First Time Readers

There is this weird section in the FOTR when the Company meets Galadriel. And Galadriel looks into each of their eyes almost simultaneously, and seems to offer them something.

Oh. My. Goodness. The words of Galadriel disarmed me, I cannot imagine what they did for Gimli.

If there is one thing that I’ve learned about Tolkien from my first read of Lord of the Rings, besides the fact that lots of people have very strong opinions about Tom Bombadil, is that he didn’t want anyone allegorizing his work.

J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings is filled with grand figures: mighty wizards like Gandalf whose wisdom and knowledge of Middle Earth is utterly priceless and vital for the fellowship, noble kings like Aragorn, who in the movies is more reluctant to take that role, but in the books, is ready to become king, and ancient evils like the evil of Saruman, where he makes a Ring himself and seems to lose all sanity for his actual purpose.

The Bridge of Kazad Dum is the most action packed chapter I have ever read in my life. I read this chapter in a plane, and the woman next to me, who was reading smut on her kindle…no shame…actually looked over to me to see if I was okay. When my jaw kept dropping and I kept taking sharp intakes of air because of how nuts this chapter was, so looked at me like I was a crazy person. BUT SHE WASN’T READING WHAT I WAS READING!!! This chapter was so good…and so different from the book too

Okay. So this essay was originally something I was doing just on my own time. And it was so fun that I decided to start writing it down…and it became this. What I want to do is to take the little book that they found next to Balin's tomb that was kind of hard to read and had words covered over with blood and guts. And I want to just process out loud for myself what is going on there.

I feel like I found another fun tidbit of Tolkien's writing in the middle of Fellowship of the Ring. Fire. Now fire is a common theme I think in the writing of Tolkien because it’s essential for survival and morale.

I have been writing this essay for 2 days! And I’ve FINALLY figured it out. I could not figure out why this chapter was so captivating to me. I wrote about how I thought it was the most action packed chapter in the whole story. I wrote about the tales of Moria. I wrote about the characters and their own personal journeys through this chapter, but I COULD NOT FIGURE IT OUT, until I reread the stinking title of the chapter and it all clicked.

I already fear this is going to be a weird essay because I’m going to do some live processing in this one. I don’t really know what I think or feel on this subject yet and have never really thought about it all that much, but this chapter just seemed to spark something in my mind that I found pretty interesting. So bear with me.

So it finally happened. I shed a tear while reading. Now, I have welled up and teared up before while thinking about certain sections of this book.

That scene in the book when they are climbing Caradhras…phew. That is actually terrifying. And today the video is going to be a bit different than the typical book analysis. Because I had a moment happen to me that was eerily similar, and I want to tell that story.

There is a moment in most book to movie adaptations where the people who read the book just throw up their hands and communally yell, “Come on! That’s totally not how it is in the book.” It drives us MAD to see these moments—especially after falling in love with a book series.

Jon, Jenn, Danny, and Lizzy talk over what makes these chapters so good and why Faramir is the BEST in the books.

In The Lord of the Rings film adaptation, the fellowship is very unbalanced. It’s essentially Aragorn doing all the work, and Sam is the real hero, but I have to say, as I am reading through Lord of the Rings for the first time, I am astounded at the beauty of the fellowship and how they rely on each other. It is VASTLY different from the book compared to the movie, and I want to talk about two examples where that is the case.

We need to have a long talk about Saruman. That’s it. That’s the whole intro. Because I don’t even know where to go with this because he is so vastly different in the book and the details that you get for what he is wearing and what his mentality is in the tale that Gandalf told of his imprisonment at Orthanc is so strange. I just flat out don’t know what to think of him. So I want to write an essay to figure it out…this one might be all over the place. I feel like the l...

In the Fellowship of the Ring, when Elrond says, “you’ve been summoned here to answer…” He’s lying. And it’s actually the coolest part of the whole Council of Elrond section in the book.

