[Iris Alantiel]

I was young when I first read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, so I don't really remember what I felt too clearly, but I just read The Silm last summer and I remember very well how I felt on finishing it. I felt awed, first of all, at the sheer scope of it, and a little overwhelmed. I also felt like as though I had accomplished something significant by managing to read the whole thing, since it can be so difficult to follow at parts. But stronger than all that was a sense of amazement at the way Tolkien wrote it. At times I thought his descriptions of the events were almost poetic. I remember walking around the rest of the day at work with a big goofy smile on my face because I was so blown away by the whole thing. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]