LOTR: Book 2
Here are my thoughts on Book 1. Note again that I am not being anywhere near as thorough as Nick and Abigail, who are linked there!
Well, as something of a reward for finishing several review books, I finally got around to reading Book 2 of The Lord of the Rings. And it was a reward, because Book 2 is a delight. Everyone is still together, there are some really interesting interactions and lovely descriptions, we get Galadriel… there’s hope and horror and excitement and the exquisite pain that isn’t quite nostalgia but something like.
So, some thoughts:
- The stay in Rivendell is much more extended than I recalled. Like their stay in Lothlorien, it’s such an interesting way of showing how the Elves are slightly removed from the rest of the world – that time doesn’t quite work for them as it does for mortals. 100% I would want to stay there rather than going on. I had also forgotten how little we get of Arwen here. But we do get further glimpses of Impressive Aragorn. I am endlessly fascinated by the different perspectives we are shown of him.
- As noted last time, I was 12 and relatively sheltered when I first read this (in the mid 90s). But my readings from at least late adolescence, and definitely in my 20s, absolutely noted the queer under (over) tones of Sam towards Frodo.
- Once again I enjoyed the travel story. Maybe I just impressed on it at a young age – although I do still enjoy a travel story in other contexts too. Tolkien both gives us the details of their travails, and the difficult terrain – but it doesn’t go on for chapters, so it’s still a fair pace so it doesn’t bore me.
- I do think the films captured Moria beautifully, and also the Balrog.
- It’s interesting that for all the Nine Walkers are officially an ensemble cast, actually we don’t see the actions of most of the characters across this particular book. Pippin gets scolded for checking the depth of the well, but otherwise he and Merry have little to do. Sam is scared of heights. Boromir gets to be large in the snow, and concerned about Galadriel, and of course is under the ring’s ‘fluence at the end. But otherwise… it’s Gandalf and Frodo and Aragorn. Gimli is literally to the fore in Moria, Legolas a bit in Lothlorien. I think it’s different from how writers tend to approach it these days.
- I will always love the chapters in Lothlorien. But that moment when it says that Aragorn never returned to Cerin Amroth as living man? That’s the moment that pierces my heart. It’s future-oriented – well, not nostalgia, which tends to be seen as more sentimental. Anyway: Aragorn will die. He is mortal. There are things he has done that he will never do again, even if he survives the coming war. And this knowledge is present throughout these chapters in particular – Galadriel even says it out loud: even destroying the ring, which is good for the world, will have negative consequences for the elves. This sort of complex approach to the task, and the world, is definitely not something I understood as a kid and am only grasping more fully as I age.
- I simply cannot imagine reading The Fellowship of the Ring and having to leave the crew as a) Sam and Frodo head east, and b) there might be sounds of battle but we’re not sure?? To Everyone who read this as it was published: I see you.
The Lord of the Rings: a(nother) re-read
The year I turned 12, I had an extended reading competition with a friend. It was determined by both number of books (so I read lots of Babysitter Club books, which dates this competition to some degree), and also page numbers. This enormous, tape-mended book was on the shelf, so I thought: The Lord of the Rings. Why not?
For a while, in adolescence and early 20s, I was indeed one of those people who read LOTR every year. I think I’ve read it ten times? I haven’t read it since 2017, although I’ve watched the films almost every year for at least the last decade.
This year, though, there are several LOTR re-reads being blogged around the place, so… I felt like it was time to dive back in. I am not going to write about it as thoroughly as Abigail Nussbaum, and I don’t have the deep knowledge and analytical skills to come anywhere near what Nick Hubble is doing, although I’m following along closely and learning a lot.
So: I have just finished Book 1. And the truth is – the reality is – I still love it. I’m one of those people who enjoys the wandering in the wilderness, and finds the place descriptions evocative and delightful. Partly this is nostalgia for the first time I read it, when I was absolutely captivated… but I do just like it.
Some other thoughts:
- I had forgotten how organised Merry was, and what a lead he takes in getting things done. I like it.
- I enjoy Tom Bombadil, and I’m not going to apologise. He and Goldberry are a fascinating diversion into aspects of Middle-Earth we just don’t see much elsewhere in this novel, and I appreciate the depth and breadth they provide.
- I have always felt uncomfortable about the “master” language from Sam. Even as an adolescent. It’s still not something I particularly like. Having read a lot of Biggles novels etc, I eventually came around to reading their relationship as being like an officer / batman one, and I can place it in an historical context. But I don’t have to like it.
- Farmer and Mrs Maggot are wonderful.
- Barliman Butterbur is poorly treated by the film (I mean, I love those films but I am very aware of the ways in which they Not The Novels).
- Nick Hubble makes some interesting points about reading Fellowship in particular as a sequel to The Hobbit, and I was very aware of that as I read it this time. The structure, and the language – at this halfway point it’s easy to imagine the story being finished in another 200 pages or so.
My main struggle from here is going to be making sure I don’t just keep reading this. There are other books I have committed to reading!
Lord of the Rings: a child’s memory
Tansy is doing a series of blog posts this week in honour of Book Week about childhood reading and everything around it, so I thought I would add a few thoughts myself. And I am starting with Lord of the Rings.
When I was 12, I was in competition with a friend: who could read the most in that year. We decided it would be on both pages read and total number of books read, but books had to have over 100 pages. Now I got my total books up fast because I was reading a lot of Babysitters Club (I know, right?). However, they were short, and I was mighty competitive back then. So I looked at my parents’ book shelves and I picked the fattest book I could. And why yes, it was LoTR.
I had read fantasy before- that’s another post- but I had definitely never read anything like this. I don’t actually rememeber whether I had read Hobbit first or not… something says not. Anyway, I was blown away. I imagined myself joining the fellowship, and Legolas was my first serious book crush. I loved it so much I read it in 20 days, which was quite quick work for 12 year old me… and important in making sure that I didn’t fall behind in the reading competition, too. I loved it so much that when I started working as a checkout chick, my first major purchase was my own, one volume, not-falling-apart copy – and that was SO exciting. I loved it so much that for a while there, I read it every year; I think I’ve got up to about a dozen or so. This is one book that has had a genuinely long-lasting impact.
Weird fact: I listened to a cassette of the Beach Boys a lot of the time while I read LoTR the first time, such that I had flashbacks to the mines of Moria and the forests of Lothlorien in response to Little Deuce Coupe and California Girls for years after.
For those who care, I don’t think my friend and I ever decided who had won our competition. I think we might have got sick of it.
Randomly Yours, Alex 