How did you begin to like LotR??

[Gordis]

Reading this thread left me open-mouthed. I can’t say I am really an old-timer, like Earniel, but I am here for at least three years, mostly in the Lits, and I have never seen before that a simple question: “What Tolkien books have you read?” was perceived as “jumping posters for their credentials” or “aggressive behavior.” Neither have I seen that people who have read a lot of Tolkien were implied to be condescending snobs.

That is something new, guys. Entmoot has always been friendly. Especially friendly to newbies (and don’t forget that Curufin and DPR themselves are still newbies). I don’t remember a single ugly brawl in the lits thread with calling names and such – thing that often happens on other forums. Here anyone can proudly say that he/she adores the movies and nobody would think less of them. Here anyone can fearlessly admit that they have read nothing but LOTR and Hobbit and (while keeping that in mind) the others would be happy to discuss Tolkien with them. Those who have read much more would only take care to quote the texts unknown to the others more extensively and give more explanations. In short, the Moot has always been friendly to people new to Tolkien.

But now we seem to swing into the opposite direction: when people who have read few of the books (and long ago at that) seem to feel frustrated by those who have read more and recently and try to “put them into their proper place”. Quite new for me is this line of reasoning: “I believe only LOTR and the Hobbit - and all the rest is crap not worth reading. If you draw your arguments from these sources, I won’t even consider them.”
And now it is prohibited to even ask what books another Mooter has read?

[Zilbanne]

I'm glad people here know J.R.R. Tolkien's actual works. If they came to the books after seeing the movies, I think that's just fine. Because the movies at least spurred them on to enjoy the original books and genius of Tolkien! How cool is that!

Long before there were personal computers or the internet, decades ago... I read the Hobbit as a kid and LotR in my early teens and have enjoyed them ever since. I've been bathing in the Silmarillion more recently and have read some of HomE but by no means all of them.

My personal belief is enjoy Middle Earth in whatever way you want to and share it with whom you wish.

[ElizabethAnnRoger]

when i was six my dad read the hobbit to me every day and we just cont the story. now sixteen, i still read it. Therese just so much to learn!!

[shesabrandybuck]

Same story for me, EAR! My father read me the Hobbit as a bedtime story each night
but, I've already mentioned it haha

[shesabrandybuck]

Oh, that was my 400th post!! hahahahahah


this makes 401!

*curses the 'rule'*

[Varnafindë]

I can't remember when I first read the Hobbit. I'm only sure that it must have been after reading Lord of the Rings - I wouldn't have been aware of Tolkien before that, and I'm not even sure in what order those books were translated into Norwegian. The Hobbit may have come later.

Now, fortunately, both Silmarilion, Unfinished Tales and Children of Hurin have been translated. Children of Hurin was translated while the original was being prepared, so that it was published in Norwegian almost at the same time as the English.

I've finally bought it (in Norwegian) and read it - after having read the same story in Unfinished Tales, I thought it would be too depressing to be enjoyable, but found that I enjoyed it after all. There's such a lot of good writing in it. And having it as a proper story with normal flow of text, not with interruptions of comments every now and then, really helps.

I've already posted about LotR

[bsj2312]

I have been a fan of Tolkien (Really, a fan) for over 20 years now and I will never forget how I was introduced to Middle Earth.

I was in the 8th grade, 14 years old and I had gone one Saturday morning to yard sales with my mom. About the third sale, I was pretty bored, and while my mom was looking at some clothes or something or other I was wandering around and on one table were some books. Among them, the LotR trilogy, paperback, fine condition, 1973 editions I believe.

I had heard of Tolkien, knew the name, but not much more exposure other than The Hobbit animated feature some time before. As I held them and read them, a woman approached me and said, "Don't tell me..." She proceeded to tell me my name, my age, and my birthday. I was stunned. I had no idea who this woman was. As I stared at her bewildered, she said, "You don't remember me. Mrs. Paisley."

It turns out she was my kindergarten teacher who I had not seen since I left for 1st grade at a different school across town. She had remembered my face, my name, and my birthday from 8 years previous, through the changes of growth and beginnings of puberty. She said it was good to see me, it was her home and sale, and she told me to take the books free of charge.

For about a year I was scared to read them. I felt there was something inside those pages but I knew not what. I joined the Science Fiction Book Club about a year later and found The Silmarillion among those I could choose for my 6 introductory books. I read The Silmarillion and was enchanted right off. After, I immediately sped through the LotR.

