‘Two Dear Greek Women’: Michael Field’s Dionysian aestheticism

‘Two Dear Greek Women’: Michael Field’s Dionysian aestheticism

Sep 8, 2022 | Articles, LGBTQI+, Literature, Recent Articles

By Alessia Colombo, Cataloguer

Michael Field was the poetic identity created by Katharine Harris Bradley (1846-1914) and her niece and sometime lover Edith Emma Cooper (1862-1913). The two women lived together from 1878 exploring shared literary and religious interests and a fluctuating romantic relationship. “Michael Field” was born in 1884 with the publication their first drama Callirhöe – “a work of great promise, exhibiting the true poetic and dramatic fire” (The Spectator). One of the most prolific, intriguing, and provocative literary collaborations of the late Victorian era, Katharine and Edith challenged – both with their writings and lifestyle – the existing conceptions of gender, sexuality, family, individualism, literary canon, authorship, and spirituality.

Katharine Bradley

Edith Cooper

Field’s works, comprising eight volumes of poetry, twenty-eight dramas, , and a diary, chart their changing religious and personal stances, moving from atheism to paganism to Catholicism, and are now seen as key works within the fin de siècle aesthetic and decadent movements. Although their work was admired by other contemporary aesthetes including Wilde and Swinburne, their role in the development of aestheticism was not widely critically studied until very recently.

Profoundly fascinated by ancient Greek and Roman literature, Katharine and Edith officially converted to paganism in 1897, their interest starting much earlier. The pair were devoted to the Greek gods, and above all Dionysus, the god of wine and fertility whose cult celebrates nature, pleasure, music, and feminine power. The two writers described themselves as Maenads – the female followers of Dionysus in the myth – and had altars to the god built in their garden; they also owned a large library collection of Dionysian works. In this “modern paganism”, free from all cultural and social constraints, the couple found the terms and symbols to express their fluid identities. This unique engagement with Hellenic mythology and philosophy constitutes one of the most distinctive aspects of Michael Field’s aestheticism: Robert Browning, friend and mentor of the couple, referred to Katharine and Edith as “my two dear Greek women”.

Andries Cornelis Lens, Dance of the Maenads, (c. 1765). Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

One of Michael Field’s key explorations into the pagan world, and perhaps their most experimental work to appear in the early 1890s, is the trialogue Stephania (1892). Set in Rome in 1002 CE, it tells the story of the deposed empress and poet Stephania, as she avenges the death of her husband, Emperor Crescentius, murdered by Otho. A potent figure of female agency, sexual empowerment, and social autonomy, the protagonist of this closet drama was conceived as an instrument in Field’s own fight to emancipate the role of women and legitimise gender transgressive identities.

An exceptional first edition copy of Stephania we were lucky to see pass through our hands contained a presentation slip inscribed by the authors: “From Michael Field with greetings 1895”.

The emblem appearing on the presentation slip, designed by Selwyn Image, depicts a thyrsus, a sacred staff surmounted by a pinecone that was carried by Dionysus’s Maenads in the myth; joined by the thyrsus are two interlocked wreaths or wedding bands. It appeared on their private papers, in Stephania (almost hidden at the end of the book opposite the final page of text), and prominently displayed on the cover of their poetry collection Underneath the Bough (1893).

First edition, first impression, of Stephania, one of 250 copies, together with a presentation slip loosely inserted inscribed by the authors

Three further autograph quotes on the slip bring together even more the Dionysian flavour of Bradley and Coopers’s aestheticism. Right above the thyrsus is an appropriate Greek quote from Euripides’s Bacchae: “τόνδε Διονύσῳ φορῶ” (“I carry it, but it belongs to Dionysus”). In the tragedy, Dionysus speaks these words to Pentheus, right before handing his thyrsus over to him. Euripides’s Bacchae – which follows the myth of Pentheus, king of Thebes, torn apart by the Maenads because he refused to accept Dionysus as a god – inspired the characterization of Field’s maenads in their Callirhöe (1884).

The second quote is from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem The Eolian Harp (1796): “rhythm in all thought & joyaunce everywhere”. In the 19th -century poetical discourse, the aeolian harp – a musical instrument played by the wind – became a recurring symbol of the harmony between poetry, music, and nature. Wind, rhythm, and a profound sense of communion with nature are also associated to maenadic worship, which involved performing celebratory dances in the wild in honour of Dionysus. All these themes appear in Field’s early writings, and a poem titled “An Aeolian Harp”, perhaps inspired by Coleridge, was first published by Field in the Contemporary Review 55 (1889).

