Middle-earth Journeys

Anarion, you are most welcome. I look forward to your thoughts and insights to our discussion.
All the best,
Bruce

Hi everyone!

I just found your forum and I'm particularly interested in your "chapter" discussion. I love Tolkien/LOTR but sadly I have no one at present to share my passion with. So after a bit of back reading I'd like to join in if you'll have me.

Peace and love,

Mary

Linwë Palantír wrote:Hi everyone!

I just found your forum and I'm particularly interested in your "chapter" discussion. I love Tolkien/LOTR but sadly I have no one at present to share my passion with. So after a bit of back reading I'd like to join in if you'll have me.

Peace and love,

Mary

Welcome Mary! You have certainly fallen in with the right group of Tolkienistas. We hope to hear lots from you once you get caught up. Have fun!!

Mary/Linwe, I know exactly what you mean: nobody in my real life seems to have quite the appetite for discussing Tolkien as I do. I suppose this is the definition of 'geek'! But you certainly are a perfect fit here. Jump in soon!

Hi Mary...jump in the discussions. We'd love to have you. Which reminds me...I'll get the next chapter up by tomorrow.

Thank you for the warm welcome, I'm glad to be here.

Merry wrote:Mary/Linwe, I know exactly what you mean: nobody in my real life seems to have quite the appetite for discussing Tolkien as I do. I suppose this is the definition of 'geek'! But you certainly are a perfect fit here. Jump in soon!

Thank you for saying that Merry. I'm now well into my 40's and admit freely to being a geek/nerd although it can be a lonely territory to reside in. We are often misunderstood But who cares? I'd rather have a few good companions than hundreds of acquaintances, so on with the party!

Yes, indeed!

Linwe,
A most hearty welcome to you and please bring your enthusiam to this site. As a fellow nerd, or perhaps even someone who appreciates what went into the craft of making this opus one of the most widely read series of books, come and grab a keyboard and join us in what you see in this wonderful work.

I'm afraid I haven't had time to introduce myself, not write down all the posts on LOTR and poetry either, that I have in notes on paper or in my mind. Been busy lately, in short.
Some know me as Estel at Viggo-Works. I'm (in)famous for my LOTR action figure collection , but I assure you that there is more to Estel than that.
I started reading Tolkien rather late, when my intense reading period was already over, which means that I celebrate my 20th anniversary of LOTR reading this year.
(Read The Hobbit, or "Bilbo" as it is called in Swedish when I was 12, but that doesn't count. )
With late I mean that I was 14 when I first managed to get through the first chapters of LOTR, so I could read on and finish the book. I came from the background of fairytales (Swedish, HCA, Russian, Grimm etc), Aesop's fables, the Bible, Swedish, English and American mystery books for children (Blyton etc), Greek, Roman, Celtic and Scandinavian mythology, history books, 19th century historic novels (Swedish, English, French mostly), romantic novels, classics of all sorts, often adventure books, English fantasy from Nesbit to Lewis, Garner, Susan Cooper etc, Swedish Astrid Lindgren and Selma Lagerlöf (some of that considered fantasy).
I had read a lot but only in Swedish and had probably not even heard of JRR Tolkien, when my father gave me first Bilbo in 1983, then LOTR in 1984 and the appendix, the Sil, Unfinished Tales etc in 1988. All as Christmas presents. He didn't know Tolkien either, had just found the books at the annual book sale. Might add that he is a compulsive book collector, just like myself. But at least I usually read the books.
The only thing I really liked with Bilbo was the maps and the locations, the story was too childish for me and I think I had a problem with Tolkien's tone to me as a reader of the book. I was too old, when I was 12 , but I have enjoyed listening to short parts of Bilbo later, so maybe I should read it again.
When I started to read LOTR I had hopes for sth interesting, judging from the three voluminous books I had in my hand, the covers, the titles and the text on the back on the book. But it was seemingly just Bilbo II. So I stopped. Later I tried again, skipped paragraphs, perhaps chapters in the beginning , speedread to get to sth interesting and was caught by the Black Riders, the Old Forest, the Barrow-Downs, had to read on just to get out, because it was so horrible and so close to the world I lived in, having read so many fairytales, so much mythology and fantasy based on mythology and often connected to the nature and ancient stone monuments I saw around me.
Then I met Sigurd Fafnirsbane in Bree, or I thought I did until I realized that Tolkien had fooled me , poor girl raised on Viking stories. I read on just to see the man with the broken sword become king.
To be honest I didn't care at all about the ring or the hobbits after that. I promise that I have changed , began to take an interest in the whole of LOTR about 9 years ago.
I reread LOTR, mostly just chunks, 100 pages or so at night, many times after that, most intensely when I was around 17, 20, 23, 25 and then 2001-2003, while waiting for the movies, usually to escape reality at some kind of crisis in life but also to find guidance. I suppose I use LOTR the same way Christians use the Bible. Not unusual, I hear, from other LOTR fans. I am btw very interested in religion and myth, but no believer, had read too much already at the age of 8, to be able to believe in anything, but I still had nothing against losing myself in the world of say the Vikings, which I did, when I was 9. I actually toyed with the idea of throwing myself on a sword when it was time for me to die, so as not to go to Hel, but to Valhalla. I saw myself as a warrior, a shield maiden, if I really had to be a girl , though temporarily without weapons and proper training. Death wasn't supposed to scare you, you know one is supposed to sing a beautiful song or say something cool, not to let anyone see that you suffer. Boy, I really believed in those old myths and traditions , though being able to see through all other religion I became acquainted with. I'm definitely more afraid of death now, have no longer a desire to throw myself on a sword (don't worry ), but I still identify with the Rohirrim and Éowyn, just like the old Vikings back then as a child, because of this period of my life, the impact the whole Viking culture had on me.
So you see, I think I have a rather unique perspective on LOTR. Not just because I'm Swedish in this mostly English/American crowd, but because of where I come from. Thanks to my reading background I didn't see LOTR as just an adventure story or fairy tale, though deeply resonating within you for unknown causes. I saw a lot more, felt a lot more, understood a lot more, than you usually do as a child or teenager reading LOTR, but had nobody to discuss with, because I didn't get to know any other LOTR reader until I was 25.
With the movies a couple of years later, I also started to read and write in English, going into unknown territory. Since then I 've had many fruitful discussions leading to new insights, which is what I love the most about talking with others. Hearing what others say, sorting out your own ideas in your mind, makes you have these new and sometimes revolutionary (it's only Tolkien! ) thoughts. Cooperating minds you know, it's like computers in a network, to use a modern expression.
Besides from mythology and history I've always had an interest in languages, especially names, that I started to collect when I was about 5 (before I could read or write ), which is another thing that originally drew me to Tolkien's writings. And I'm a hopeless aesthetic , when it comes to art, language etc. Tolkien is one of very few writers after 1945, that is linguistically enjoyable to me, both in English and translated, because he obviously took care when writing, not blurting out words, but writing and rewriting until the result was truly beautiful.
You don't just read Tolkien's books to see what happens next, you get shivers down your spine from the words, no matter what it is about, but usually it's truly meaningful too. About love and death, friendship and loyalty, longing and fulfillment, beauty and horror and above all hope. Tolkien is sublime, to put it simply.
Wish I had time to write more. LOTR thread and poetry thread will be another day, I'm afraid.

