Quote:
Originally Posted by Eönwë
Many members of this forum have mentioned that Tolkien has made them interested in many different things, such as medieval life, archery, languages, nature and gardening, to name but a few.
I, for example, already had an interest in languages, and after reading Lord of the Rings it increased much more, leading to try to learn some Old English and just other languages in general.
Tolkien's works also draw in people who already have an interest in such subjects, which makes you want to read them more.
So, what I am asking is- What are your experiences on the subject? Is it Tolkien who inspired your interests or were you drawn to Tolkien because of your previous interests? Which way round was it for you?
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Seeing the first LOTR film is what drew me to J.R.R. Tolkien's works. At the time I had no special interests that made Middle-earth stand out to me, but the film awoke in me something that had been dormant: I was an adolescent, lost in a struggle to conform and find acceptance to the detriment of nurturing my imagination, creativity, and intellect. Absorbing the mythic vastness of Middle-earth, spending hours ruminating on all the amazing possibilities that spilled off the edges of the pages of those books, was being born into a freer and higher world. Though it was a realm of fantasy, it was so grounded in timeless
mythos that it suffused my eyes with new sight for this world.
I am formally studying languages at the moment, and can say truthfully that Tolkien has inspired me in that direction. I also credit LOTR and other Middle-earth lore with enriching my experience of the natural world, and with laying fertile soil for my poetic, prosaic, and musical faculties to take root.