The last quote is from the first chapter of Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy (1872): “der mensch ist nicht mehr künstler er ist kunstwerk geworden: die kunstgewalt der gangen natur, zur hochsten wonne-befriediging des einen, offenbant sich nien entenden schauerm des rausches” (“The man is no longer an artist; he has become a work of art: the artistic power of all of nature, to the highest rhapsodic satisfaction of the primordial unity, reveals itself here in the transports of intoxication”). Earlier in the same passage, Nietzsche had introduced the “magic of the Dionysian”, which is here further characterised as the power of reconciliating man with nature. Nietzsche’s pioneering work on Greek tragedy, notoriously describing the history of the tragic genre as a dichotomy between its Dionysian and the Apollonian elements, redefined the significance of Dionysus for the Victorian audience. Parejo Vadillo notes that Field “was among the very few British writers who recognized Nietzsche’s importance for modernity … Even before they had heard of Nietzsche they had arrived to the conclusion of The Birth of Tragedy: that the reintroduction of the Dionysian rapturous and ruptured element of life as found in Greek drama would prompt the emergence of a modern spirit” (Vadillo 2015). Indeed, “the Bacchic aestheticism of Michael Field represents an English counterpart to Nietzsche’s better-known theories expressed in his controversial early work The Birth of Tragedy (1872) and taken up again in the later Twilight of the Idols (1888)” (Evangelista, 2009). In their diary, Edith noted: “We have met in Nietzsche’s works a real Bacchic voice crying in the wilderness” (Works and Days).

Michael Field’s aestheticism inspired every aspect of their books, from the contents to the bindings, and their volumes are notoriously beautiful. The first edition of Stephania, for example, is bound in white parchment with gilt ornaments on the covers: this material, mimicking the appearance of vellum, is particularly appealing for its antique allure and marmoreal aesthetic.

 

If you’d like to discuss building a poetry collection with Alessia or one of our other specialists, don’t hesitate to get in touch.

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Collecting the Works of Charles Dickens

Collecting the Works of Charles Dickens

Sep 6, 2022 | Articles, Collectors' Guides, Literature, Recent Articles

Charles Dickens is regarded as the greatest English novelist of the nineteenth century and is the most quoted writer in English after Shakespeare. Bursting with vivid characters and settings, Dickens’s novels show his characteristic concern for the most vulnerable in contemporary English society. His flair for painting characters who are indelibly memorable for their idiosyncratic appearance, mannerisms, and catchphrases, but who nevertheless represent unchanging aspects of human nature, is one much aped. It was G. K. Chesterton who remarked on Dickens’ capacity for empathy, saying: “Dickens, being a very human writer, had to be a very human being”. As one of the most collected authors the world over, we revisit the publication history of each of his works, explaining what to look out for in Charles Dickens first editions.

A collection of Charles Dickens first editions.

Charles Dickens, Dealings with the Firm of Dombey and Son, First edition, in the original monthly parts published from September 1846 to March 1848.

Charles Dickens First Editions: A Story in Parts

For any collector of Dickens, the thing to bear in mind is that many of his major novels first appeared serialised in monthly parts. These parts issues have traditionally commanded the higher prices than the Charles Dickens first editions in book form. Nine of Dickens’s fifteen novels – The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club (1837), Nicholas Nickleby (1839), Martin Chuzzlewit (1844), Dombey and Son (1848), David Copperfield (1850), Bleak House (1853), Little Dorrit (1857), Our Mutual Friend (1864), and Edwin Drood (1870) – first appeared in this format. The parts issues have many complexities explained in full in A Bibliography of the Periodical Works of Charles Dickens by Thomas Hatton and Arthur H. Cleaver, published in 1933. While the complex information found in ‘Hatton & Cleaver’ can be bewilderingly thorough, the key is to find sets in parts with clean text, the wrappers intact without restoration to their spines, and the plates, which are liable to oxidisation, in fresh condition.

The monthly parts had green or blue illustrated paper wrappers, with engraved plates preceding the text. Inside the wrappers, printed advertisements by companies keen to capitalise on Dickens’ success bulked out the text. Much of the pleasure of collecting Dickens in parts is to see first-hand his work appear in the midst of this noisy marketplace of Victorian merchants and quacks.

