The Lord of the Ringsis one of the most popular fantasy series of all time. Over the years, there have been numerous adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien’sThe HobbitandThe Lord of the Rings, ranging from the live-action film trilogy directed by Peter Jackson in the early 2000s to theTV special ofThe Hobbitfrom Rankin/Bass in the late ‘70s. However, the world created by Tolkien extends far beyond the pages ofThe HobbitandThe Lord of the Rings. There are numerous other books that explore the lore and mythology of Middle-Earth in different ways, the most substantial of which isThe Silmarillion. Though Tolkien only publishedThe HobbitandThe Lord of the Ringsduring his lifetime, he had been working onThe Silmarillionin one way or another for nearly 60 years. The earliest drafts ofThe Silmarillion’s stories can be traced as far as 1914, and Tolkien developed the material until his death in 1973. The book itself wouldn’t be published until 1977, with much of the final editing and structure completed by the author’s son, Christopher Tolkien.
Next toThe HobbitandThe Lord of the Rings,The Silmarillionis the most well-known work of Tolkien’s. Given the immense popularity of the other two stories, one would think that there would be immense interest in tacklingThe Silmarillionon film as well. However, there has never been a movie or series based on the book. It remains largely untouched by adaptation. This can be confusing for some new fans of Tolkien or anyone that is unfamiliar with the content of Tolkien’s most labored novel. By looking at what the book actually is, it becomes pretty clear why there has never been a movie ofThe Silmarillion. Here’s whyThe Silmarillionhas never been turned into a movie or series.
It’s Too Much Material
The first thing to know aboutThe Silmarillionis that it isn’t one story that follows one character from beginning to end. It can be broadly considered to be one story, but that story is that of Middle-Earth and the world of Arda as a whole.The Silmarillionis essentially the Middle-Earth equivalent of The Bible. It tells the creation story of the world, as well as many of the most crucial events that shaped what we know as Middle-Earth. If you’ve read eitherThe Lord of the RingsorThe Hobbit, you know that both of those books are packed with references to old legends and heroic tales of years past. While some of those stories were expanded upon in the Appendices included at the end ofThe Return of the King, it is inThe Silmarillionthat those stories were really fleshed out and fully developed.
The Silmarillionconsists of five distinct parts, with each tackling a different aspect of the mythology of Middle-Earth. In order, these parts are:Ainulindalë, the creation story of Tolkien’s world;Valaquenta, an exploration of the Valar and the Maiar, who are essentially the gods of Middle-Earth;Quenta Silmarillion, the largest section of the book which details the numerous adventures and happenings of the First Age of Middle-Earth;Akallabêth, the story of Númenor in the Second Age; and, lastly,Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age, which fleshes out the events that eventually lead into the stories ofThe HobbitandThe Lord of the Rings. Each of these five parts ofThe Silmarillionexplains a new part of the overall lore ofThe Lord of the Rings. There are new quests and heroes in each, though very little of it is told through their perspectives. In general,The Silmarillionis written more as a historical text that relays these stories, rather than as a narrative story like the two books that preceded it.
It is because of this approach thatThe Silmarillionis widely considered to be one of the densest and hard-to-grasp books of Tolkien’s Legendarium. What makes this somewhat ironic is that the page count of the book isn’t nearly as long as this overall description might make you believe, as it only somewhat exceeds even that ofThe Hobbit. However, the information relayed byThe Silmarillionis tightly compacted into those pages. BecauseThe Silmarilliontells so many storiesand explores countless major events and characters of Middle-Earth’s history, it would be nearly impossible to adapt it, especially into a feature film.The Silmarillion, on the whole, is an establishment of the deep lore of Middle-Earth, and while the individual stories outlined within it would make for excellent films or series, the book as a whole is far too expansive to tackle in a single film. Even a trilogy of films wouldn’t be able to coherently capture all the details of the book. Before Jackson’s trilogy in the early 2000s,The Lord of the Ringswas considered to be an unfilmable story, butThe Silmarillionis the work of Tolkien’s that is most deserving of that reputation.
