-528: 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 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,

8294-612: 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

8437-555: 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 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

8580-522: The First Age that narrate the tragic saga of the three forged jewels, the Silmarils . The Valar attempted to fashion 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

8723-611: 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

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8866-422: 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

9009-487: The Old Forest, is the prototype of the Children of God , that Original Man and the template which will influence the final form of Man... he is the cosmic seed from which Man develops." The Tolkien scholar Patrick Grant notes that "Jung also talks of a common figure, the 'vegetation numen,' king of the forest, who is associated with wood and water in a manner that recalls Tom Bombadil." Robert Foster , author of an early guide to Middle-earth, suggested in 1978 that Bombadil

9152-524: The Ring. Tom and his wife, Goldberry, the "Daughter of the River", still live in their house by the source of the Withywindle, and some of the characters and situations from the original poem reappear. Tom first appears when Merry and Pippin are trapped in the Old Forest by Old Man Willow, and Frodo and Sam cry for help. Tom commands Old Man Willow to release them, singing him to sleep. The Hobbits spend two nights in Tom Bombadil's house, which serves as one of Frodo's five Homely Houses . Here it

9295-399: The Rings and The Hobbit video games. He has no impact in the main story for either game, as the games are direct adaptations of the Peter Jackson films rather than the original novels, but he later appears as an unlockable character in the Middle Earth hub world and can be used in free-play mode. He appears, too, on a "God" type card in the Magic: The Gathering expansion The Lord of

9438-439: 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

9581-436: The Rings miniatures that Citadel created, taking over from Grenadier Miniatures in 1985, before the licence passed to Mithril Miniatures around 1987. The earliest releases were semi-solid base, having a small solid base; later releases were slot based. The current Lord of the Rings range stems from Games Workshop's rights to produce a skirmish war game based on The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit books and films, in

9724-438: 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

9867-438: 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

10010-463: The Rings Strategy Battle Game includes other common elements of the miniature wargaming hobby. These include the collecting, painting and conversion of miniature figures used in play, as well as the modelling of gaming terrain from scratch. These aspects of the hobby are covered in Games Workshop's monthly White Dwarf and on various gaming websites, as well as formerly in the fortnightly Battle Games in Middle-earth . In 2015 Forge World ,

10153-549: The Rings Strategy Battle Game , which makes it unique and more realistic, accounting for its popularity as Games Workshop's third core system. Since the models are hand-painted and assembled by the player, players are often encouraged to design their own paint schemes, such as colouring them differently and so on, as well as using the pre-designed ones displayed in the various books. They are also encouraged to further modify their miniatures using parts from other kits and models (known as "Bitz" to players), modelling putty, or whatever

10296-538: The Rings for the first time. The campaign was deemed "a fantastic rollercoaster", with 3007 registered participants. Games Workshop also introduced the "Wrath of Umbar Roadshow", with custom-built Corsair models and gaming boards being brought to various cities in the United Kingdom. When the campaign formally ended on 8 September, Good emerged the victor. The combined total of the 14 weeks was 27,239 recorded wargames. The forum closed shortly after, giving way to

10439-551: The Rings: Tales of Middle-earth . The 1969 Harvard Lampoon novel Bored of the Rings parodies Tom Bombadil as " Tim Benzedrine ", a stereotypical hippie married to " Hash - berry ". One of his songs is rewritten as: Toke -a-lid! Smoke-a-lid! Pop the mescalino ! Stash the hash! Gonna crash ! Make mine methedrino ! Hop a hill! Pop a pill! For Old Tim Benzedrino! The Silmarillion The Silmarillion ( Quenya : [silmaˈrilːiɔn] )

10582-517: The Second Age, woodland terrain, or the rocky wild of Middle-earth with the addition of plastic card, putty, and a bit of patience and skill. Dioramas , often depicting scenes from the film and books, bring terrain and conversion skills together. However, due to the licensing agreements between New Line Cinema and Games Workshop , pieces of models for the Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game are not allowed to be combined with other model lines for official tournaments or conversion awards. The same

10725-430: 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

10868-459: 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 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,

11011-672: 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 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

11154-404: 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

11297-425: 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 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

