Elf Diamond English original book novel The Silmarillion Hobbit Lord of The Rings prequel

书名：The Silmarillion 精灵宝钻
难度：Lexile蓝思阅读指数1150L
作者：J. R. R. Tolkien托尔金
出版社名称：HarperCollins
出版时间：2013
语种：英文
ISBN：9780261102736
商品尺寸：11.3 x 3.1 x 17.6 cm
包装：简装
页数：448 （以实物为准）

The Silmarillion《精灵宝钻》是英国牛津大学教授兼语言学家J.R.R.托尔金创作的传奇神话故事，作为托尔金中土世界中的宏大开篇，相当于《霍比特人》《魔戒》前传。这是一部从伊路瓦塔通过“圣贤之乐”开天辟地、创造世界起到“第三纪”末期的完整历史。本书适合有一定英文水平的西方奇幻小说爱好者、《霍比特人》《魔戒》粉丝及英语学习者阅读。
推荐理由：
1.《精灵宝钻》是《霍比特人》《指环王》原著作者J.R.R.托尔金耗费60年之久精心打磨的神话史诗；
2.书中交代了人类与精灵的起源，描绘中土世界一切的开始；
3.英文原版无删减，特别收录托尔金揭秘创作历程长文，并附中土世界——贝勒瑞恩。
Designed to take fans ofThe HobbitandThe Lord of the Ringsdeeper into the myths and legends of Middle-earth
The Silmarillionis an account of the Elder Days, of the First Age of Tolkien’s world. It is the ancient drama to which the characters in The Lord of the Rings look back, and in whose events some of them such as Elrond and Galadriel took part. The tales ofThe Silmarillionare set in an age when Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, dwelt in Middle-Earth, and the High Elves made war upon him for the recovery of the Silmarils, the jewels containing the pure light of Valinor.
Included in the book are several shorter works. The Ainulindale is a myth of the Creation and in the Valaquenta the nature and powers of each of the gods is described. The Akallabeth recounts the downfall of the great island kingdom of Númenor at the end of the Second Age and Of the Rings of Power tells of the great events at the end of the Third Age, as narrated in The Lord of the Rings.
This pivotal work features the revised, corrected text and includes, by way of an introduction, a fascinating letter written by Tolkien in 1951 in which he gives a full explanation of how he conceived the early Ages of Middle-earth.

Review
“How, given little over half a century of work, did one man become the creative equivalent of a people?”—The Guardian
“Demanding to be compared with English mythologies… at times rises to the greatness of true myth.”—Financial Times
“A creation of singular beauty… magnificent.”—Washington Post
“A grim, tragic, brooding and beautiful book, shot through with heroism and hope… its power is almost that of mysticism.”—Toronto Globe & Mail


始有一如，“独一之神”，其名在世间称为伊露维塔。
精灵，一如的首生子女，永生永世热爱星光，他们的美丽并不凋谢或者消逝。
人类，次生子女，一如赐给了他们决定自己命运的自由，还有一样奇特的——死亡。随着时间流逝，连众神亦会嫉羡。
精灵宝钻，由颇有天赋的精灵——费艾诺造出。宝钻蕴藏着曾在双圣树上的维林诺之光，那是尚无任何堕落发生的太初时代的孑遗。一代黑暗魔君、堕落的魔苟斯盗走了它们。费艾诺众子发下亵渎神灵的誓言，执意离开家园，前去向大敌发动战争、复仇到底。他们族人违背诸神，渡海出征。
同族相残，堕落由此开始……
The tales ofThe Silmarillionare set in an age when Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, dwelt in Middle-Earth, and the High Elves made war upon him for the recovery of the Silmarils, the jewels containing the pure light of Valinor. Included in the book are several shorter works. The Ainulindale is a myth of the Creation and in the Valaquenta the nature and powers of each of the gods is described. The Akallabeth recounts the downfall of the great island kingdom of Numenor at the end of the Second Age and Of the Rings of Power tells of the great events at the end of the Third Age, as narrated inThe Lord of the Rings.

约翰·罗纳德·瑞尔·托尔金，CBE（英语：John Ronald Reuel Tolkien，1892年1月3日－1973年9月2日），笔名J.R.R.托尔金，英国作家、诗人、语言学家及大学教授，以创作经典严肃奇幻作品《霍比特人》《魔戒》与《精灵宝钻》而闻名于世。
J. R. R. Tolkien(1892-1973) was a distinguished academic, though he is best known for writingThe Hobbit,The Lord of the RingsandThe Silmarillion, plus other stories and essays. His books have been translated into 50 languages and have sold many millions of copies worldwide.The Children of Hurinwas published for the first time in 2007.

It is told among the wise that the First War began before Arda was full-shaped, and ere yet there was anything that grew or walked upon earth; and for long Melkor had the upper hand. But in the midst of the war a spirit of great strength and hardihood came to the aid of the Valar, hearing in the far heaven that there was battle in the Little Kingdom; and Arda was filled with the sound of his laughter. So came Tulkas the Strong, whose anger passes like a mighty wind, scattering cloud and darkness before it; and Melkor fled before his wrath and his laughter, and forsook Arda, and there was peace for a long age. And Tulkas remained and became one of the Valar of the Kingdom of Arda; but Melkor brooded in the outer darkness, and his hate was given to Tulkas for ever after.
In that time the Valar brought order to the seas and the lands and the mountains, and Yavanna planted at last the seeds that she had long devised. And since, when the fires were subdued or buried beneath the primeval hills, there was need of light, Aulё at the prayer of Yavanna wrought two mighty lamps for the lighting of the Middle-earth which he had built amid the encircling seas. Then Varda filled the lamps and Manwё hallowed them, and the Valar set them upon high pillars, more lofty far than are any mountains of the later days. One lamp they raised near to the north of Middleearth, and it was named Illuin; and the other was raised in the south, and it was named Ormal; and the light of the Lamps of the Valar flowed out over the Earth, so that all was lit as it were in a changeless day.
Then the seeds that Yavanna had sown began swiftly to sprout and to burgeon, and there arose a multitude of growing things great and small, mosses and grasses and great ferns, and trees whose tops were crowned with cloud as they were living mountains, but whose feet were wrapped in a green twilight. And beasts came forth and dwelt in the grassy plains, or in the rivers and the lakes, or walked in the shadows of the woods. As yet no flower had bloomed nor any bird had sung, for these things waited still their time in the bosom of Yavanna; but wealth there was of her imagining, and nowhere more rich than in the midmost parts of the Earth, where the light of both the Lamps met and blended. And there upon the Isle of Almaren in the Great Lake was the first dwelling of the Valar when all things were young, and new-made green was yet a marvel in the eyes of the makers; and they were long content.