A Tolkien Blog Party

Go here if you would like to learn more learn more about this or get a blog button. (The "party" ends on the 28th).

I first heard of The Hobbit when I was about five and found it on our family's  fiction bookshelf. I was, if I remember correctly, bored, and asked my mother if I could read it. She, not having read it recently enough to remember how "climatic" it was, and knowing I was an easily frightened child, told me to ask my dad. I guess she asked him herself, because not long afterwards, when we had a power outage due to a thunderstorm, he began reading aloud the first chapter to us by candlelight. I wasn't as intrigued as I had expected to be, and didn't mind that he wasn't able to read anymore from it for a while after that. A few years later, after we had moved, my mother began it over again for our nightly reading, and I liked it well enough. Still, I didn't like it enough to read to myself, and I hardly liked Lord of the Rings at all.

Bet you've never seen John Ronald Reuel as a baby.

My mother never got further than the first part of The Two Towers, as none of the smaller ones wanted to listen, and so were rowdy, and it isn't her favorite style of literature, either. I didn't even think of it for another three years, although I did learn that I wasn't paying very good attention as she read, as I thought Merry was *Mary*, and, therefore, a girl. I remembered that Frodo used to steal mushrooms from someone and something stabbed him.

Then, when I was eleven, my dad mentioned that they were filming The Hobbit and, as I was looking for new books to read, I decided that should be the next one I read. We had just moved again, and so I had to wait for it to be unpacked, and when it was unpacked, I decided to wait another two weeks, so I could begin it on the first day of Fall. Which, I later found out, is Bilbo and Frodo's birthday!

I began The Lord of the Rings on my 12th birthday, October 2nd, 2013, and from the first chapter I was appalled at myself that I could ever have found it boring! I finished The Return of the King on January 8th, 2014, and finished watching the Trilogy soon after. Even before I finished, I knew the Lord of the Rings trilogy was, and always would be, my favorite bit of literature and one of my favorites in the way of film, and I have now read 13 other works by Tolkien. It's been a few years since I have seen the films, but I'm sure re-reading the books will put me in the mood to watch them again sometime soon!

Now to fill out the tag....

1. What's your favorite Middle-earth story/book? 

The Return of the King. One of my favorite parts from that being:

"And all the host laughed and wept, and in the midst of their merriment and tears the clear voice of the minstrel rose like silver and gold, and all men were hushed. And he sang to them, now in the Eleven-tongue, now in the speech of the West, until their hearts, wounded with sweet words, overflowed, and their joy was like swords, and they passed in thought out to regions where pain and delight flow together and tears are the very wine of blessedness." 

2. Do you have a favorite subplot? 

Probably Aragorn's story. Not so much his story with Arwen, but his story of being very much the same type of "servant king" that Jesus was. In the films he even looks like the popular portrayal of Jesus- not that it's accurate...

3. What's your favorite theme in Tolkien's book? 

One that can be summed up in a quote from the man himself: "The world is indeed full of peril and in it there are many dark places. But still there is much that is fair."

4. Do you have a favorite weapon in Middle-earth? 

Elbereth's name. You can just scream that and the bad guys flee, no need for blood.

5. Would you like to be a Hobbit? 

An intelligent hobbit such as Bilbo, Farmer Maggot, or Merry (who's only so in the books)? I'd be fine with it, I guess. Your average idiot hobbit like Lobelia or Ted Sandyman or half the others? Definitely not.

6. Do you have a favorite romance/couple? 

I guess Faramir and Eowyn.

7. What's your favorite Middle-earth creature? (Can be "real" or "imaginary")

The dragons as a theory, but they're all bad....

8. What character do you like the most like? 

An orc .

9. Are there any books about Middle-earth of Professor Tolkien (but not written by him) you recommend? 

The Lord of the Rings Sketchbook, by Alan Lee.

10. List up to ten of your lines/quotations from the Middle-earth books and/or movies.

Barring the two I have already listed...

"I will not say, do not weep, for not all tears are an evil." 

""I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo. 
"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for us to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."

"And people will say: "Let's hear about Frodo and the Ring!" And they'll say: "Yes, that's one of my favorite stories. Frodo was very brave, wasn't he, dad?" "Yes, my boy, the famousest of hobbits, and that's saying a lot." 

From the movies, I'd pick Sam's speech (you know the one), but it's far too long to type out on here.

Happy Fall, and Happy Hobbit Day!