11440-527: 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

11583-400: 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

11726-493: 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

11869-458: 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

12012-601: 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

12155-528: The Warriors they lead, and can be named or unnamed characters: Aragorn , Frodo , Captains, etc. Warriors are the core of the army: Warriors of Harad, Riders of Rohan, Men of Gondor, etc. Each army must be either Good or Evil, and can only include miniatures from that side (each model is named in the rules as being either Good or Evil). Prior to the closure of Games Workshop's official forum in November 2006,

12298-698: The adventures in Crickhollow, the Old Forest, and the Barrow-downs, Bombadil is omitted from Peter Jackson's interpretation of The Lord of the Rings . Jackson explained that this was because he and his co-writers felt that the character does little to advance the story, and including him would make the film unnecessarily long. Christopher Lee concurred, stating the scenes were left out to make time for showing Saruman 's capture of Gandalf. Bombadil has appeared in other radio and film adaptations. He

12441-479: 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

12584-615: 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 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

12727-512: The book summarises, were meant to have taken place at some time in Earth's past. In keeping with this idea, The Silmarillion 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

12870-507: The categories of beings Tolkien created. Bombadil calls himself the "Eldest" and the "Master". He claims to remember "the first raindrop and the first acorn", and that he "knew the dark under the stars when it was fearless—before the Dark Lord came from Outside". When Frodo asks Goldberry just who Tom Bombadil is, she responds simply by saying "He is". Some critics have taken this dialogue as a reference to God's statement " I Am that I Am " in

13013-529: The climactic Battle of Pelennor Fields from The Return of the King , was designed and heavily promoted. This ushered in a new era for the game, with further, scenario-focused supplements following, significantly increased interest in the game, greater coverage of the game by Games Workshop, and cyclical rereleases of out-of-production miniatures. As of 2022, the revived form of the game is healthy and well-supported, though remains niche in comparison to Games Workshop's titans of Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000. Below

13156-578: The company's rendition of the Swan Knights of Dol Amroth , with some choosing to convert their own, impacting the hobby and the sales of the products. When Games Workshop subsequently showed the planned release of the Men-at-Arms of Dol Amroth, it was suggested that they had taken the response of the community into account. Tom Bombadil Tom Bombadil is a character in J. R. R. Tolkien 's legendarium . He first appeared in print in

13299-691: 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

13442-522: 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 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

13585-487: 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

13728-518: The end of The Return of the King , where Gandalf plans to pay him a long visit. Tom Bombadil has been omitted in radio adaptations of The Lord of the Rings , the 1978 animated film , and Peter Jackson's film trilogy , as nonessential to the story. Commentators have debated Bombadil's role and origins. A likely source is the demigod Väinämöinen in the Finnish epic poem Kalevala , with many points of resemblance. Scholars have stated that he

13871-570: 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 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

14014-516: The ever-growing range, including promotional miniatures, such as " Gimli on Dead Uruk-hai ". Games Workshop began to discontinue some of their metal miniatures, so that they could replace them with plastic miniatures. However, there was much complaint when they retired the popular " Boromir Captain of the White Tower" miniature, and it was later brought back into production. There are a large number of differences from Warhammer in The Lord of

14157-449: The form of ballistae and other siege engines . Model ships are built by hobbyists, just as normal miniature terrain, such as " great ships " of Pelargir , cogs of Dol Amroth and Corsair galleys . The standard game is played with two or more armies on a board generally 4 feet long and 4 feet wide (16 square feet, or 1.486 square meters), usually deployed within 6 inches of opposite board edges. Similar to Warhammer Fantasy ,

14300-465: The form of a primary creation narrative. Eru ("The One" ), also called Ilúvatar ("Father of All"), first created the Ainur, 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

14443-467: The game is also treated differently. In the original game players both roll dice to determine who wins the fight and then the victor rolls to see how much damage is done. In War of the Ring only dice to determine damage are rolled. Also, in War of the Ring , heroes are treated more like upgrades for their company rather than individual models, as they are in the original game. In addition to gaming, The Lord of

