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Old 08-09-2020, 03:37 PM   #6
Kuruharan
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Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: A Remote Dwarven Hold
Posts: 3,685
Kuruharan is battling Black Riders on Weathertop.Kuruharan is battling Black Riders on Weathertop.Kuruharan is battling Black Riders on Weathertop.
Boots

Like Boro I recently started a fresh read through of Lord of the Rings for the first time in a long, long time.

While I can never really recapture what it was like to hear the stories for the first time (my first time was having them read aloud to me as a child), the length of time since the last reading has really given me a fresh perspective on things that I had not realized or had forgotten about.

One sign that it had been far too long since the last time I read them is that I have been favorably impressed with the richness and elegence of Tolkien's writing style compared to our contemporary writers.

Anyway, to the topic at hand...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Pitchwife View Post
It's interesting how the Nazgūl grew in stature during Book One - or, you might say, how more and more of their true nature was revealed both to and by the author - , from their first appearance, surrounded by an air of vague unease and creepiness, to the double climax in A Knife in the Dark and Flight to the Ford.
This stuck out to me because that is not the personal impression I gained in my recent readthrough.

To me the terror of the Nazgūl peaked in Bree. Their ability to simultaneously strike with potentially deadly force in Crickhollow and in the very building where the Ring was hiding and the unsettling tone for these episodes set me on edge. Correct me if I am wrong, but I think that is the first time we see the Nine strike and do damage in the story (property damage only, but damage nonetheless).

Beyond that point, and I know it is partially from knowledge, but the presence of Strider was a grounding influence in the story, even though in an absolute sense the danger increased.

Another thing that struck me in this readthrough was how woefully unprepared the hobbits were for a journey of this nature. I remember thinking as they were leaving Tom Bombadil that, "These guys would never have a chance in the Wild on their own."

Quote:
Originally Posted by William Cloud Hicklin View Post
It helps if one stops envisioning the Ringwraiths as a death-metal album cover and more as black holes in reality. I agree that the movie Dementors get much closer than PJ ever did.
Black Holes in Reality sounds like the name of a death metal band.
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