Around the same time, my friends and I got into role-playing, D&D mostly, but stumbled on Role Master as well, that had the Tolkein Mythos as a supplemental backdrop. But we were a strange lot, turned into Hippies and partiers soon, role-play during the day, and go out causing trouble and drinking beer at night. HaHa.

This post is way long, but I want to end by saying, I am one who enjoyed Jackson's film interpretation greatly. I am not a purest, nor a Tolkien "scientist" as I like to call them. It's all about the imagination. You take what you like and discard what you don't. No need to judge the scenes you don't care for.

So, I am new here, but will continue to lurk from time to time. Peace.

[Varnafindë]

Welcome!
I think you are the first person I've heard of who read The Silmarillion before reading LotR.

But it should make sense - you were reading them in chronological order, then ...

[Amanda]

I started liking LOTR when I saw Leonard Nimoy do his little 60's "Bilbo Baggins" dance. Just kidding.. that was just remarkably scary...

My sister got me into it when I was very young. I don't know what initially drew me to it. She was always into reading a lot so that's how that happened.

[EllethValatari]

Sorry, my story's kindof long.

I had to read the Lord of the Rings in 6th grade, in Literature class. My older brother had already read it and I kindof knew about LOTR. We read the first chapter in class, had a reading assignment, and went home. At home, while reading it, I really got into the story and stayed up all night to finish FOTR. The problem was, we weren't allowed to read ahead so I had to keep my reading a secret. (dumb, huh?) I got my brother's copy of TT and started to read it the next day, but I finished that in three days because I was busy. Then I started ROTK, and that took me about a week, I read it REALLY slowly so that I would REALLY understand it. I then reread the books and by then, I was really obsessed.

Christmas was soon, so I asked for the Simarillion for Christmas. I got it, started to read it, but couldn't keep up with the story line because of all the gods. So I bought "Tolkien's Guide to Middle Earth", looked up all the gods, made an outline, and kept it by my side while reading. Finished the book in about 3 weeks.

By then, I was obsessed with elves, and wanted to learn Elvish. I search online for something that would help me with grammar, vocab, etc and finally found a FREE DOWNLOADABLE BOOK that teaches Sindarin. I'm still working on my Elvish....but its okay...LOL

It's been about two years, I'm in 8th grade now, (probably the youngest one on Entmoot) and I have quite a collection of Tolkien "stuff" including 50th Anniversiary LOTR Trilogy UK Edition, oe of the ONLY copies of The Adventures of Tom Bombadil printed in 1952, The Histories of Middle Earth, The Simarillion, and the LOTR DVD's Extended with Director's Cuts.

[shesabrandybuck]

I started LOTR at a young age too (and, I still am young, but whatever). Anyway, welcome to Entmoot

[EllethValatari]

thanks!

[Valarauko5]

I too grew up having the Hobbit and LotR read to me as a child. I have read them many times now and I actually do enjoy the movies. I am also one of those nerdy guys who likes Dungeons and Dragons so the fantasy setting was always cool.
This next part is only slightly related so forgive me, but I saw someone who seemed in need of help with Elven and rushed to aid.

If I might be so bold. I having, as I have posted in another thread, grown up in a four language household, love languages. Granted I do not actually speak fluently all four languages. (except of course English). But I am currently taking an online Quenya course. It is very well laid out and I very much suggest it to all who enjoy Elven. Elleth Valatari especially, if you are having any trouble at all with Sindarin, Quenya is a whole lot easier to learn in comparison. Please someone correct me if I do this wrong, being a newbie, but this is the url
http://folk.uib.no/hnohf/qcourse.htm
This is not a site of my own making or of one of my friends. I simply found it while looking for an Elven language course after failing utterly my first attempts with a rather sadly done Sindarin course. Please feel free to ask for assistance in any sort of pronunciation because I seem to have a nack for Quenya. Not so much Sindarin....... Oh well. I'm moving onto that after Quenya. Hooray for Elves!

