You must read 'Silmarillion' to understand 'Angband'

[Nick]

Also, might we get the boots of Tom Bombadil as an artifact? <+10> speed, <+3> stealth, <+1> CON, pFear, FrAct, rDisenchantment, rNexus, provides immunity to curses (including the curses belonging to certain artifacts that are part of the Randart set [you know of which I speak]). Activation: restores some mana, cures confusion, cures fear, cures hallucination, provides resistance to confusion and chaos for 50 +7d7 turns.

And they would be yellow.

[tangar]

How come Tom Bombadil isn't in Angand? He should be rare and not show up in vaults.

You've inspired me to add Tom in Tangaria https://tangaria.com/news/tom-bombadil/ He's got best singing AI ever :P

[Sphara]

@Grotug
Believe me, reading lotr for the first time, I had no idea wtf Tom Bombadil was. Until the very end I was certain he'd reappear in one way or another.

Edit: Tom really does not need to appear in Angband game, but it would be pretty cool to have an artifact carrying his name.

[DavidMedley]

@Grotug
Believe me, reading lotr for the first time, I had no idea wtf Tom Bombadil was. Until the very end I was certain he'd reappear in one way or another.

Edit: Tom really does not need to appear in Angband game, but it would be pretty cool to have an artifact carrying his name.

Hah, yeah he does seem like he should come out of nowhere to save Aragorn's bacon.

I hated TB when I read the novels as a lad, and found him annoying still reading as an adult, but strangely when I heard him on audiobook he was pretty entertaining. Perhaps I don't have enough musical imagination to appreciate him on the page.

An artifact does sound like an appropriate tribute.

[Sky]

i hate to be that guy, but, if you want to read the silmarillion to understand angband (or the LOTR films...) then, just watch a youtube video. the silmarillion is more of a sourcebook to the LOTR world than a standalone story, and while sure it's great for LOTR nerds who want to geek out on this enormous fantasy world, it doesnt make for fun reading if you like a good plot.

[Huqhox]

Sadly, it's more complicated than that. What you really somehow need to do is restart life, read "The Hobbit" at age eight or nine, read LoTR in your early teens, and only then pick up the Silmarillion a few years later.

Check, check and check

The thing about the Silmarilion, and I guess one of the reasons it can be hard to pick after LotR is that it's basically a set of notes about the history of Middle Earth and so quite dry. All of the histories and stories, a few of which Prof T worked out in detail, would be far too big, to epic for one book.

Some of that work has been expanded - The Children of Hurin for example. As as Nick alluded to, the history of Middle Earth books where Christopher did an amazing job of sorting through his father's papers and notes to give the whole thing a lot of context.

[Mondkalb]

In Germany, the Lord of the Rings was first published 1969/1970.
There was not much fantasy literature available at the time. I think I read it first in 1972 or so. At that time, I barely could get any modern fantasy. At most there were a few remnants of the pulp age which had been translated into German, like Robert E. Howard or Lord Dunsany. Only in the late 70s, after the success of the LotR, the fantasy literature finally reached the book shelves in Germany. Even Michael Moorcock's Elric novels were first published in the 80s.
(My English was not good enough at the time to read the originals, apart from the undertaking it would have been to acquire them, there was no amazon .)

All of the Tolkien fans were desperate to get something new to read about Middle-earth. The Silmarillion was published in 1977 and I binge-read it (as well as the Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth in 1980).
There was no internet and no other source of information available. All the little hints about a long gone history in the LotR had made me hungry for more. Today everybody can look up anything in the blink of an eye. There is no desperate need to read the whole Silmarillion (over and over ).

[Sky]

I think I read it first in 1972 or so.

uhh... how old are you exactly?

[Mondkalb]

uhh... how old are you exactly?

I am 63 and counting

[mrfy]

I read the Hobbit and LotR during early Junior High, so probably 1978-79 or so. The Silmarillion was a tough read at times but I made it through, probably mid-80s. I don't think any of the books are required to understand Angband, but to appreciate the "Lore" of the monsters and uniques, it would help.

[Sphara]

Silmarillion is most likely a good read for any LotR-aficionados (nerds, as mentioned in this thread) It's not for anyone else.

I remember when I started reading it, one thing I really wanted to find out was that whatever happened to Gorlim that made him to commit a betrayal. He was the unique, who killed at least two of my most advanced characters at one point. His Angband-description only stated that Sauron had made him go mad.

Well, I did find it out

[Gauss]

I don't find the Silmarillion required for playing angband but it definitely makes the game more enjoyable
since you will definitely recognize monsters and characters from the book and that helps a lot with inmersion IMO.