The Songs that Began the World
the silmarillion read-through 2025 pt. 1
“The cycles begin with a cosmogonical myth: the Music of the Ainur. God and the Valar (or powers: Englished as gods) are revealed. These latter are as we should say angelic powers, whose function is to exercise delegated authority in their spheres (of rule and government, not creation, making or re-making). They are 'divine, that is, were originally 'outside' and existed 'before' the making of the world. Their power and wisdom is derived from their Knowledge of the cosmo-gonical drama, which they perceived first as a drama (that is as in a fashion we perceive a story composed by someone else), and later as a 'reality’.”
– J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 131
Happy Silmarillion Sunday!
Our first week of reading The Silmarillion together is underway! Like I said when we began last Sunday, I’m aiming to cover four chapters/sections a week. While each chapter of this book is so dense that they would have enough material for many separate essays, there’s just not enough time in this read-through to do that. Covering four chapters at a time will allow us to make progress on getting through the book together while also making room to go as in-depth as we can.
But as always, go at the pace that works for you. There’s no falling behind! You’re always welcome to jump in and share where you’re at and follow along with the group from wherever you’re at in the book.
I’m so excited to have the honor of featuring several artists who specialize in bringing Tolkien’s legendarium to life as we read through The Silmarillion here on Substack. Today’s Illustration is by Matěj Čadil and you’ll be seeing more of his incredible work as we continue on our journey. Please make sure to support him via the places I linked in today’s post!
The first four chapters/sections cover the “creation myths” of Tolkien’s legendarium. We also get introduced to each of the Valar and some of the Maiar. And get our first glimpses of how they work together to shape the physical world once they enter it; everything from the inception of light, to the rising and falling of mountains, to the creation of the Two Trees, to the birth of the Dwarven race and Ents.
We’re exploring all of that in this post! Also included in this post is as a whole treasure trove of links a resources I’ve curated to help you get the most out of this book.
Let’s get into it