Once the parts issue neared its end, the publishers would put out the complete novel as a single volume. More than half of Dickens’s major novels were issued in a large size known as demy (rhymes with “defy”) octavo—at 8 ½ by 5 ½ inches, a little shorter than a typical modern hardback. These were simple case-bindings of purple or green cloth. As Dickens’ novels were of such exuberant length, the sheer weight of his texts meant that these relatively flimsy cases were prone to damage. The publishers also offered various styles of deluxe of leather bindings.

Charles Dickens first edition of The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club

First edition of The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club in demy octavo, bound from the original parts in the publisher’s primary cloth binding (1837).

 The Early Works

Charles Dickens began his writing career as a parliamentary reporter, employing his sharp observational skills to report on debates and cover election campaigns. Together with his irrepressible comic gusto, he brought this talent to descriptions of everyday life gathered in his first book, the two-volume Sketches by Boz (1836) – though the primary selling point was its illustrations by the renowned George Cruikshank.

Dickens’s second book was planned as a variation on the illustrated format popularised by Sketches. The publisher had commissioned a monthly serial following the misadventures of a group of cockney sportsmen. In the fourth instalment, Dickens introduced the character of Sam Weller, who proved so popular with readers that the effect on sales was stratospheric. The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club (1837) proved to be a publishing sensation.

Dickens’ second novel, and one of his most enduringly popular, was Oliver Twist (1838), illustrated by Cruikshank. It was serialised first, then published in three volumes for the circulating libraries. Dickens often used Oliver Twist for his popular dramatic readings, which taught him the value of concision and inspired him to edit the novel down somewhat. When he fell out with Bentley and bought back his copyright, he tightened Oliver for a New Edition (1846), issued in ten monthly parts, then in a single demy octavo volume.

Charles Dickens 1st Edition of "The Adventures of Oliver Twist".

The Adventures of Oliver Twist, first one-volume edition of Dickens’s second novel in original blue cloth (1846).

Bestsellers

Dickens’ most famous single work is A Christmas Carol (1843), both a charged fable about economic injustice and redistribution and a central reference point to the modern notion of Christmas itself; indeed, the name of the protagonist, Scrooge, has become part of our language, shorthand for a miserly and selfish person. A Christmas Carol was the first in a series of five annual Christmas books written by Dickens, each published in a small octavo format for the Christmas gift market. The book itself is notable amongst these, as Dickens was still experimenting with the form. The binding is salmon-pink cloth, with a gilt wreath on the front cover. Dickens, who financed the publication himself, originally wanted the title page in Christmas colours of red and green and the endpapers to be green, but the printed green proved problematic and was abandoned after a short run. The title page was reset in red and blue and the endpapers changed back to the usual machine-coated yellow. Copies in both states were issued together on publication day, so a collector can consider either state acceptable. But the book was quickly reprinted with minor text changes; only the first impression, with ‘Stave I’ at the head of the text, in fine condition carries top market value.

Charles Dickens First Editions of his five Christmas novels.

First editions, first printings, of the complete set of Dickens’s Christmas books (1843).

The other Christmas books were issued in standard red book cloth, avoiding the production complexities and expense that plagued A Christmas Carol. A fine set of the Christmas books in cloth, glinting in cinnamon and scarlet by the winter fireside, is a high spot in any Charles Dickens first editions collection.

Master Humphrey’s Clock was first issued in weekly rather than monthly parts and contained The Old Curiosity Shop (1840) and Barnaby Rudge within its narrative frame. These were later published as separate books. Both are in imperial octavo, taller than the usual demy octavo. At the other end of the scale, Hard Times (1854) first appeared in Dickens’s weekly periodical, Household Words. It was priced lower than Dickens’s other novels and issued in small octavo format without illustrations.

A Tale of Two Cities (1859), Dickens’s best-selling novel, was first published weekly in his own periodical, All the Year Round. Dickens later republished the story as eight monthly parts. The single demy octavo volume was first issued in red cloth.

Charles Dickens first edition of Master Humphrey’s Clock.

First edition of Master Humphrey’s Clock in tall octavo (1840).