[DARKastheRAIN]

My first introduction to Middle-earth was the cartoon Hobbit movie. It was during all the excitement before New Line's Fellowship was about to be released, I think. I was only about 9 at the time. We lived in South Africa at the time, so they were making a super big deal of Tolkien being born there. My dad was the closest thing to a Tolkien fan in the house at the time and he wanted to take my older brother to see the movie with him, and he thought my brother should read the books before seeing it. I wasn't invited I guess he thought I was too young (he was probably right. I'm glad I didn't go see the movie without reading the books which would have likely been totally over my head at the time) But we borrowed a video of the Hobbit cartoon from a friend of my Grandparents and all the kids watched it. I think we watched it about fifty times over

It wasn't until after many years and a move over the Belegaer to the U.S. that, in the Summer after my freshman year of highschool, I got bored while staying at my Grandparents' house and picked up my brother's copy of the Fellowship. I had read up to just after the Hobbits see the Black Riders for the first time when we left my grandparents' and my brother and his books stayed with them. (Long story. In Arda Marred, families don't work the way they were meant to)

Then finally, when school started, I had to choose a book to read for Literature (yes, in my little private school, everyone got to choose!) But everything there was to choose from looked extremely boring. All except for the Lord of the Rings Trillogy! So I chose the Fellowship as my literature book, and did what I'd failed to do during my previous two exposures to Tolkien, I fell in love with Middle-earth. I had this little study guide thing with a bunch of (pretty stupid) questions over each chapter. But still, literature had become my new favorite subject.

We had to read two literature books a year in that school, so the first chance I got I chose the Two Towers as my second book, read through it in a few days, did the study guide (much more slowly) and then resigned myself to waiting all the way until next year to read RotK

My patience lasted till that Summer when after rereading the first two, I said to hell with waiting, I can just read it again when school starts. (Which didn't happen since I had to switch from my wonderful little private school to evil public school, where they don't let you read cool things like LotR and make you read stupid things like To Kill a Mocking Bird instead)

I'll stop now before I go into the whole story of How I first read the Silmarillion and How I first started learning Elvish, neither of which were the question.

[DARKastheRAIN]

Originally Posted by Mari

That will never work for me. My parents aren't into "weird unreal stories with elves and whatmore flying around". I did get my sister to read the Hobbit though and I know she liked it, but she now says that she can't remember reading it. (How can you NOT remember reading the Hobbit?!?)
But I'm not giving up. She WILL read LotR!

I got my 12 year old sister to read the Hobbit and she loved it. Then I tried to get her to give LotR a second chance, but she says 'no I don't like the language, it's not kid language like the Hobbit'

Then I tried to get her to listen to the Children of Hurin audio book with me and she started acting very rude halfway through the first chapter and saying she was bored and calling the writing style "icky language"

Which had me saying "Call Tolkien's beautiful writing style 'icky' one more time, and death shall find thee swiftly, baseborn mortal child!"

I have since decided to let her grow up a little before trying to force more Tolkien on her again

My current battle is trying to convince my mom to read the Hobbit to my six-year-old brother as a bedtime story. I could just read it to him myself, but by getting my mom to read it to him I'll have exposed her aswell. Two birds with one stone

[Varnafindë]

Originally Posted by Valarauko5

Please someone correct me if I do this wrong, being a newbie, but this is the url
http://folk.uib.no/hnohf/qcourse.htm
This is not a site of my own making or of one of my friends. I simply found it while looking for an Elven language course after failing utterly my first attempts with a rather sadly done Sindarin course.

Ardalambion (run by Helge Fauskanger) is a well respected site.
Good find.
I believe they've got a Sindarin course as well. I haven't invested the time to really learn either - I did learn a little bit of Quenya some years ago, just enough so that I might distinguish a Quenya text from a Sindarin one, even without understanding either of them ...

[DARKastheRAIN]

Originally Posted by Varnafindë

I believe they've got a Sindarin course as well

nope unfortunately not. Just an explanation of the grammer structure and stuff, not an actual course


Valarauko5, where did you find your sadly done Sindarin course? I haven't been able to find one, sad or otherwise.

[Varnafindë]

Originally Posted by DARKastheRAIN

Valarauko5, where did you find your sadly done Sindarin course? I haven't been able to find one, sad or otherwise.

I just found a site with a Sindarin course - I haven't even followed the link, so it may of course be another sadly done one, but here's the page with the link:

http://www.elvish.org/gwaith/language.htm

Hope it may be of some use.

[DARKastheRAIN]

I can't get it to work

[Valarauko5]

Here's the Sindarin site I found.
http://khallandra.tripod.com/sindarin/classes.htm
I don't know how good it is. Like I said before, I'm trying Quenya first because it's simpler. I'm actually getting quite good at it. Thanks you guys for replying. I was really worried people would get upset about my tangent.

P.S. I can't get that other Sindarin one to work either...