I read it when it was first published. I was a sixteen year old schoolboy. I was excited about getting more of Lord of the Rings and more Hobbits and Elves and learning where the Balrogs came from and especially more Ents, I wanted lots more Ents. And more Gandalf. What I got – and I bought the hardback with my own money, which I had to save for and was all the money I had – felt to 16 year old me like the Old Testament: it was filled with beautiful sentences about what happened but without being stories I could lose myself in.

I went back to the Silmarillion when I was about 21, uncertainly, not sure what to expect, and loved it. I read the Christopher Tolkien books through my 20s (I even had the honour of being able to help a tiny bit with one of them, and was thanked) and really understood the vision of what the Silmarillion was and I realized what an impossible task it had been to compile it.

A great question that I had to really think about!

A serious answer would be that I always think of Manwë and Ulmo being close, so it would really be Manwë that loves seabirds - albatrosses, terns, sandpipers (all of them!).

If you want the silly answer, my favourite bird is guinea fowl, so in my head he loves them too. I’m sorry it took me a while to reply but you cured my art block because I started thinking about these stupid birds and had to draw them. So thank you!