Although many of his novels were illustrated, perhaps his greatest work, Great Expectations (1861), was published without illustration. The most attractive of his novels in book form, it appeared in three volumes to meet the requirements of the circulating libraries (as Oliver Twist had), but handsomely dressed in eye-catching violet wavy-grain cloth, with High Victorian gilt decoration around the spine titles. Expecting huge demand, the publishers printed five impressions before publication. The majority of the first impression and more than half of the second—1,400 copies in all—went to Mudie’s Select Library, where they were read to death by eager customers, leaving them damaged or destroyed. A first impression of Great Expectations in fine original cloth is thus highly sought-after and can fetch high prices. The last outstanding example to come to market sold at Sotheby’s in 2019 for £175,000.

Charles Dickens First Editions: Other Works

Before he had perfected the sketch-writer’s art, Dickens dreamed of a theatrical career.  In branching out from his most famous works, his theatrical preoccupation becomes more apparent, whether in the memoirs of the great clown Joey Grimaldi (1838) he ghost-wrote for Bentley, or his own original melodramas, like The Frozen Deep (1856, publ. 1866), co-written and performed with his friend Wilkie Collins.

In later years he expended a considerable portion of his energies on dramatic readings, carefully editing his original texts into readable segments. He had some of these privately printed in small numbers. Necessarily rare, those few copies that have come to market in recent years have fetched high prices.

Dickens’s showmanship found expression in his self-presentation. The frontispiece of his third novel, Nicholas Nickleby, displayed, instead of the more usual illustrated scene from the book, a handsome engraved portrait of the newly wealthy young author. Below the plate was a printed facsimile of the famous Dickens signature, festooned with a swag of repeated underlines, the mark of his theatrical sensibilities.

Charles Dicken's portrait in one of his first editions.

That ostentatious signature is present even on the briefest of letters he dashed off – and like many Victorian authors, Dickens was a prodigious writer of letters. His autograph letters, especially those which relate to his major novels, are keenly sought, with prices ranging from a few hundred pounds for everyday notes to tens of thousands for longer letters of major significance.

If you are interested in starting a Dickens collection and would like further guidance from one of our experts, or help with sourcing your first book, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

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Firsts 2022

Firsts 2022

Sep 1, 2022 | Uncategorized

“We are very lucky to have this kind of fair… it’s not elitist, it’s not specialist, you don’t have to be a scholar, you just have to be someone with an immense thirst for the glory of books.”

– Stephen Fry, actor, writer and book collector

This year marks the 65th edition of one of the most popular and prestigious rare book fairs in the world.

The UK’s premier rare book fair returns to Saatchi Gallery with over one hundred international dealers in antique, rare and second-hand books for sale. Explore three floors of books, prints, ephemera and memorabilia to discover from centuries of page-turners. Bag yourself a treasure or simply enjoy a visit to see landmark titles and a stunning diversity of design.

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All Nature Was a Garden: English Horticultural Books

All Nature Was a Garden: English Horticultural Books

Aug 24, 2022 | Botany

From the earliest days of print, botanical literature in general and gardens in particular have fascinated readers.

Interest in gardening had grown out of the boom in country house building during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. The country house poem became a well-established subgenre, with works that praised magnificent country seats and the idyllic gardens that surrounded them. The great herbals catalogued and illustrated the flowers and plants that filled these gardens.

An illustration from Adveno E. Brooke’s The Gardens of England (1857), a rare large format work providing superb illustrations of English country house gardens in the Victorian era.

Herbals – works which which provide names, descriptions, and properties of plants – are among some of the earliest literature produced by civilisations throughout the world, from China to Ancient Egypt to Europe. Their popularity and prevalence only grew with the introduction of movable type in 1470, and works of this kind flourished throughout the next two centuries. Of the great western herbals of this period, none is more famous than that of John Gerard (1545–1612), whose Herball or General Historie of Plantes of 1597 is often referenced of the definitive example. Like many herbals, Gerard’s was an amalgamation of previous works, drawing heavily on Hieronymus Bock’s Kreuterbuch (which itself had been translated from German to Dutch, and thence into English, and subsequently reworked  Henry Lyte in 1578 as A Nievve Herball), as well as content from several other sources. Only 16 of the 1,800 woodcuts were original, the rest having been reused from earlier publications. Gerard’s lack of botanical training also led him frequently to include material of a folkloric or mythical nature as if it were fact (though for some this increases the charm and interest of the work). Despite this piecemeal method of compilation (and some accusations of plagiarism at the time), the work was a popular success, owing perhaps to its exhaustive nature and the fact that much of the information had not previously been available in English.

