shadowy_blue
Senior Member
1997.
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! 😄
🙂