P.S. I saw that people had chosen pieces of Tolkien poetry as signatures, so I took the most Viking like I could find, see below. It makes me think of a saying in Havamal, sth I say to myself at times. In the translation I once learnt (with lots of lovely allitteration) it's

Fä dö
fränder dö
även du skall en gång dö
men ett vet jag som aldrig dör
domen över död man

Have no time to find it in English right now, but the point is that everybody dies, even you, but the judgement of a dead man never dies. Your posthumous reputation will live on forever, or as long as people remember you, which means you will have to do sth great. You must do right, live in a proper way and achieve sth before you die, so I'm not intending to die yet. I am being morbid, am I not? My apologies. But at least I haven't mentioned my lovely action figures with swords , until now.

Estel,
Great to have you with us. The name also means hope in Elvish. I look forward to hearing from you and learning your insights.

Estel, it´s great you´re here

Cassandra

Hello. First let me say that I am just delighted to find this forum. I read LOTR for the first time in the mid-1960's. I have re-read it every few years or so and never get tired of it. There is no other book that I have read so many times. I've also read The Hobbit once and The Silmarillion twice, but it's always LOTR that I go back to over and over. I'm looking forward now to reading it again along with the chapter-by-chapter forum discussion here, and also re-acquainting myself with The Hobbit and The Silmarillion and exploring some of History of Middle-earth books.

I can't explain why I love LOTR so much. Partly it's because it gives me such a magical world to go into whenever I want. When I read LOTR I always have a feeling of going home and being with dear old friends. It's not just a fantasy world for escape; it's a world of great beauty, but also of great tragedy and sadness, and a world full of insight into the real world we all live in. I'm also very interested in exploring the way Tolkien's writing relates to mythology and language. And maybe most of all I just love reading Tolkien because I just love the very sound of his words and the way he uses language.

By the way, I picked my screen name because I love cats (although I've never had 10 at one time) and Berúthiel's cats are the only reference to them I remember from Tolkien. The name should really be spelled Berúthiel, but I wasn't sure if it was a good idea to use an accented character in my screen name so I just spelled it Beruthiel to make it easier. I'm afraid Berúthiel wasn't a very nice person, but I figure anyone who had 10 cats can't be all bad.

bruce rerek wrote:Estel,
Great to have you with us. The name also means hope in Elvish.

Why do you think I chose it? I'm generally hopeless, so it's a spell to keep my chin up and to keep me on the right path in life. Not that it has worked yet. Names should mean something and I was tired of my old names, real and screen. They don't give me the same kick as Estel.
Estel also seems to be a rather happy bunny , probably because the name makes me think of the characterization of Aragorn in the Tale of Aragorn and Arwen. As usual no book close by. (My constant problem is that I don't have a computer at home.) Something about being stern, but sudden mirth bursting like a spring from a rock. That is how I am. Serious and sad, but suddenly bursting with laughter. And I just can't keep the joke to myself. Self-absorbed, a little too ironical, really weird interests. No family in sight, no job that suits me, so I try to amuse myself or rather keep myself alive (as in alert and not vegetating) thinking, reading, writing plus watching movies and going to more or less mind-blowing exhibitions. It seems at least some people find me amusing so I live to amuse them, that is my goal. For now.
If I ever am able to have any children, I will probably name a son Estel and a daughter Tinúviel. As middle names, don't worry. Just hoping that a daughter won't inherit my singing voice. A-hem.
So what's the story behind bruce rerek, if I may ask? It doesn't give me any input except that it reminds me of Robert the Bruce plus names of Czech hockey/tennis players or sth. Perhaps it's something one should google for. Nope, didn't help, bruce rerek is truly original.

Well, my Swedish sister I see you've made yourself at home at MeJ. Officially welcome to you Estel.

Welcome to MeJ Beruthiel. I hope your master was better natured then your name sake's was. Please feel free to jump right in and perhaps you can join us while we read FoTR together.

Oh my, I haven't posted the next chapter....I'll post it after my art class my pretties and we'll discuss the lovely Goldberry and Tom.

To estel ( from one "hope" to another) and Beruthiel a very warm welcome