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It’d Be Too Expensive
Another key reason why there really hasn’t been any attempt to adaptThe Silmarillionis because doing so would be such a monumental task that it would require an absurdly immense budget to even remotely do the book justice. Generally speaking, the further into the past you go in the timeline of Middle-Earth, the more fantastical and grander it becomes. This can be seen a bit with Prime Video’sThe Rings of Power, which is adapting the story of the Second Age of Middle-Earth, which is thousands of years prior toThe Lord of Rings. That series has already shown a tendency to embrace a lot more high-fantasy elements than even theLord of the RingsandHobbitfilms. That is because those later stories are almost post-apocalyptic in nature, with much of the world revolving around various ancient societies and civilizations that collapsed ages prior. That’s why so much of the world inThe Lord of the Ringsconsists of crumbling towers and abandoned fortresses. In the Second Age, many of those civilizations still existed and were at the height of their power; with that, there’s naturally a lot more work that needs to be done to establish their majesty on-screen.
The same is true of the events of the First Age and the time before that, as detailed inThe Silmarillion. The stories of this time are even more epic and sweeping thanThe Lord of the Rings. There are significantly more high-fantasy beings and creatures that are much more involved in the story. The Valar, which play essentially no part inThe Lord of the Rings, are key characters throughout much ofThe Silmarillion. Even further, dragons play a much larger role in the First Age, in addition to other creatures like werewolves and the titan-sized, spider-like creature Ungoliant. There are also much larger and grander fortresses and cities, such as Gondolin and Angband. All of these high fantasy elements are crucial to the stories ofThe Silmarillion, so they could not be omitted from a potential adaptation. The issue is that they would be astronomically expensive to actually bring to life on-screen.
That’s not even to mention the various major battles and wars of the First Age. The First Age eventually comes to a climactic end with the War of Wrath, which was essentially a 40-year-long battle between all the forces of good and evil. Tolkien pulled out all the stops for the War of Wrath, which heavily involves essentially every kind of creature or being in existence in the First Age, including Ancalagon the Black, the largest winged dragon to exist in the entire history of Arda. To do the War of Wrath justice on-screen would be a colossal task, and the very brief flashback to it in the debut episode ofThe Rings of Poweris likely the most that fans will ever see of it on-screen. The events detailed inThe Silmarillionare immensely imaginative and ambitious, and to bring them to life on film or television would likely be a financial gamble that no major studio is likely to ever take on. Even Amazon, withthe absurd amount they spent onThe Rings of Power, elected to stick to the stories of the Second Age.
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How It Has Been and Could Be Approached
With all of that said, that does not mean that nothing fromThe Silmarillionwill ever be adapted in any form. While no on-screen adaptation of material fromThe Silmarillionhas happened at this point, material from the book has made its way into music. One of the most notable musical adaptations ofThe Silmarillionis the albumNightfall in Middle-Earth, by the German power metal band Blind Guardian. The record, which is over an hour in length, tackles many of the stories ofThe Silmarillion, with tracks ranging from “War of Wrath” to “The Curse of Feanor,” “Noldor (Dead Winter Reigns)” and “The Eldar.” Beyond that, there have also been a few classical interpretations of the material from composer Martin Romberg.
IfThe Silmarillionwere ever to be brought to screen, it would likely not be in its full form. It would make the most sense to tackle individual stories found within it, rather than the book in its entirety. There are numerous tales fromThe Silmarillionthat would make for great films or series. In particular, many of them could bewell-suited for the medium of animation. Some of the most famous and well-regarded tales fromThe Silmarillionare those of Túrin Turambar, the man Beren and the elf Lúthien Tinúviel, the legendary Fëanor and the oath he made as well as the destruction of the city of Gondolin. Three of those stories have even been compiled, re-edited and republished in their own books:The Children of Húrin,Beren and LúthienandThe Fall of Gondolin.
The biggest reason for none of the events ofThe Silmarillionever making it to screen, however, is the wariness from the Tolkien Estate to approve such an adaptation. Tolkien himself was notoriously opposed to any adaptations of his material. Given the time in which he lived, it’s not hard to understand why, as the technology needed to bring Middle-Earth to life faithfully did not exist yet. While the Tolkien Estate has obviously allowed various adaptations ofThe Lord of the RingsandThe Hobbit, there has yet to be anything to come fromThe Silmarillion. Even Amazon, withThe Rings of Power, only has the rights to the events of the Second Age as they are described inthe Appendices ofThe Return of the King. They can’t touch any details exclusive toThe Silmarillion. However, this may all be about to change, as the rights to all of Tolkien’s material, includingThe Silmarillion, have recently beensold to the entertainment company Embracer. While it’s still to be seen what route Embracer will choose to take with the series (more video games seem the most likely), they could theoretically enter a deal with a major studio to produce stories fromThe Silmarillionand other Tolkien books.