Second edition of John Gerard’s The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes, revised and expanded in 1633.

With the rise of modern chemistry, toxicology, and pharmacology in the late 17th century, herbals became increasingly redundant as medicinal reference works, though they are valued today by modern herbalists and collectors alike.

Hugh Walpole famously wrote of architect and landscape gardener William Kent, “he leaped the fence, and saw that all nature was a garden”. In the 18th century, landscape gardening and improvements sculpted English garden into less formal and more natural vistas. Largely supplanting the French formal garden, which had been the predominant style amongst landowners in the 17th century, the new informal English style presented a more pastoral version of the garden. Lancelot “Capability” Brown was one of the most influential figures at the heart of the great age of the English garden, eliminating the traditional understanding of a ‘garden’ as a series of geometrically laid out beds near to the house, with rolling lawns and views to far-off stands of trees. Artificial lakes and streams further sought to emulate the natural features of the English countryside. Amongst the great gardens designed by Brown are those of Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, and Petworth House in West Sussex. Often regarded as Brown’s successor, Humphry Repton coined the term ‘landscape gardener’, and produced innovative ‘red books’ (so called for their bindings) which utilised a a system of clever paper overlays to help his clients visualise a ‘before’ and ‘after’ of their gardens. While initially defending Brown’s landscapes from the charge of being ‘bland’ during the so-called ‘picturesque controversy’, Repton later adopted sensibilities taken from the theory of the picturesque into his designs. Under his guidance, gardens were designed to emulate a picturesque painting, with a foreground of more formal gardens, a middle ground of rolling parkland of the kind introduced by Brown, and a background with a more wild and natural character.

First edition of Humphry Repton’s last treatise on landscape gardening, 1816, illustrated in the familiar Repton manner, with overslips used to show the changed landscape before and after his improvements.

Botanical illustrations have always been popular in printed books, perhaps never more so than in the 19th century, when teams of skilled hand-colourists were used to produce superbly illustrated engraved and lithographed botanical books. Artists such as Pierre-Joseph Redouté, brothers Franz and Ferdinand Bauer, and Anne Pratt contributed to what is now known as the golden age of botanical art, and sumptuously illustrated books from this era are highly desirable, as well as decorative, collectors’ items.
Third edition of the most famous of all rose books with Redouté’s illustrations, 1835.
Interest continued into the 20th century, when horticulturalists like Gertrude Jekyll and Vita Sackville-West made amateur gardening a fashionable pastime. Jekyll was a prolific writer and garden designer, publishing more than 15 books and working on over 400 gardens. Her theories of colour and texture in border planting, and her impressionistic and painterly approach to garden design are still highly influential today, and she is a touchstone point of reference for contemporary gardeners and horticultural book collectors alike. Sackville-West, an aristocratic socialite of some renown, was also an extremely prolific writer, producing, amongst her novels, poetry, and journalism, numerous books on gardening, as well as writing a weekly garden column for the Observer. Never a professional garden designer, she was largely self-taught, learning by trial and error in her own gardens, first at Long Barn, near Sevenoaks, and later in the now-famous gardens at Sissinghurst. Her approach as a bold and enthusiastic amateur made her extremely popular with the gardening public, and she is now recognised as a highly influential figure of the period.

First edition of Jekyll’s most important work, Some English Gardens, one of the most attractive of English gardening books, illustrated by George S. Elgood, 1904.

If you’re interested in building a collection or rare and first edition gardening books, you can browse our gardening section, or contact one of our experts for advice on where to begin.
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Learn the Lore: What happens in the Silmarillion?

Learn the Lore: What happens in the Silmarillion?

Aug 17, 2022 | Articles, Literature, Recent Articles

The beloved novels of J. R. R. Tolkien have found homes in the hearts of readers since their publication in the mid-20th century, rising to global renown after the hugely successful film adaptations of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit by Peter Jackson.

Most fans are aware that the narratives and settings which appear in these stories are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the magnificent universe that Tolkien spent most of his life creating.

However, faced with a disorienting array of appendices, a twelve-volume history of Middle Earth, and an account of the mythos of Tolkien’s universe that is so infamously dense it has been likened to the Bible, it’s understandable that one might not know where to begin when making a better acquaintance with the oeuvre. Of all the supplementary works, The Silmarillion is the most essential to Tolkien’s canon.

First edition Silmarillion by J.R.R Tolkien
The collected series of The History of Middle Earth.

