Maybe, I was in a rush on my way out the door to go see Last Jedi when I changed it and my memory is always faulty. I'll change it here in a second. Mea culpa.

-M

I was in eighth grade the first time I tried reading it and didn't get through it. I finally read it on summer break after my first year at university. I also read Unfinished Tales and the Book of Lost Tales that summer, and when the rest of the History of Middle Earth series came out, I read through the first 4 volumes, all of which contain most of the same stories that make up the Silmarillion in various different forms. If you think trying to get through the Silmarillion was tough, try The Lays of Beleriand, which is essentially (though not quite) The Silmarillion on the form of an epic poem rather than prose.

I got through it much the way I get through anything I find of historical interest when the prose is dry and difficult to read. I do it in small chunks and take time to digest the narrative within sometimes even annotating it to keep the narrative threads in my head straight before moving onto the next small chunk. Once I made it through the Silmarillion and had the stories straight in my head, I was better able to watch the development of the stories through the various versions as the changes, both major and subtle, structural and plot wise became more apparent. However, now years later if I tried to read them again, I would be starting from scratch, and I did run out of steam after the 4th volume even though I own the first 11.

The stories themselves are worth reading, but the execution of the stories does make it a laborious read. Unlike the Hobbit with Bilbo or LOTR with Frodo, you don't have a flow through character that makes the story and setting accessible to the reader and gives them a hook to push through the sometimes meandering prose, and there is a stronger overall narrative structure to the LOTR itself because it follows the structure of the medieval romance (which itself is not that far off from the monomyth structure of Campbell's Hero of a Thousand Faces) so the structure of the story is familiar and instinctual to a reader, while the Hobbit has the familiarity of a ripping bedtime story filled with magic and wonder but was targeted to a younger audience and avoids some of the density and medieval tendencies of Tolkien's other work. The Silmarillion lacks this and is much in the vein of his more academic writings and medieval style narratives, making it harder for the modern reader to connect with because it is much less familiar and accessible in its format and structure. (Having gotten through the Silmarillion and the Hoistory of Middle Earth volumes actually made those types medieval narratives more accessible for me whne I tacked them in grad school because of the familiarity factor).

So really it's just a matter of plowing through really and using techniques to keep the narrative straight in your head that work for you.


-M

Hmm, yeah. I tried to read the Silmarillion about three times: the first time while still in elementary school after I had read LOTR the first time(got about 10 pages in and gave up) and then twice in high school (I think the farthest I got was about 30-40 pages in). I also started, and gave up on, Unfinished Tales at about the same time. Personally, I just don't find it worth the effort to read any of that material published after Tolkien's death. Don't get me wrong, I admire the guy's genius for world-building and for basically creating the languages spoken by the people in that world - but sort of in response to MRP's point, if I'm going to go through that trouble, I'd rather just read actual medieval narratives (some which were translated quite adeptly by Tolkien himself).

Weirdly it was reading The Silmarillion, then rereading the Hobbit and then reading the LOTR trilogy that allowed me to get into the movies.  I've also since then read The Children of Húrin another manuscript finished by son Christopher Tolkien.  I think for me it was the world building in The Silmarillion that allowed me to really wrap my head around the epic-ness of what was going on in the other books.

It was actually Saruman, with a much-abused Wormtongue in tow to use as his whipping dog. Wormtongue got even by murdering his master!

The scouring of the Shire was set aside by Peter Jackson... and although it was an important part of the novel, I agree that it would have made the movie insanely too long! 

Perhaps we should get together and share a bottle of Galadriel wine or perhaps a few cups of Gandalf



as we discuss the Silmarillion around a blazing fire in a Hobbit hole.

-M