With the releases of the movies, and then the DVDs, Middle Earth has once more grown popular.
Though I have found on numerous occasions that some did not know of the works of Tolkien before the movies from New Line and Peter Jackson.
I would like to discuss when each of us found Tolkien and how in fact he has effected our life.
I remember my Father handing me a copy of The Hobbit when I was in 5th grade. I was already a advanced reader, and was able to whip through the book quite rapidly. It was at that moment that I knew I had found something very special. After that time in junior high, I began to read the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Checking them out from the library week after week until I finished all three books. In High School I read them once again and for school credit, wrote reports on each.
It wasn't until recently that I have picked up the series yet again and have begun to read them. Remembering details that I have forgotten and the fantasy world of middle Earth !
Although Peter Jackson's movies were not a direct reflection of Tolkien and his books, I found them very interesting, which I suppose is why I own the DVDs and watch them regularly.
It took Tolkien quite long to catch my attention, being such a great story... actually it needed a totally new edition because of the planned films that I found in a bookshop, so I read it one or two months before the films came out.
LoTR fascinated me since I first started reading it, though at first I found it rather confusing with all those hobbits (I still cannot distinguish them)... but then I also watched the films and totally loved them, and in the meantime I had also bought the Silmarillion and a little later the Unfinished Tales and the Lost Tales I/II. I think it was when I read the latter two that I totally fell in love with Tolkien's writings and visions. About that time (february/march 02 ) I also started to join internet forums and my hopeless efforts to learn a little elvish.
Tolkien changed my life in a way nothing has done before
I dedicate 90% of my free time to things related to Arda
Without having the intention to do so I nearly only talk to people who love LoTR
I cannot help to connect everything that happens to Tolkien in some way
I guess I'm infected
And proud of it
@Nienna - Der Hobbit? Yey
__________________ Life is complex: it has both real and imaginary components.
I only found out about lotr recently, like almost 2 years now... I used to think it was just another copy off hp
But I found out Tolkien died ages ago, so there's no possible way he could've copied off hp
And could thank God my mother persuaded me to read the books, and I LOVED them
I'm a late fan... I was just reading RotK when the fotr movie came out, so I never got around to seeing FotR in cinemas
That's how come I'm only now reading the Silmarillion
I must have been about 10 when I was first introduced to The HOBBIT - we read it in class at school. I went on to read LotR after. I wouldn't discourage reading it at that age. I have since drawn a lot more from it in subsequent readings, and learned a lot more about Tolkien's world from the other books and from this site, but none of that comes anywhere near to matching the sheer wonder and magic of the book that I experienced when I first read it.
I remember one time, I barricaded myself in my room, with a large supply of food (Pringles, Hershey Bars, Coke, etc.) until I finished The Silmarillion. I think that was about a 36-hour reading sprint!
How Tolkien affected my life?
Have you ever seen a butterfly hatch? I did, several months ago. I saw it crack its coccon and crawl out, airing its beautiful black wings before it finally lifted up into the wide sky. This birth, this change, like a phoenix from ashes, is very much the change the books had in me.
LOTR definitely played a key role in shaping my world view. I read it first as an early teen, or younger than that. Not only was I trying to define my own identity, I was reading it against the backdrop of society in crisis. In the books, I saw both contrasts and parallels to the world around me. The books taught me much about the value of life, the nature of friendship, and the obligation that each of us has to resist evil (within ourselves and the world) and do what we were meant to do.
Although there are several portions of the book that were especially important to me, the exchange between Gandalf and Frodo in Chapter 2 affected me the most. Gandalf confronts Frodo with the words: Deserves death? Indeed he does. And many who die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Do not be so quick to take what you can not give.
Tolkien's phrases have the power to haunt your soul and that exchange was critical in shaping many of my beliefs and attitudes, such as mercy and tolerance that those beliefs require.
Gandalf's words many that die deserve life was even more poignant for me because my last birthday gift from my grandpa was a hardcover set of LOTR. Six weeks after my 14th birthday, he died. Then I really understood how life hangs in the balance and how as mortals we can not judge truly who should die and who should live.
The most important thing that Tolkien has gifted to me is a faith in the written word, and an aesthetic appreciation for language. The words he uses, the sentences, and the sounds of each word are so important in The Lord of the Rings and his other works. There was never a more finely crafted piece of literature. Even the great masterpieces have their literary flaws, and few writers would painstakingly review the way JRRT did.
Tolkien instilled in me a love for epic fantasy and history with all the right components--heroism, beauty, morality, courage, love--all of it.