A first edition of The Silmarillion published in 1977.

The 12 volume History of Middle-Earth, edited by Christopher Tolkien. These volumes are drastically expanded from The Silmarillion and include tales, songs, poems, maps, illustrations, genealogical tables, and even linguistic primers for Tolkien’s languages.

Exciting Insights into “The Rings of Power”

With the release of Amazon’s much-anticipated (and, by some, dreaded) series The Rings of Power due in September 2022, fans are about to be introduced to a host of new heroes, foes, wars, and locales drawn from Tolkien’s extended works (alongside, we understand, some controversially created entirely for the show).

An account of the history of Middle-earth is laid out in The Silmarillion, a work which has a reputation for being convoluted and not exactly what you’d call ‘readable’. While The Rings of Power will not be a straightforward adaptation of this, or any, of Tolkien’s books, a grasp of some of the events unfolded within its pages will definitely provide a bit of a head start. With this in mind, allow us to provide a (very) potted history of the world of Arda.

What is The Silmarillion?

The revised and expanded edition of The Silmarillion.

The revised and expanded edition of The Silmarillion (2004), illustrated by Ted Nasmith.

The Silmarillion is essentially Tolkien’s legendarium for the world of Arda (the world of which Middle-earth is a part). It draws from various sources of inspiration including Greek mythology, the Finnish epic the Kalevala, the Bible, and aspects of Celtic mythology. It includes Tolkien’s creation myth and various histories from then until the end of the Third great Age of the world. The Ages are of varying lengths, and are usually bookended by cataclysmic or world-changing events, such as wars or disasters.

The Silmarillion covers the Second Age (which we understand is when the Rings of Power will be set) and the Third Age, when the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings take place. Published posthumously, it represents several of Tolkien’s works collected and edited by his son Christopher.

While the book is made up of five separate works, it was Tolkien’s wish to one day see them published together. “He’d produced this huge output”, says his grandson Simon, “that was his great work but it had never seen the light of day despite his best efforts to get it published”. Such a project was, however, deemed ‘unpublishable’, and Tolkien died before being able to complete coherent rewrites of each of the stories. For this reason, Christopher’s job of stitching together an organised history from his father’s notes required mammoth amounts of work and, in some cases, invention, where gaps needed to be filled.

On its publication, The Silmarillion was poorly received, some critics complaining of the absence of a single quest to follow or core cast of characters to invest in, while others found that the names of the various beings and places – sometimes only slightly differentiated from one another – were simply too hard to keep track of. Indeed, any attempt to summarise the book does at times descend into a disorienting cacophony of unfamiliar words and concepts.

So take a deep breath, and we’ll try to make this as straightforward as possible.

What Happens in the Silmarillion?

 

The first book of the Silmarillion is titled Ainulindalë: The Music of the Ainur. A fairly short work, it tells of the creation of Eä, the “world that is”. It sets out the central cosmology of Tolkien’s universe and introduces the supreme being and creator Ilúvatar. Ilúvatar creates the Ainur, or ‘Holy Ones’, gods whom he taught to sing a great music, which prefigures the creation of the material universe, Eä, including Arda (the world). Melkor, the most powerful of the Ainur (and the main antagonist of the First Age) disrupts the harmony of the theme with his own loud and brash music, and is chided by Ilúvatar.

A fold out map of Beleriand from The Silmarillion.

One of the themes that Ilúvatar has bidden the Ainur to sing results in the creation of the sentient races of Men and Elves, known as the Children of Ilúvatar. Some of the Ainur wish to enter Eä, becoming the Valar and the lesser Maiar, or the gods of Arda. Seeing the beauty of their creation, Melkor attempts to take it for his own but is cast out. The Valar have by this point taken physical form, and are again assailed my Melkor, who has also become corporeal. This begins the First War of Arda, in which Melkor attempts to destroy the world. The Valar, however, prevail and establish a safe habitation for the Children of Ilúvatar.

Still with us? Let’s continue.

 

The Epic Tale of the Silmarils and the First Age

 

The second book is the Valaquenta: Account of the Valar and Maiar according to the lore of the Eldar. This section goes into more detail about each of the Valar and the lesser beings, the Maiar. It also describes how Melkor seduced many of the Maiar into his service, including those who would eventually become Sauron and the Balrogs (finally some familiar faces!)

