History Literature / TheSilmarillion

* KillEmAll: Yeah, about that massive cast mentioned at the start of the page? The vast majority of them meet their doom at various points during the First Age. [[note]]For example: in the published Silmarillion Finwë 's line consists of him, his three sons, fifteen grandchildren and eventually five great-grandchildren, three great-great-grandchildren and two great-great-great grandchildren. By the end of the First Age (and discounting Celebrían, who wasn't born until the Second Age) out of a family of twenty-eight people only Finarfin, Maglor, Galadriel, Celebrimbor, Idril, Gil-Galad, Eärendil, Elrond and Elros are still alive. Plus, Finarfin missed out on most of the conflict and didn't even get to Middle-earth until the War of Wrath, Maglor goes into exile and is never seen again, Elros chooses the fate of Men and eventually gives up his life (albeit after living for a fairly tidy 500 years) and Celebrimbor and Gil-Galad are killed by Sauron in the Second Age.[[/note]] There's also the destruction of Númenórë at the end of the Second Age.

* HannibalLecture

* HeelFaceTurn

* JerkassHasAPoint: Fëanor's accusations on the lethargy of Valar and the pig-headedness and reluctance from aiding the Noldor of the Teleri are perfectly valid. Manwë showed indecision and weakness, and inability to protect the Noldor Elves from Morgoth, and they refused to help them to repossess the Silmarils from Morgoth.
** Also the Númenoreans on protesting against the Ban of Valar. Why didn't the Valar simply allow the Men to experience the consequences first hand? Instead they set up a ForbiddenFruit.

* {{Physical God}}s: The Valar, more-or-less. They are the equivalent of Christian archangels, but their narrative place in the story is more like that of deities.

* ThePowerOfLove: Allows Beren and Lúthien to take on Sauron (and Morgoth) and nab a Silmaril. ThePowerOfLove, plus BabiesEverAfter (half-elf, half-angel), plus BecauseDestinySaysSo, EarnYourHappyEnding ''twice'', and more. Tolkien also wrote the story not only in prose versions, but as a (sadly, unfinished) poem over six thousand lines long, in faultless octosylllabic rhyming verse, and it's awesome.\\
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Even better, it's inspired by how he viewed his relationship with his wife. Think about it this way: [[VictoriousChildhoodFriend They met when they were both still teenagers]] and fell in love. Tolkien talked to his priest and [[TheMentor mentor]], who forbade him from seeing her [[TheJailBaitWait until he was 21.]] When he turned 21 he showed up and proposed to her — [[FirstGirlWins and she broke off another engagement for him!]]

** The chapter "Of Túrin Turambar" is further elaborated in the book ''Literature/TheChildrenOfHurin'' (named ''Narn i-Chîn Húrin'' in Sindarin, or Grey Elven). ''Beren and Lúthien'' was [[http://www.ew.com/article/2016/10/19/jrr-tolkien-beren-and-luthien-2017 also released in book form in 2017]]. ''The Fall of Gondolin'' [[https://www.tolkiensociety.org/2018/08/the-fall-of-gondolin-published/ was published in 2018]].

** [[NiceGuy Finrod Fegalund]], Galadriel's brother and the [[TheGoodKing King of Nargothrond]], [[HeroicSacrifice saves his friend Beren from a werewolf]] by breaking free of his bonds and killing it with his bare hands and [[ManBitesMan teeth]], and the two kill each other. This act of nobility allowed him to be reincarnated in Valinor, the first elf to do so before the First Age.

* HateAtFirstSight

** Ungoliant. Another one of the Baddies, there are no ''specific'' Heroes she's killed, but it is noted that many have tried to hunt her down and slay her, and none ever returned.

* HonorBeforeReason: Middle-earth having its fair share of ProudWarriorRace Guys, honor is a big deal, and it often comes with a tragic price. This is [[EnforcedTrope enforced]] in the case of the Sons of Fëanor. They get themselves killed off one by one and alienate or kill every potential ally and friend trying to honor their pointless oath to reclaim the Silmarils. Because this oath was a MagicallyBindingContract enforced by the God of the setting, they didn't really have much of a choice.

* ''Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age'': Details the backstory to ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''; fleshes out the GambitPileUp of Sauron and Gandalf. The ''Series/TheLordOfTheRingsTheRingsOfPower'' is named after this chapter, but adapts the events from ''The Return of The King'''Appendices.

* KillEmAll: Yeah, about that massive cast mentioned at the start of the page? The vast majority of them meet their doom at various points during the First Age. [[note]]For example: in the published Silmarillion Finwë 's line consists of him, his three sons, fifteen grandchildren and eventually five great-grandchildren, three great-great-grandchildren and two great-great-great grandchildren. By the end of the First Age (and discounting Celebrían, who wasn't born until the Second Age) out of a cast of twenty-eight people only Finarfin, Maglor, Galadriel, Celebrimbor, Idril, Gil-Galad, Eärendil, Elrond and Elros are still alive. Plus, Finarfin missed out on most of the conflict and didn't even get to Middle-earth until the War of Wrath, Maglor goes into exile and is never seen again, Elros chooses the fate of Men and eventually gives up his life (albeit after living for a fairly tidy 500 years) and Celebrimbor and Gil-Galad are killed by Sauron in the Second Age.[[/note]] There's also the destruction of Númenórë at the end of the Second Age.

Has a [[Characters/TheSilmarillion Character Sheet]].

