bought the Silmarillion today! Any pointers?

[Faire]

Why skipping Valaquenta and Ainulindalë? They are both easy to deal with (limited number of characters), set the ground for the main line (and there is one - the story of Morgoth, the Jewels and the Oath) - and are AWESOME . Creation via act of art? Beautiful!

My problems came with all the elven kings named F-anything. I lost it there, and had to reread the whole book later. Finished it on my third try (I was a teenager then).

[HotSnow50]

Then might I suggest The Atlas of Middle Earth?

It's truly a great piece of work, covering all three Ages of the world. I'm not fond of her answer to the problem of why the Dwarves take so much longer to reach Rivendell but that's a minor nitpick.

Ordered! Thanks for the turn-on! I will let ya know how it all shakes out

[HotSnow50]

Why skipping Valaquenta and Ainulindalë? They are both easy to deal with (limited number of characters), set the ground for the main line (and there is one - the story of Morgoth, the Jewels and the Oath) - and are AWESOME

I'll give it a shot to go the whole way through... *puts his book-slogging goggles on!*

[trystero]

Photocopy the family-tree pages from the appendices and keep them near to hand along with the map. IMO the names and familial relations are much easier to keep track of if you have them out in front of you rather than needing to flip to the back to find out who Fingolfin is. (And this may be even more true for you, since you say you're a visualist.)

[Glorelendil]

Even harder than keeping track of the names (particularly the characters that have multiple names or change their names, like Thingol) are the names (and synonyms!) for all the various sub-divisions of elves. I still struggle with it.

[Majestic]

The Silmarillion is good, but to me it wasn't anywhere near as good as The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings. Still, it has great, epic moments in it, and - based on your interest of the start of Men and Elves - I'd recommend reading over those first few chapters, the ones with the Music and the Creation story.

I'd also highly recommend using the Atlas. I found it way easier to be able to use it as I went along; it even shows things like where armies made strikes from (showing arrows and such), and gives the paths people travelled. An excellent resource!

It took me a few times to slog through it, and I finally just persevered and did it, though it wasn't easy (and I'm a huge fan of Tolkien). As others have said, don't view it so much as a novel, but more as a history textbook or reference book, and taking that approach could help.

[Majestic]

Photocopy the family-tree pages from the appendices and keep them near to hand along with the map. IMO the names and familial relations are much easier to keep track of if you have them out in front of you rather than needing to flip to the back to find out who Fingolfin is. (And this may be even more true for you, since you say you're a visualist.)

This is an excellent idea! I found myself flipping back and forth from the start to the end of the book continually; it would have been a lot easier just to photocopy them.

[trystero]

Actually, the best suggestion I can offer is the one that worked for me:

Find yourself a copy of I.C.E.'s long-out-of-print RPG supplement Lords of Middle-earth Vol. I – The Immortals: Elves, Maiar, and Valar, and read sections 4.1 and 4.11 on pp. 7–16. Together, those constitute a short-form synopsis of just about the entirety of The Silmarillion: it lacks the beauty and depth of Professor T.'s writing, but it's eminently digestable and will give you the shape of the story. Then go back and read the actual book: you'll have a better idea of what's going on, and will appreciate the actual language and storytelling better than you otherwise would (at least, if you're me in high school you will).

I said it worked for me: I didn't say it would necessarily work for anyone else. :-)

[HotSnow50]

Photocopy the family-tree pages from the appendices and keep them near to hand along with the map. IMO the names and familial relations are much easier to keep track of if you have them out in front of you rather than needing to flip to the back to find out who Fingolfin is. (And this may be even more true for you, since you say you're a visualist.)

Solid idea, thank you!

[Glorelendil]

Actually, the best suggestion I can offer is the one that worked for me:

Find yourself a copy of I.C.E.'s long-out-of-print RPG supplement Lords of Middle-earth Vol. I – The Immortals: Elves, Maiar, and Valar, and read sections 4.1 and 4.11 on pp. 7–16. Together, those constitute a short-form synopsis of just about the entirety of The Silmarillion: it lacks the beauty and depth of Professor T.'s writing, but it's eminently digestable and will give you the shape of the story. Then go back and read the actual book: you'll have a better idea of what's going on, and will appreciate the actual language and storytelling better than you otherwise would (at least, if you're me in high school you will).

I said it worked for me: I didn't say it would necessarily work for anyone else.

Regardless of its quality as an RPG, I've actually found the historical synopses found in the various ICE products to be illuminating. Having everything on one topic/area in one place, and rather well written at that, is useful. My only complaint is that I can't always tell what is canon and what their authors have added.