The Sillymarillion Ep 01 - A Shortcut to Ilúvatar (J.R.R. Tolkien's Silmarillion)

Overdue

Headgum

Books, Literature, Craig Getting, Podcasts, Andrew Cunningham, Comedy, Arts

4.6 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 24 April 2026

⏱️ 69 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For this show-within-a-show, Craig and Andrew learned about the world of Middle-Earth by reading J.R.R. Tolkien's posthumously published legendarium THE SILMARILLION. This episode posted first for our Patreon supporters in June 2025. If you want to hear our current longread project TOKYO DRIFTERS (and a bunch of other stuff besides), visit Patreon.com/overduepod.

In the beginning, Eru Ilúvatar created the heaven and the earth, primarily by watching his child-angels have an epic sing-off. And Melkor was there singing bad stuff, but Ilúvatar was like "no matter how bad you sing I can always make it a part of the awesome world I am building."

Anyway, this episode is about perhaps the most biblical part of the Hobbit Bible, where a god-like figure creates the world and casts out one of his followers who thinks he's good enough to challenge god himself. Also: the Dwarves are created, and the Elves wake up.

The reading list:

Ep 1 - Ainulindale, Valaquenta, Quenta Silmarillion Ch 1-3

Ep 2 - Quenta Silmarillion Ch 4-10

Ep 3 - Quenta Silmarillion Ch 11-16

Ep 4 - Quenta Silmarillion Ch 17-20

Ep 5 - Quenta Silmarillion Ch 21-24

Ep 6 - Akallabeth, Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age, Appendices

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Transcript

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0:05.5	This episode is brought to you in part by Mint Mobile.
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