First Post Assignment

Hello everyone, welcome to my blog. My name is Michael, and I am from Canada. I enjoy video games, anime, homestuck, and reading. Some of my hobbies are 3D graphic design, video game programming, and digital painting. I will be blogging about any and all books by J.R.R Tolkien.

I am currently reading The Silmarillion, which is a prequel to his more famous books (which i will be reading): The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, which have been adapted into movies. The Silmarillion is about the creation of Middle Earth, Valinor, and all the lands inbetween, as well as the wars between the Children of Ilúvatar and the original Dark Lord Morgoth/Melkor. The story starts off with the creation of "Ea" (the Universe). Ea was created by Ilúvatar and the Ainur. As said in the "Ainulindale", the first chapter, the Ainur sang, and from that song, the Earth came into being. There was one Ainur called Melkor who tried to disrupt the song and ended up creating much evil and discord. When Ilúvatar unveiled the world they had created, Melkor grew ashamed, yet angry at the same time. The Ainur were called Valar by the elves, and are called thus throughout the book. Some of the Valar descended into the world, and some did not, the ones who did were treated as kings or even gods. Some of the lesser Valar also descended into the world, yet they were called Maiar. Some of the Maiar are Sauron, Gandalf, and all the other wizards. The elves also play a large part in the book, they are divided into seperate groups: The ones who had seen the light of the trees of valinor, and those who had not. Under those groups they are further divided, but I will not bother to elaborate, because this book is very confusing and unless you have read it it would be hard to understand if i were to elaborate. The world of The Silmarillion is seperated into two continents: Aman, and Middle Earth. Middle Earth is the main setting for much of the books, and mostly gets focused upon the region Beleriand. Amar is the home of the Valar and many of the Elves.

Some of the story focuses on the first war between Melkor and the Valar. Melkor dwelled in his citadel Utumno. This was a very bloody war, and many of the elves and Maiar took part. Sauron also took part, and dwelled in the western fortress of Angband. The Valar prevailed and destroyed Utumno, imprisoning Melkor for three "ages" of unknown length. The second war is between all the races of Middle Earth and Melkor, who had stolen three gems from the elf Feanor. These gems held the last light of the trees of valinor, and were the only hope to save Aman from darkness.

The story centers around the quest to retieve these gems.