The World of Tolkien (LOtR, Hobbit)

[Earthshine]

Because the movies are sometimes a popular discussion here (especially due to the release of Peter Jackson's The Hobbit) I thought it would be a nice idea to make a thread dedicated to Middle Earth and all things Tolkien.

Please feel free to gush and talk about your experiences, favorite characters, the movie representations, differences and similarities to the novels or what you like best.

[jeffbert]

Long ago, I was in high school, & in an attempt to avoid the typical school work, I took NOVELS, PLAYS, & MOVIES, among the stories was THE HOBBIT, & I actually read the next three all on my own, without any pressure to do so! But it was back in 1977, so I have forgotten much of it.

Much later, I bought a classic literature cd, & read The Nibelungenlied, which also featured an item that gave its possessor invisibility. I suppose there may be more than a few folktales from around the world that feature similar things. Anyway, a few years ago, I was in university, & in a class called MEDIEVAL MYTH & MODERN NARRATIVE, which covered both Rings, Wagner's & this one; though even this is a faded memory.

[CommanderEVE]

As I have already stated somewhere on this forum, I had recently completed The Hobbit for the first time, it was a very nice read. Now I am going to have to read Lord of the Rings.

[Sixty-four K]

I've been re-watching the Lord of the Rings with some younger siblings and my mom. We just watched the first half of the extended Return of the King DVD last night. It's as good as I remembered, although much more frightening than the first two installments in the trilogy. I haven't read the books completely through for several years, but my sister has recently, and keeps telling me what the differences between the movies and books are. I really should read them again soon.

[Earthshine]

My first experiences with Tolkien actually occurred back around 2001 when in eighth grade The Hobbit was a core book which my English class had to read (and write papers on). I really enjoyed the book and all assignments that were assigned to us, and after we read the book we got to watch the animated version which was a bit of a laugh.

I didn't actually get a chance to read the rest of Tolkien's books until I was a junior in high school where once again The Hobbit was assigned, after we finished the book (and since at that time all three of Peter Jackson's LoTR movies were out) I decided to try and get through the rest of them... which failed numerous times. I just couldn't stay engaged enough to get through them.

Though last week I skimmed through the novels (I have all the books courtesy of my mother) for any mention of Bilbo and just read those parts One day I will have to read them for real.

[MrsEclipse]

"The Hobbit" is one of my all-time favorite books, but I have never been able to get though "Lord of the Rings." I'm not a huge fan of Middle Earth itself, which is why The Hobbit has more appeal. It's less about the world and more about seeing a wider world through the eyes of a very sheltered traveler. That's another reason I was so bored during the movie, it was more Middle Earth Stuff and less Hobbit Experiencing Middle Earth for the First Time. It might seem like a slight difference, but to me it's very distinct.

Then I feel kinda bad, because books like The Simarillion were his life's work, and he spent so much time etching so much world-building detail into LOTR, and I'm all like, "yeah, this is super boring. I wanna read the one where the dog turns into a toy." And everyone else is like, "Wait, what book is that?" And I go, "ROVERANDOM, PEOPLE. It's like the best book ever written on the subject of dogs who turn into things." And they say, "Um, yeah, he spent like half a century on Middle Earth. It's basically a real place now, he put so much detail into it." And I'm like "what-EV-ah. I'm-a read Farmer Giles of Ham again." And they just shake their heads and wonder what's wrong with me and on some level, I do too.


Did any of our users who were around in the late 80s ever play War in Middle Earth?
When me and my brother were little, he had that PC game, that was essentially you watching a little dot that blinked as it slooooowly made its way across Middle Earth, and also some armies are somewhere. I don't know, I was three. When my brother got kicked off the computer, he tried to teach me how to act it with him. He made me pick a character and rattled off a list of names. I picked Frodo, and he said, "Okay, you have to walk across like this and then at the end you lose your finger." "Which one?" I asked. "I dunno," he said, "it doesn't matter." And then we started pretending we had lost different fingers.