Would you believe that, despite professing to be a Tolkien fan, like many fans of Tolkien I’ve never read The Silmarilllion. I’ve started it a few times, but the prose was so dense and laborious that I always abandoned the effort after a few pages. A few days ago, however, I decided to put that right, but rather than getting the book out, I wondered if there was an audiobook on Youtube I could listen to. I found one, so for the last few days I’ve been listening to it, a bit at a time. I’ve always found listening to rather than just reading Tolkien’s work adds something to it: since my dad read The Lord Of The Rings to me when I was young, I’ve loved the sound of the words he uses, especially when delivered in a deep, authoritative voice. Thus, not only have I been finally getting to grips with the elder days of Numenor and the creation of Arda, but I have also been lapping up the rich language of one of it’s masters.