The majority of the Silmarillion is made up of the Quenta Silmarillion: The History of the Silmarils, which consists of over 20 chapters and tells the story of the First Age of Middle-earth. It picks up the history of Arda when the Ainur enter the world, fleshing out more detail about the beginning of the world from the Ainulindalë. The Valar created the land, initially a symmetrical continent lit by two lamps, one in the north and one in the south. These were destroyed by Melkor and, the symmetry of the land having been marred, the continent was split in two: Aman in the far west, where the Valar established their home, Valinor; and Middle-earth in the east. Realising, however, that elves have begun awakening the Valar return and take Melkor prisoner, sentencing him to 9,000 years incarceration to keep them safe. Before this, however, Melkor had managed to win some of the Elves to his side, and from them bred the race of Orcs. The Valor invite the Elves to live with them in Aman and, while some of them accept, others remain in Middle Earth. In Valinor, Yavnna, one of the Valar, creates the Two Trees, which illuminate Aman in place of the two Lamps.

It’s at this point we finally hear about the Silmarils, three jewels crafted by the great Elf gem-smith Fëanor, from the light of the Two Trees, which have immense power. Having been released from his captivity, feigning repentance, Melkor manages to destroy the trees with the help of Ungoliant, a giant spider, and steal the Silmarils, fleeing to Middle-earth. He is pursued by Fëanor, who has sworn to retrieve the Silmarils.

An illustration from The Silmarillion of elves seated by the shore of a lake with mountains in the distance.

To replace the two trees, the Valar create the sun and the moon, whose light force Melkor to flee underground. At the same time, they reinforce the protections of Valinor, making it impossible to find. When the sun first rises, the race of Men begins to appear; a mortal race, in contrast to the elves who live forever unless they are killed.

In a battle to try to retrieve the Silmarils, Fëanor dies, having first made his sons swear to retrieve the stones. The Elves, previously having split into factions, unite to fight Melkor. During this time the great Elven city of Gondolin is founded, a hidden city with a secret entrance. Meanwhile, Men begin to enter Elven territories. Not all the Elves welcome them, but they form a tenuous alliance.

Hundreds of years pass and the Men and Elves continue to battle Melkor. It is here that the hero Beren (a name you might recognise from his mention in The Lord of the Rings) appears, the sole survivor from one of Melkor’s attacks. The story of Beren and Lúthien is the famous love story of Tolkien’s mythos, and is evoked in reference to the relationship of Arwen and Aragorn. In the court of Thingol, an Elf king, Beren, who is a mortal Man, falls in love with Thingol’s daughter Lúthien. Thingol is displeased and sets Beren an impossible task to win Lúthien’s hand; to find one of the Silmarils. Beren sets out with Finrod (the Elf founder of the city of Gondolin) to steal one of the stones from Melkor’s stronghold of Angband. Beren and Finrod are captured by Sauron (yes, that one!) who was one of the Maia corrupted by Melkor and has become his most trusted lieutenant. Meanwhile, Lúthien has run away from her father’s court to aid Beren. Finrod wrestles with werewolves commanded by Sauron and is killed but Beren is rescued by Lúthien who sings a song to put Melkor to sleep, enabling Beren to get hold of a Silmaril.

While trying to escape, his hand is bitten off by a wolf, Silmaril and all. They return to Lúthien’s father, who is sufficiently impressed, even without the Silmaril, to allow them to marry, the first union between a Man and an Elf. Later, Beren finds the werewolf who ate his hand, kills it, and cuts out the Silmaril, but is mortally wounded in the process. He dies in Lúthien’s arms and Lúthien dies of grief. However, Lúthien, in the afterlife, petitions the Lord of the Dead for their cause and is offered the choice for both to be resurrected if she embraces mortality. Lúthien chooses a mortal life with Beren.

Emboldened by Beren and Lúthien’s success, a great force of Elves, Men, and Dwarves attack Melkor, but some of the men have secretly turned against the alliance and fight for Melkor. Many of the great Elven cities fall. The Dwarves, Men, and Elves begin warring amongst themselves over the Silmaril. Beren and Lúthien’s son is killed and the Silmaril is saved by their granddaughter Elwing who flees, later marrying Eärendil, a half-Elf. With the power of the Silmaril, Elwing and Eärendil are able to cross the sea to Valinor, which has been otherwise shielded against ships landing from Middle-earth. They seek help from the Valar to finally defeat Melkor, and he is expelled and cast into the Void, an event which signals the end of the First Age of Middle-earth. Eärendil and Elwing are granted immortality and Eärendil sails into the sky wearing the Silmaril and becomes a star.