You know, part of me believes that, if I could understand the meaning in these books, I would do a lot better job sorting out the values and choices in my own life. I wish I had Aragorn's certainty about knowing that right does not change. Or I wish I could be like Treebeard, able to experience sadness but still not be unhappy. And, most of all, I need the commitment and gentleness that Frodo embodied, his ability to be obedient to the path he knew was right.
How many times have I wished that Tolkien had lived another 50 years so he could have told us more of what happened in this magical world. But that's the way life is. When you have a good thing, something that has meaning, you can't help but want more and more. Well, I am glad we have as much as we do!
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Last edited by shadowy_blue on May 24th, 2004 at 12:17 AM
I was about 5 my teacher at school started reading it us in story time.
I didn't understand most of it but I can still remember the bit where she read to us about Bilbos encounter with Gollum and that left intrigued enough to seek the book and read it for my self when I was older.
1998
I was quite lucky how I crept across Fellowship of The Ring before the movies were out.
My friend's younger brother is a vast reader of books and one time me and my friend (older brother) stumbled on him reading FOTR, his brother simply laughed at him reading but I pityed him and asked what it was about....he mentioned alot of weird terms I didnt understand like "book" *lol joking), but when he mentioned wizardry and whatnot I started asking more questions.
I then awaited for him to finish his copy of the book and borrowed it for some while, once I knew I was "into" it I bought my own copy and gave it to him back.
HOWEVER, when Fellowship of the Ring came out I was like "whoa, crazy their making movies"....so at that point I first read the Two Towers which took a while as I kept forgetting to read, afterwards (before TTT came out) I read ROTK and was fairly chuffed
I am now currently reading the Silmarillion for a second time as the first time I had alot of distractions and was confused at some parts. I am understanding it much more now and in more detail with no silly painting or moving around furniture in my room
Discos - salute!
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"In the year of our Lord 1314, patriots of Scotland, starving and outnumbered, charged the fields at Bannockburn. They fought like warrior poets. They fought like Scotsmen. And won their freedom."
I am pending whether to get the JRR Tokien symbol tattooed onto my back ...just a small one though, nothing extreme
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"In the year of our Lord 1314, patriots of Scotland, starving and outnumbered, charged the fields at Bannockburn. They fought like warrior poets. They fought like Scotsmen. And won their freedom."
My parents gave me the Hobbit when I was 7 - and we kinda read the first chapter(the boring bit) together. Then I read the rest in about a week. I started to read LOTR when I was in yr 5, but I got given HP to read and do a book review on. So I stopped reading it, but then when I finished HP I went back and completed my reading of LOTR(in about a week - I was a reading-obsessed child). I have never read either the Silmarillion or Tolkien's other books, and although I have no doubt I will eventually, I have no particular wish to.
__________________ "If clowns warred on monkeys, and the monkeys had guns, and were trained to use them, who would win?"
Discos - is that the copyright police I heard *ducks*...not my Eagos I hope
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"In the year of our Lord 1314, patriots of Scotland, starving and outnumbered, charged the fields at Bannockburn. They fought like warrior poets. They fought like Scotsmen. And won their freedom."
it was about a year before Fotr came out in theaters and my mom (who is a huge fan) desided to have a "family time" thing sat me and my sis down and started to read the Hobbit to us, we only got to the second chapter before my sis desided this was a waste of her time but i was already in love with the book like 2 or 3 weeks later i got in big trouble and mom grounded me for 2 months so i had nothing to do and desided to finish the Hobbit (which i read in about a week) then i stole my moms copy of Lotr cuz i figured Lotr would be similar
it took me forever to read it (it was seriously the first book i picked up to read outside of a school project) and ended up only 3 pages away from finishing Rotk when Fotr came on (yes i was trying to finish it in the theater)
and it effected me to such an extent that if i dont have a new book to read every week i get crazy
not to metion i spend so much time around Lotr that i think everyone in my family wants to kill me
my mum wouldnt do that sort of stuff to me, if she did I would be highly against it
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"In the year of our Lord 1314, patriots of Scotland, starving and outnumbered, charged the fields at Bannockburn. They fought like warrior poets. They fought like Scotsmen. And won their freedom."
family time, but anyway nice way of discovering lord of the rings man
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"In the year of our Lord 1314, patriots of Scotland, starving and outnumbered, charged the fields at Bannockburn. They fought like warrior poets. They fought like Scotsmen. And won their freedom."
KMC Community Forums
May 23rd, 2004 08:23 PM
and read Der Hobbit when I was 7 (nearly 8 tho and also, not in German!)
) I also started to join internet forums and my hopeless efforts to learn a little elvish. 
...just a small one though, nothing extreme
