Rereading Tolkien

[Snowdog]

Originally Posted by Bêthberry

Many of us here admit to reading LOTR. Why do we do this? Do these re-readings change us, or change the books? Is rereading a ritual which we return to for renewal or does it offer new enlightenment/ entertainment? (Maybe there's no difference between these two states?) Given that we are men and not elves, what does time do to our sense of Tolkien?

Bethberry

I have read The Hobbit exactly once, and that was in the summer of 1975 when my neighbor first told me about Hobbits. I of course read Lord of the Rings for the first time after that through the rest of that same year. I immediately re-read it when I finished Return of the King, and I picked up more of the descriptions and interactions of the characters. That 2nd reading led to my first dive into the appendices, and the discovery of a like-minded girl in my class, we set out to learn to write the Tengwar.

By 1977, I had re-read the Lord of the Rings a half-dozen times and was a solid Middle Earth nerd by the time the Silmarillion was released as I went to a 'line-party' at the local mall where the manager of the Walden Book store was going to open at midnight of the release day. Why do we re-read the story? It's like we transport ourselves to another time and place, and I believe the re-readings changed me at first.

When 1980 came, I had work and family responsibilities and my re-readings fell off considerably. The discovery of the Unfinished Tales paperback on one of those small book-racks that were placed near grocery store checkouts reawakened my interest. Of course, after reading all the background stuff to Lord of the Rings in that book, I re-read Lord of the Rings a couple more times, pausing the read to 'read-in' the chapters in Unfinished Tales. From here, it was a renewal and added enlightenment to me.

With another gap in my re-reads happening in the late 80s and through much of the 90s, I have to say when I did re-read Lord of the Rings when I first heard there were movies being made in 1999, I think the reawakening for me led to some aspects of the story changing for me. Still the same words, but my interpretation of them had changed some. My most important re=read was in early 2004 when I needed to reinforce what my mind's eye had created as visuals of the scenes and characters. I didn't want the movie visuals to usurp what the books had me imagine. After three re-reads in succession, I was pretty successful in doing that. I did alter some of what my mind had first envisioned with some of the movie visuals, but not too much. Mostly they were settings.

In my latest re-read late last year, I can say it was more like my earlier re-reads in the 70s. I was totally emmersed in the story and not being too analytical. Love the books!