The Silmarillion

This is the prelude to the Lord of the Rings Trivia though posted posthumously by J.R.R Tolkien's son christopher Tolkien. This a must read for the people who wishes to know more about the environment and history of the LOTR in which it is set. The story starts of with Iluvatar the supreme god creating the world of Ea from a symphony and void. The Ainurs (Components of the symphony who are the gods of the world) or Valar descend into Ea to chisel out the world to perfection. As usual we have Melkor the evil Ainur planning with his devisive ways to corrupt the first children of Iluvatar - Elves. What ensues further is the war of the Ainurs with Morgoth alias melkor and chaining him up in the tomb of Mandos in the First age.

The Elves themselves are of three clans headed by Ingwe of vanyar, Finwe of Nolder and Elwe and Olwe of Sindar.Thus we enter into the second age with the elves living in Valinor, the blessed realm of valars. But Melkor gets released and by this time we have Feanor a master craftsman, son of Finwe, creating the three silmarils, the jewel blessed with the light of Trees created by Yavanna (Valar) which is abducted by Morgoth.From here on the story concentrates wholly on the line of Finwe's sons(Feanor,Fingolfin,Finarfin) and to some extent on the line of Elwe (Thingol). Most of the anecdotes in LOTR are described in detail, eg-Beren and Luthien's affair, Ring of Barahir(given to Barahir by Finrod Felagund), Castle of Thangorodrim.

After many deaths in Nolder's line in the hands of Morgoth's host, Earendil the half elven sets on a voyage to seek the help of valar themselves. The valar ambushes Morgoth's Followers and the infamous Lieutinent of Morgoth,ie.Sauron who sheds off all evil after the battle fearing the Valar.Morgoth is pushed into the void for all ages permanently never to come back.Most of the Nolder return back to Valinor, but some of them remained back. eg gil-galad son of Fingon, Celebrimbor Grandson of Feanor & maker of the Ring, Galadriel daughter of Finarfin, Cirdan the Shipwright who even in LOTR takes Elves to Valinor and Elrond - son of Earendil. The infamous Battle of Fingolfin with Morgoth and Fingon with Gothmog are depicted greatly.


The Sons of Earendil are Elrond and Elros. Elrond chose to be an elf while Elros represented men. He was known as the Tar-minyatur from whom the race of the Numenor starts.After 2000 years The heart of the numenoreans is blackened for the need of immortality and Sauron uses this as his high time to put an end to Numenorean race.The Might of the Numenoreans could be figured out when sauron surrended to Ar-Pharazon, king of numenor though sauron wielded the ring at that time. Though Sauron's cunning devices kills Numenoreans, Elendil and his sons Isildur and Anarion survive and comes to Middle-Earth to start the age of men in Middle-Earth.The rest could all be found in LOTR. Many questions of ambiguity in LOTR (like where & why Elves are going to the west in ships) would have it answered in THE SILMARILLION.

Ouch! i forgot to tell the destiny of the silmarils. one of the silmarils would be recovered from Morgoth's crown by beren and luthien and put up in the sky, but the other two would be put up in fire and Water of Ea.

The Silicon Beast comes into existence

It was the month of december and it was dark in the evening, with the bitingly cold breeze wrapped around the smokey mist.It was the perfect timing for the rise of the black blended in silver.The laser Verve is infact the hood of the monster inside. It engulfes the victim with the desire to possess it. It bares one of all the sophistication that he has possessed before. It sounds the death kneel to other makes and defeats them with its stylish looks and sheer performance.It is the master of the Black which prevails over the others. Not many clones or equals it has,

Ladies and Gentleman,

Behold!!! for it is the HP's BlackBird, Emperor of all Desktops, exclusively designed for gaming.It is the dawn of the new era in gaming. No specs here. Get it for yourself from
http://h20435.www2.hp.com/

For heaven's sake dont miss the Flash intro

Finally, Aragorn is here

On december 7th, i bought HP's dv2601 TX Special Edition Laptop. I christened him as Aragorn, the elessar who never fails. Truely The mark of the Anduriel Sword of the west is set as the laser verve design on my Laptop(just kidding, but the fluid design is cool). I had Windows Vista in that, and then i installed Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon. The sound worked just out of the box.Kewl thing indeed. I am waiting for the free 20 DVD movies to arrive at my doorstep :)

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/in/en/ho/WF05a/1090709-1116637-1116665-1116665-1116665-80627766.html for the specs

The Saga behind Middle Earth - Lord of The Rings Trivia

Three weeks is too small a time to read the Lord of the Rings Trilogy that too on the walks of life of an Software Engineer during his free times, if not for the Knack in narration of J.R.R Tolkien or for the Grandeur of the characters. The trilogy includes,

* The Fellowship of the Ring
* The Two Towers
* The Return of the King

Though the films got 8.7, 8,6 & 8.8 respectively in imdb.com and bagged many oscars, they are in no way as expressive as the books.That too reading a book after watching the film made out of it would not give good impression of the book normally, but here is a book with a difference. Though i have seen these films a number of times, the book gripped me throughout.It is pity the book of such calibre was written way back in late 1940's and it became famous only after the filming of it. It is a shame that i stayed out the hullabulla of the Lord of the Rings release in 2001 to 2003 and saw the films all at a time one fine morning after the aura settled down.It is no doubt here is where the heart of Historical fiction lovers reside.It is a epic by itself set-up in a different timeline, different world, different species, different languages and what not.

For people who have seen Lord Of the Rings, it is just a part of the happenings in the end of the Third age and start of the Fourth Age.Not many knew that sauron the evil-incarnate actually was a servant of Morgoth, the evil valar(Valar=God in middle-earth) in the first age.It was morgoth who brought orcs into being and he had an army of Balrogs(The shadowy fiery creature which Gandalf encountered in the first part at the Mines of Moria) and during his time(Gothmog being the leader of balrogs) complete evil resided. The shaping of Middle-earth is a separate story by itself.The story of the first age, second age and other folklore of middle-earth are included in the various books like,

* Silmarillion
* The Book of Lost Tales I & II
* The Shaping of The Middle Earth
* The Hobbits
and many more to add

Truly the majesticity of Aragorn is derived by giving brief accompilishments of his 39 ancestors before him. The Story of Elendil the tall, Isildur Elendil reaches the pinnacle at the Battle of The Last Alliance of Elves and Men. Be it the High Elven Lords from Rivendell, or the Dunadians from the north, Tolkien has picturequely portrayed their history in the Appendix. The Rise to throne by Aragorn alias King Elessar of Gondor & Arnor marks the realm of Numenoreans of the west after a long time in history and the flame of the Anduril the sword that is reforged continued to flash against all evil.

In my Opinion, This is by far the best epic i have ever read, from Illiad to mahabharata, and by far the best novel in its category above the infamous Harry Potter.I couldnot take away the characters of my mind and because of that i bought a Lord of the Rings DVD rightaway as a memento of this great saga that i read.