“There was Eru, the One, who in Arda is called Ilúvatar; and he made first the Ainur, the Holy Ones, that were the offspring of his thought, and they were with him before aught else was made..” (The Silmarillion) Thus begins the history of Middle Earth, J.R.R. Tolkien’s complex, profound, captivating and increasingly popular created world. The Silmarillion, published four years after the death of its author, is an account of the Elder Days, or the First Age of the World. [More]