I want to revisit the very first essay I published on the very first chapter of Lord of the Rings the Fellowship of the Ring. In that essay I talked about the Loneliness of Bilbo Baggins and how I thought there were a lot of underwritten things as well as overt things that showed that Bilbo didn’t really seem to have too many good friends. And that he only realized a little too late how dear a friend Frodo was. And the same with Frodo…he only realized how much he loved Bilbo after Bilbo had left for another adve...

There are no shortage of essays discussing the legend of Boromir in the books and the movies. He seems to be having some kind of resurgence in the last few years because enough time has passed from the films, which is what most people know LOTR from, that people are re-evaluating and looking at Boromir as a sympathetic character. But boy do they not know the start of it!

Jon, Jenn, Danny, and Lizzy talk about how even though there isn't a lot that happens in the first three chapters, there is just so much character development. And they talk about what the Two Towers really are?

This blew my mind.

My grandmother died when I was 9. She was the kindest, most gentle and amazing woman I have ever known. When she laughed she had a kind of hiss to her laugh, not really a menacing one like a snake or anything, almost like a little rattle. This chapter of LOTR reminded me of her.

I could talk for hours about why JRR Tolkien is one of the best writers who has ever lived and written in the English language.

Everything after Weathertop is SO DIFFERENT! I cannot believe how much changed from the book to the movie and this is going to just be a long rant on it and then I want to talk all about Frodo at the end and his courage which the movies don’t show.

So I am reading the Lord of the Rings for the first time and I just finished the chapter where Frodo gets stabbed at Weathertop. And I have to say…everyone should have seen it coming in this chapter. The foreshadowing is right there…as well as for a few other things in this book too that I want to talk about.

So I am reading Lord of the Rings for the first time and I am on the Fellowship of the Ring where we FIRST get introduced to Strider. And as soon as I finished that chapter I was a bit shocked and actually had to reread it. Because the whole chapter was confusing to me with how Aragorn was acting.

In the Lord of the Rings community, there has always been this funny rumor that Nicholas Cage was offered the role of Aragorn, and had to refuse. And luckily we got Viggo Mortensen and the rest is History.

So I just finished chapter 9 of The Fellowship of the Ring, and I’ve got to say, the Hobbits are so different from the book to the movie.

I just came to the creepiest chapter maybe in the whole book so far. Fog on the Barrow Downs. And I have to say again, I’ve never had so many questions about a chapter.

I just have one question…who the $%!# is Tom Bombadil…Don’t even get me STARTED on Goldberry...how the river can have a DAUGHTER!?

I have never hated a chapter more in any of Tolkien’s work than The Old Forest, but I have to admit, I think it’s actually his best written chapter (so far).

Jon, Lizzy, Danny, and Jenn talk over how exactly to say Flotsam, and their favorite chapters as well. These chapters were good!

Merry and Pippen just are intensely good friends. Especially in the Conspiracy Unmasked chapter.

If you’ve seen Lord of the Rings, you know this man. Farmer Maggot. The one and the only. And I am astounded that the Hobbits actually eat in the home of Farmer Maggot.

So, I am reading through Lord of the Rings for the first time and publishing my thoughts on the chapters as I read them. But I just finished chapter three and I have to say: Gildor makes me like elves.

I am reading through Lord of the Rings for the first time, and I’m in chapter two. And I have to say, out of everything I have seen so far in this book, one of the things that surprised me the most was the sadness, hopeless, possessed story of Gollum.

I am reading Lord of the Rings for the first time and something struck me as sad and depressing in the first chapter. It seems like it’s more subtext than it is anything else, but the invisibility and loneliness of Bilbo Baggins is terribly sad.

Chapter 7 - Helm’s Deep

Q1 - Who is your favorite character so far in the whole story?

Q2 - Can you guys help me walk through this whole chapter?

Chapter 4 - Treebeard

Q1 - Do you think the God of Middle Earth is causing all these things to happen?

Chapter 1 - The Departure of Boromir

Q1 - What, if any, symbolism is there with the Eagles?

Q2 - Why does Aragorn always shout Elendil?

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