The Silmarillion Illustrated Edition Unveiled

 

The new illustrated edition (to match with this year's previous illustrated editions) has officially been announced! I'm going to copy+paste the announcement, and then the product description. At the end, I'll share some thoughts pertaining to artwork.

From the official (UK) Tolkien facebook page:
"We are delighted to unveil the cover of the new illustrated edition of The Silmarillion, featuring a dramatic painting by Ted Nasmith depicting the fall of Númenor. This new edition will be published in March 2021 in time for Tolkien Reading Day and will feature new paintings appearing here for the first time.

Published originally in 1977, The Silmarillion represented, as Christopher Tolkien wrote on the dustjacket copy to the first edition, ‘the central stock of J.R.R. Tolkien’s imaginative writing, a work that he could not publish in his lifetime because it grew with him. Its origins stretch back sixty years…’

Incredible to consider now, but that sixty-year span leads back to the mud and the trenches and carnage of the battlefields of the First World War, where J.R.R. Tolkien served with distinction in the Lancashire Fusiliers. He fought at the Battle of the Somme but was invalided home on 8 November of 1916, and it was while recovering in hospital that he started to write, filling battered schoolbooks with hastily written pencilled tales. Out of the darkness and horror he had experienced would arise the light and beauty of the Book of Lost Tales, early forms of the myths that would evolve into The Silmarillion.

Christopher Tolkien was born in November 1924, just six years after his father’s release from the bondage of battle, and it is fitting in this month of Thanksgiving and of Christopher’s birth to reflect anew upon the unique and peerless contribution that he has given the world.

For Christopher’s entire life, his father’s legendarium had been an essential part of his world. He himself said: ‘As strange as it may seem, I grew up in the world he created. For me, the cities of The Silmarillion are more real than Babylon.’ And as Tolkien realized that he would not personally be able to bring his life’s work to a publishable conclusion he and Christopher discussed in close detail how this might eventually be achieved. Christopher diligently followed his father’s wishes and The Silmarillion was published in 1977, just four years after his father’s death. It was an international bestseller, and was critically acclaimed around the world, hailed as ‘a creation of singular beauty’ (Washington Post) and ‘at times rises to the greatness of true myth’ (Financial Times).

This landmark literary achievement would for many be the culmination of a life, but for Christopher it marked just the beginning. In his preface to Beren and Lúthien, he remarks that ‘he then spent several years investigating the earlier history of The Silmarillion… It is done partly for my own satisfaction in getting things right, and because I wanted to know how the whole conception did in reality evolve from the earliest origins…’ There, in that statement, is the singular, wonderful essence of the man who found unceasing delight in his father’s literary creation; both a scholar who placed the highest demands on the rigor of his research and a romantic who found endless joy travelling through the tales of Valinor and Middle-earth.

He would continue his quiet, scholarly endeavours for the next four decades, producing many further volumes that have enriched our understanding of Middle-earth, from his monumental 12-volume History (which would evolve from that towering History of The Silmarillion) through to the three books that would be the capstone to his literary achievement: The Children of Húrin, Beren and Lúthien and The Fall of Gondolin.

He would write in the preface to The Fall of Gondolin: ‘Looking back over my work, now concluded after some forty years, I believe that my underlying purpose was at least in part to try to give more prominence to the nature of “The Silmarillion” and its vital existence in relation to The Lord of the Rings.’

With the publication of this new edition of The Silmarillion we have an opportunity to marvel anew at the literary brilliance of both Tolkiens, father and son. Out of the darkness of war, J.R.R. Tolkien brought forth the shining jewels that are the tales of The Silmarillion, and thanks to the tireless devotion of Christopher Tolkien these tales and many more will light our imaginations for ever."

And, for the product description:

"Including brand-new paintings, this is a fully illustrated new edition of the forerunner to The Lord of the Rings. The Silmarillion fills in the background which lies behind the more popular work, and gives the earlier history of Middle-earth, introducing some of the key characters.

The Silmarillion is the core of J.R.R. Tolkien’s imaginative writing, a collection of narratives ranging in time from the Elder Days of Middle-earth, through the Second Age and the rise of Sauron, to the end of the War of the Ring.

They are set in an age when Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, dwelt in Middle-earth, and the Elves made war upon him in his impenetrable fortress in Angband for the recovery of the Silmarils, three jewels containing the last remaining pure light of Valinor, seized by Morgoth and set in his iron crown.

Accompanying these tales are several shorter works. The Ainulindalë is a myth of the Creation and in the Valaquenta the nature and powers of the gods is described. The Akallabêth 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 told in The Lord of the Rings.

Tolkien could not publish The Silmarillion in his lifetime, as it grew with him, so he would leave it to his son, Christopher, to edit the work from many manuscripts and bring his father’s great vision to publishable form, so completing the literary achievement of a lifetime. This special edition presents anew this seminal first step towards mapping out the posthumous publishing of Middle-earth, and the beginning of an illustrious forty years and more than twenty books celebrating his father’s legacy.

Also included is a letter by J.R.R. Tolkien written in 1951 which provides a brilliant exposition of the earlier Ages, and almost 50 full-colour paintings by Ted Nasmith, including some which appear here for the first time."

The ISBN for the standard edition (more info on the collector's edition once there's more info) is 9780008433949.

I'm curious as to which images this one will include. Would it be a replication of '08 paperback, but in the hardback format? Also, this looks to be a very indicator as to what the 2022 calendar will be.

In the past, whenever a new (or new edition) Middle-earth book is published, especially if it has a collector's edition (The Children of Hurin, Beren and Luthien and The Fall of Gondolin are some such examples) odds are very high that the following year's calendar will be themed around it. Those three examples are concrete evidence of that.

Going back on topic with regards to the illustrations though, here are some others that haven't yet appeared in an edition. Some were done after 2004, and others have been done from before the first illustrated edition in 1998 came out!

- Lake Halevorn: https://www.tednasmith.com/tolkien/lake-helevorn/
- Turgon at Fingolfin’s Cairn: https://www.tednasmith.com/tolkien/turgon-at-fingolfins-cairn/
- Taniquetil: https://www.tednasmith.com/tolkien/taniquetil/
- Annuminas: https://www.tednasmith.com/tolkien/annuminas/
-Luthien: https://www.tednasmith.com/tolkien/luthien/
- Tuor Reaches the Hidden City of Gondolin: https://www.tednasmith.com/tolkien/tuor-reaches-the-hidden-city-of-gondolin/
- Morgoth and the High King of Noldor: https://www.tednasmith.com/tolkien/morgoth-and-the-high-king-of-noldor/
- Eärendil Searches Tirion: https://www.tednasmith.com/tolkien/earendil-searches-tirion/
- Lúthien Escapes the Treehouse: https://www.tednasmith.com/tolkien/luthien-escapes-the-treehouse/
- The Slaying of Glaurung: https://www.tednasmith.com/tolkien/the-slaying-of-glaurung/
- The Incoming Sea at the Rainbow Cleft: https://www.tednasmith.com/tolkien/the-incoming-sea-at-the-rainbow-cleft/
- Fingon and Gothmog: https://www.tednasmith.com/tolkien/fingon-and-gothmog/
- Aulë and the Seven Fathers: https://www.tednasmith.com/tolkien/aule-and-the-seven-fathers/
- The Nauglamir: https://www.tednasmith.com/tolkien/the-nauglamir/
- Aredhel, the White Lady: https://www.tednasmith.com/tolkien/aredhel-the-white-lady/
- Tuor at Vinyamar: https://www.tednasmith.com/tolkien/tuor-at-vinyamar/