14586-696: The game uses a "points-system" to assign values to each miniature, allowing players to ensure that their armies are evenly matched. The game is primarily a skirmish game, but can be played in varying scale: The turn-system game was played using four phases originally, but is now played using five under the current rules: While the game is designed usually for play by only two players (as the force lists are divided into "Good" and "Evil"), very large battles (generally with more than 100 models each side) become easier to manage with multiple players working together on teams. There are two types of troops: Warriors and Heroes. Heroes have characteristics which set them apart from

14729-400: The harmony of the music to develop his own song. Some Ainur joined him, while others continued to follow Ilúvatar, causing discord in 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

14872-591: The hide of a disrespectful otter to the barrow-wights, who he says will cover it with gold apart from a single whisker. The poem mentions Middle-earth locations including Hays-end, Bree , and the Tower Hills and speaks of "Tall Watchers by the Ford, Shadows on the Marches". There was another burst of song, and then suddenly, hopping and dancing along the path, there appeared above the reeds an old battered hat with

15015-433: 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 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

15158-509: The letter to a renunciation of control, "a delight in things for themselves without reference to yourself," "Botany and Zoology (as sciences) and Poetry". In another letter, Tolkien writes that he does not think Tom is improved by philosophizing; he included the character "because I had already 'invented' him independently" (in The Oxford Magazine ) "and wanted an 'adventure' on the way". Tolkien commented further that "even in

15301-515: The members of these websites have produced high-quality articles for the public, namely on The One-Ring, whose acceptance standards are very high, in greater quantity than on the official site, and White Dwarf has commented on the community as having a "huge wealth of material". On 1 June 2005, Games Workshop launched their annual UK-based Worldwide Campaign under the name " The War of the Ring Online Campaign ", featuring The Lord of

15444-611: The modeller can scrounge up. These conversions are often entered into contests at sponsored tournaments and similar gaming events, such as the Golden Demon or the One Ring Awards. Terrain is a very important part of play. Though Games Workshop makes terrain kits available, many hobbyists prefer to make their own elaborate and unique set pieces. Common household items and hobby materials such as balsa wood , cardboard , and polystyrene can be transformed into ruins from

15587-569: 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

15730-499: 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

15873-405: 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

16016-664: The original game called War of the Ring which, according to the company, allows players to emulate the large battles included in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings by streamlining the game system. This expansion differs from the main game in several ways. Firstly, War of the Ring uses a larger number of models but the models are placed on movement trays with two cavalry models or eight infantry models on each. This allows for much easier and quicker movement of large numbers of models at once. These are called "companies". Larger creatures such as Ents and Trolls are treated as separate models and do not use movement trays. Combat within

16159-581: 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

16302-625: The point values listed have not yet been released; in this way, the book was not to become obsolete with future releases for some time. All at Sea is an adaptation of the rules for naval conflicts. The official rules were a modified version of the Warhammer Boat rules, adapted by Nick Davis and first presented in Games Workshop's White Dwarf magazine ( US issue 295 ). The game's mechanics centred on boarding parties , with options for ramming actions and naval artillery in

16445-545: The power of his voice, which defeats their enchantments and commands them to return to their natural existence. At the end of the poem, Bombadil captures and marries Goldberry. Throughout the poem, he is unconcerned by the attempts to capture him and brushes them off with the power in his words. Bombadil makes it clear that he found Goldberry in the Withywindle river, calling her "River-woman's daughter". The Tolkien scholar John D. Rateliff suggests that, at least in terms of Tolkien's early mythology, she should be seen as one of

16588-477: 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

16731-473: 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

16874-523: The release of The Hobbit movies , all of the characteristic profiles from the old sourcebooks and White Dwarf were condensed in 5 sourcebooks: Mordor , The Fallen Realms , Moria & Angmar , Kingdoms of Men , and The Free Peoples . These also contain minor edits to the rules as written in The One Rulebook to Rule them All . For around a decade, this remained the core rules system, with only minor changes through various supplements. With

17017-578: The release of The Hobbit trilogy of films, the game was rebranded, a new rulebook with various changes was released, and supplements tying in to each of the films were released. The Hobbit theme performed less well than expected, reaching nowhere near the peak popularity seen during the original Lord of the Rings trilogy release, when the game had been Games Workshop's most valuable property. The game gradually received less and less attention from Games Workshop as profits and interest dwindled. After this period of decline, Games Workshop unexpectedly announced