The last two Silmarils have been seized by the sons of Fëanor (the original maker, who made his sons swear to get the stones back). However, as they took them by force, the Silmarils burned their hands signalling that they were no longer worthy to receive them. One of the brothers kills himself by leaping into a fiery chasm with the stone, thus destroying it, while the other casts his into the sea and spends the rest of his life wandering the shore.

The children of Eärendil and Elwing are Elrond and Elros. As they have mixed heritage, they are allowed to choose their race; Elrond chooses to become an Elf and Elros a Man. Elros becomes the first king of Númenor, the great island civilisation of men that has been likened to Atlantis. Númenor was raised from the sea by the Valar as a gift to the Men who stood with the Elves against Melkor.

If you’ve made it this far, congratulations, you’re nearly there! The fourth book of the Silmarillion is Akallabêth, or ‘The Downfallen’. It recounts the rise and fall of Númenor and the Númenorean descendants, the Dúnedain (you may remember Aragorn is referred to as the ‘last of the Dúnedain in The Lord of the Rings – this is why he lives longer than most mortal Men).

An illustration from The Silmarillion of Numenor.

The Downfall of Númenor and the Founding of Arnor and Gondor

 

After the defeat of Melkor, three loyal houses of men who had aided the elves are granted their own land, as well as wisdom, power, and increased lifespans. Unfortunately, the Second Age sees the rise of Sauron, Melkor’s most loyal servant, who begins his conquest of Middle-earth. Seeing he would not be able to defeat the Númenoreans, Sauron allows himself to be captured, and thus manages to enthrall the king Ar-Pharazôn, turning him and his people against the Elves of Aman in the West, and the Valar. Ar-Pharazôn raises a great force and sails against Aman. Stricken at this betrayal, the Valar and the Elves call on Ilúvatar, the creator, who destroys the Númenorean fleet and submerges Númenor. Only those who remained true to the Valar are allowed to live.

Sauron’s physical form is destroyed but his spirit (as a Maia) returns to Middle-earth. The faithful Númenoreans also sail to Middle-earth, including Elendil, a descendent of Elros, and his sons Isildur and Anárion. They found two great kingdoms of Men, Arnor and Gondor. From Númenor, they brought seeds from a white tree, the descendent of which is the White Tree of Gondor we see in The Lord of the Rings.

Congratulations traveller, you’ve made it to familiar territory with the final book of the Silmarillion: Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age. This section also covers the Second Age which, we understand, will form the setting for the events of The Rings of Power. In this period, Sauron reappears, building up his power in Mordor, gathering armies of Orcs, Trolls, and other creatures who had served Melkor, and erecting the fortress of Barad-dûr. He wins the allegiance of some of the nations of Men, such as the Easterlings and Haradrim, but wishes to win the Elves to his side for their power. To do this, he disguises himself, calling himself Annatar, the “Lord of Gifts”.

Befriending the great Elf smiths, including Celebrimbor (greatest of craftsmen, descended from Fëanor), he teaches them how to make the rings of power. Some amongst them, such as Galadriel, Elrond, and Gil-galad, do not trust him. However, he deceives them all, secretly forging the One Ring, which has the power to control all the others.

Illustration from The Silmarillion of the forging of the One Ring in the fires of Mount Doom.

The Last Alliance and the Fall of Sauron

Eventually, Sauron’s treachery is revealed, and there is open warfare in Middle-earth. Sauron demands all the rings of power that have been made but the Elves manage to hide the three greatest. The rest, however, are seized and Sauron gives seven to the Dwarves (who, while resistant to Sauron’s control, develop, through their corrupting power, an insatiable lust for gold) and nine to Men, knowing they will be the easiest to corrupt. As we know, these men become the Nazgûl, Sauron’s most deadly and powerful servants. This period culminates in the Last Alliance of Men and Elves led by Gil-galad and Elendil against Sauron’s forces. Isildur cuts the Ring from Sauron’s hand, thus ending the war. The defeat of Sauron brings the Second Age to a close.

The rest, you know. Isildur claims the One Ring but is killed, and the Ring lost for generations. The remainder of the book gives a brief overview of the events leading up to and including The Lord of the Rings, but that, as they say, is another story.

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