| Ainulindalë | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jan 31 2015, 01:18 AM (168 Views) | |
| durinbane | Jan 31 2015, 01:18 AM Post #1 |
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Hey everyone, I want to say thank you guys so much for joining my little book club! I can't wait to get to know you guys better and see all your thoughts while reading through The Silmarillion. Remember--this can be whatever you guys want it to be. You may post your feelings, notes, fanart, playlists, face claims, questions, or anything else! Go ahead and post about Ainulindalë here. |
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| arkenstonc | Feb 2 2015, 12:12 PM Post #2 |
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Sooo I'm just going to start and post a couple of pics of the notes I took during my reading of this chapter. My book is in French so maybe some of my notes aren't exact compared to the original version, but heh =D The first two chapters are, imo, very heavy and full of things. The way it is narrated is very circling, the words are placed weirdly sometimes and I often have to re-read a sentence several times to understand what it wants to say. It's full of information too so maybe that's why I have some trouble connecting all the words and what happens. My notes are mostly summarizing and simplifying things so that I can follow the storyline better (especially with the amount of characters!) as well as some Middle-Erath specific words I do not know (for instance in this chapter, the Eldalië and the Eldar are mentioned, I have no idea who they are except that they live in Valinor so they are probably Elves?) If anyone knows what it's about, do tell me! About the chapter itself, it is a good way to know how the world came to be and what happened before the first races of Arda's inhabitants came to life. My notes below: Edited by arkenstonc, Feb 2 2015, 12:19 PM.
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| durinbane | Feb 2 2015, 01:27 PM Post #3 |
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I just finished this section and I had to do a lot of rereading to fully understand some of the things. Once I figured most of it out though, I really, really loved it. I thought this whole part was so interesting, especially since I've seen Iluvatar referenced quite often and while I always just assumed it was one of their gods, I'm happy I know the backstory now. I really loved how the Ainur were creating Iluvatar's vision through song. To comment on arkenstonc's question about who are the Eldalië and the Eldar, I was actually wondering about the Eldalië too. I think Eldar are probably Elves, especially after reading the part that said "...even the Eldar cannot clearly perceive them, though they be present". So far they've talked about Elves and Men living Arda and out of those two, the Elves have much better vision, so I assumed it must be the Elves. A question I have about Ainulindale, does anyone know what the difference between Ea and Arda are? I guessed that Arda is the world and Ea is basically everything else, but I was also thinking maybe Arda is just a region of the world being created. So I'm not totally sure about that. Here are my notes that I took while I was reading: Page 1 Page 2 |
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| therohirrim | Feb 2 2015, 03:28 PM Post #4 |
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I actually finished the book about a week ago, so I'm starting to reread it again as part of this book club and I have to agree with arkenstonc in that the writing style was at first a little hard to understand. It becomes more pleasant once you are familiarized with it, and has a really nice rhythm to it once your really start getting into the book. Also, from what I remember, the Eldar are the Elves that (as you will hear more about in the rest of the Silmarillion) accepted the Valar's summons to travel to Aman (Undying Lands), where the Valar lived. So they were a part of the Elves that were sundered (because some Elves accepted and some refused the summons and stayed in Middle Earth). Eldalië is just a generic term used to describe the whole of the Eldar. The difference between Eä and Arda is that Eä is the universe (basically everything that is or exists), whereas Arda is just the Earth itself. Both were created through the Ainur's song. My notes are rather brief, and I think have already been summarized anyways by all of you XD I did write up a handy chart for the Valaquenta, which I will share once we've gotten there. (wow you guys all have really nice handwriting) Edited by therohirrim, Feb 2 2015, 03:30 PM.
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| multifandommadnesses | Feb 2 2015, 04:14 PM Post #5 |
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So i finally finished reading it as well~ Just like arcenstonc i also don't really get who the Eldar and the Eldalie are... but I'm sure it'll be explained later? I have the feeling that a lot of things are named - which made me confused at first - and then explained two sentences later (like, the Valar were mentioned and then just a bit later it was said who they were, so I had to read that part again with that knowledge, back and forth and back and forth....) I was also a bit confused about the Ea/ Arda thingy, like durinbane, but at one point Arda was called Kingdom, so I think Ea is the world and Arda is the Kingdom that was created first (the place that Melkor wanted to make mine, but he was chased away for a while?) but what therohirrim said makes much more sense (it's kinda the same but on a bigger scale i guess :D) (ignore my therefore wrong notes on that :D) Also; here my notes~ |
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| arkenstonc | Feb 2 2015, 06:20 PM Post #6 |
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I agree that when Eru called out Ea, it was to name the universe and all that is, since Eru and the Ainur are said to be in the void basically, and Arda would be the planet where Middle-Earth (and other regions) is. What I find somehow difficult in Tolkien's books (I haven't read LotR in a long time so I can't really recall if it is as nebulous, but I've read the Hobbit recently and it was much easier than the Silmarillion) is that he speaks names and words without readers having seen them before, like the Eldar and Eldalië. I have read on the wiki about the elves and those who came to the undying land and the others but I haven't heard about them before. It's like you need to do some research as you read! |
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| multifandommadnesses | Feb 3 2015, 01:32 PM Post #7 |
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i still hope he'll just explain the things he doesn't yet later in the book...I mean, back when he wrote all that there was nogoogle,so he certainly didn't want the readers to do that,and it MUST be written somewhere, otherwise even google wouldn't know~ Also i don't like googling stuff while reading or watching something. I always end up spoilering myself.. :D |
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| tolkien-in-beleriand | Feb 3 2015, 06:16 PM Post #8 |
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It has been a while since I read The Silmarillion and I am rereading now for the book club but I think that everything is pretty much explained at least I didn't have any doubts at the end. The Eldar as therohirrim said are the elves who accepted the summon of the Valar and left Cuiviénen (the lake where the first elves awoke) but not all of them went to Valinor. The Eldar are specifically the Noldor (all went to Valinor), the Vanyar (all went to Valinor) and the Teleri (not all went to Valinor). The Sindar (Grey-elves) and the Nandor (Green-elves) are Teleri who stayed in Beleriand (Middle-earth) but are also considered Eldar. They are called Úmanyar (the Eldar who were 'not of Aman'). I'm sorry if this is too much information. You can ask me anything and I'll try to help. |
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| arkenstonc | Feb 4 2015, 07:54 AM Post #9 |
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What's most difficult for me is remembering all the different names for races or characters or even places sometimes, because there's the language of Eru/the Ainur, the Elves, the Man, and it's all confusing x) That's why I take notes to help me remember who's who and what's what. |
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