* KillEmAll: Yeah, about that large cast? The vast majority of them meet their doom at various points during the First Age. [[note]]For example: in the published Silmarillion Finwë 's line consists of him, his three sons, fifteen grandchildren and eventually five great-grandchildren, three great-great-grandchildren and two great-great-great grandchildren. By the end of the First Age (and discounting Celebrían, who wasn't born until the Second Age) out of a cast of twenty-eight people only Finarfin, Maglor, Galadriel, Celebrimbor, Idril, Gil-Galad, Eärendil, Elrond and Elros are still alive. Plus, Finarfin missed out on most of the conflict and didn't even get to Middle-earth until the War of Wrath, Maglor goes into exile and is never seen again, Elros chooses the fate of Men and eventually gives up his life (albeit after living for a fairly tidy 500 years) and Celebrimbor and Gil-Galad are killed by Sauron in the Second Age.[[/note]] There's also the destruction of Númenórë at the end of the Second Age.

*** Túrin's weapon is a [[HeroesPreferSwords sword]] of ThunderboltIron, but it is an EvilWeapon and its most notorious killings are those of Beleg, Túrin's friend, Brandir, a jealous but [[CassandraTruth true-speaking]] suitor of Niniel and Túrin himself; Tuor wields [[AnAxeToGrind a great axe]].

* ''Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age'': Details the backstory to ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''; fleshes out the GambitPileUp of Sauron and Gandalf. The appendices got adapted in ''Series/TheLordOfTheRingsTheRingsOfPower'', as of 2022.

* ''Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age'': Details the backstory to ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''; fleshes out the GambitPileUp of Sauron and Gandalf.

*** Túrin's WeaponOfChoice is a [[HeroesPreferSwords sword]] of ThunderboltIron, but it is an EvilWeapon and its most notorious killings are those of Beleg, Túrin's friend, Brandir, a jealous but [[CassandraTruth true-speaking]] suitor of Niniel and Túrin himself; Tuor wields [[AnAxeToGrind a great axe]].

** The entirety of The War of Wrath is basically a decades last stand for Morgoth himself. An absolutely colossal force made up of just about every elf, human, dwarf and Maia available (and maybe even ''all of the Valar'') came to finally strike down Morgoth, but he put an equally horrifying fight but pulling every monster and trick he had in the book, even a dragon big enough to bloat out the sun. The War is stated to have been close during the last stages when Morgoth started using more and more terrifying monstrosities , but in the end it was his last ditch attempt to prevent his capture, which was unsuccessfu

* AllThereInTheManual: Tolkien's ''Literature/TheHistoryOfMiddleEarth''. Karen Wynn Fonstad's ''Atlas of Middle-Earth'' can be helpful for names and places as well, with regard to the major battles, though it has several inaccuracies so watch out.

* Shapeshifter: Someone (likely Sauron) impersonates Amlach at the first Council of Men, and convinces some of them to ditch the elvish lands and head south. The deception is only noticed days later when the real Amlach denies ever attending the council, and the men that the false Amlach took south are never heard from again.

* UsefulNotes/TheBechdelTest: Passes with flying colours (Melian and Galadriel).

** The Silmarillion as a whole, barring DeusExMachina: after six centuries of war, the Noldor and their Sindarin and Mannish allies have been utterly defeated, their cities and strongholds laid waste, and only a wretched handful of survivors are left hiding in seaside marshes. Good thing Eärendil succeeded in bringing down the Wrath of the Gods-- which nonetheless obliterated the entire land of Beleriand, and the Silmarils were ''still'' lost.

** During the First Age, the Elves score a glorious victory over Morgoth's forces in the Dagor Aglareb and set up the Siege of Angband, and for a time it seems that they might be able to keep him at bay indefinitely. Sadly, a few hundred years later, the next two battles (Dagor Bragollach and Nírnaeth Arnoediad) result in the Siege being broken, the tables being turned, and the Elven kingdoms falling one by one, ensuring that Morgoth's conquest of Beleriand could not be stopped except by the [[DeusExMachina belated intervention of the Valar and their forces]] in the costly War of Wrath (in which Beleriand itself was destroyed).

** During the First Age, the Elves score a glorious victory over Morgoth's forces in the Dagor Aglareb and set up the Siege of Angband, and for a time it seems that they might be able to keep him at bay indefinitely. Sadly, a few hundred years later, the next two battles (Dagor Bragollach and Nírnaeth Arnoediad) result in the Siege being broken, the tables being turned, and the Elven kingdoms falling one by one, ensuring that Morgoth's conquest of Beleriand could not be stopped except by the belated intervention of the Valar and their forces in the costly War of Wrath (in which Beleriand itself was destroyed).

* HopeSpot: An elongated one. During the First Age, the Elves score a glorious victory over Morgoth's forces in the Dagor Aglareb and set up the Siege of Angband, and for a time it seems that they might be able to keep him at bay indefinitely. Sadly, a few hundred years later, the next two battles (Dagor Bragollach and Nírnaeth Arnoediad) result in the Siege being broken, the tables being turned, and the Elven kingdoms falling one by one, ensuring that Morgoth's conquest of Beleriand could not be stopped except by the belated intervention of the Valar and their forces in the costly War of Wrath (in which Beleriand itself was destroyed).

** A still more obscure question is, what happens to dead Orcs? ''The Silmarillion'' suggests (without confirming) that Orcs were bred from Elves who were tortured and corrupted, and a throwaway line in ''The Lord of the Rings'' suggests that two of the Orc characters might remember the First Age, which at that point was a good six ''thousand'' years ago: the Orcs may be as long-lived as the Elves, though Tolkien elsewhere contradicted that. Maybe their souls go to the same place as those of Elves (where presumably they wait for the end of the world). [[WordOfGod Tolkien]] never quite figured out the question of Orc souls: everything in the legendarium suggests that Orcs are [[AlwaysChaoticEvil creatures of pure evil]] but he was never happy with [[UnfortunateImplications what that might imply]].

* TheLostWoods: Taur-Nu-Fuin (after the Dagor Bragollach).