17160-429: The rich material of J. R. R. Tolkien's books." The fourth edition, The One Rulebook to Rule them All , contained the entire set of rules updated and presented in a single large volume, including those of previous supplements. The three older editions were re-released in updated supplements, while the compact Mines of Moria edition contains the updated rules only for what was shown in the films. In February 2012, preceding

17303-525: The rules, often called The One Rulebook to Rule them All , was released by Games Workshop in September 2005, while a compact edition entitled The Mines of Moria was also released. This was superseded by a new rule book in 2018, called simply Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game Rules Manual. This new rule book combined the original LotR SBG and Hobbit SBG into one cohesive, cross compatible rule set. In early 2009, Games Workshop also released an expansion to

17446-534: The site had 3000 forum posts per day and well over 300,000 registered users. Since then, the online community has moved onto a large number of unofficial websites and forums for Lord of the Rings players, many of which were already in existence before the closure of Games Workshop's forums: these include "The Last Alliance", with over 6400 registered members (rebuilt in 2009 due to the host deleting their server for financial reasons), "The One-Ring", with over 5000, and " The Palantir ", with over 2400 members. Collectively,

17589-459: 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 the Ruin of Doriath". The Silmarillion was commercially successful, but received generally poor reviews on publication. Scholars found the work problematic, not least because

17732-535: 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

17875-467: 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,

18018-438: 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

18161-481: 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

18304-452: 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,

18447-513: The world took shape. Valaquenta ("Account of the Valar" ) describes Melkor, each of the fourteen Valar, and 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

18590-499: The writing of The Lord of the Rings , into which Tolkien introduced Tom Bombadil from the earliest drafts. In response to a letter, Tolkien described Tom in The Lord of the Rings as "just an invention" and "not an important person – to the narrative", even if "he represents something that I feel important, though I would not be prepared to analyse the feeling precisely. I would not, however, have left him in, if he did not have some kind of function." Specifically, Tolkien connected Tom in

18733-490: Was an opposite to Sauron in The Lord of the Rings , it would not be Aragorn , his battlefield opponent, nor Gandalf, his spiritual enemy, but Tom Bombadil, the earthly Master who is entirely free of the desire to dominate, and hence cannot be dominated. The Christian scholar W. Christopher Stewart sees Bombadil as embodying the pursuit of knowledge purely for its own sake, driven only by his sense of wonder. In his view, this goes some way to explaining Bombadil's indifference to

18876-569: 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

19019-408: 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

19162-422: 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

19305-496: 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;

19448-584: 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 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

19591-400: 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 was born, the dragon lifted

19734-587: Was played by Bernard Mayes , who also voiced Gandalf. He was included, along with Goldberry and the Barrow-wight, in the 1991 Russian adaptation of The Fellowship of the Ring , Khraniteli . Tom Bombadil is portrayed by Rory Kinnear in the second season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power . Although Bombadil was not portrayed in Ralph Bakshi's or Jackson's films,

19877-424: Was played by Norman Shelley in the 1955–1956 BBC radio adaptation of The Lord of the Rings , a performance that Tolkien thought "dreadful"; in his view even worse was that Goldberry was announced as his daughter and Willowman "an ally of Mordor (!!) " (his emphasis). He was portrayed by Esko Hukkanen in the 1993 Finnish miniseries Hobitit . He appeared, too, in the 1979 Mind's Eye recordings , where he

20020-573: Was published in 1934 in The Oxford Magazine . The poem depicts Bombadil as a "merry fellow" living in a small valley close to the Withywindle river, where he wanders and explores nature at his leisure. Several of the valley's mysterious residents, including the "River-woman's daughter" Goldberry , the malevolent tree-spirit Old Man Willow , the Badger -folk and a barrow-wight , attempt to capture Bombadil for their own ends. However, they quail at

20163-488: 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 the same fate. The Noldor, emboldened by the couple's feat, attacked Melkor again, with

20306-417: 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 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

20449-446: 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 a Silmaril from his crown. Amazed, Thingol accepted Beren, and the first union of Man and Elf occurred, though Beren

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