Rereading Tolkien - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Morthoron · 06-14-2025, 07:26 PM

I used to re-read the trilogy (along with The Hobbit and The Silmarillion) quite religiously since my teens. However, after the onslaught of the movies, I had to let the books sit for a couple decades in order to wash the actors from my mind. I spent that time strictly doing research and reading HoMe and related Tolkien materials.

Formendacil · 06-15-2025, 05:25 AM

It's interesting revisiting this nigh on eleven years later. Nothing I wrote before seems wrong (though I don't actually remember the writing of it).

In the decade plus since, I've found that my rate of re-reading has slowed, for two reasons: neither of which has much to do with the works themselves. Firstly, time has sped up, meaning that the self-assigned gap of appropriateness between necessary re-reads has increased.

The other is the constriction of time as children have entered the picture: I read so little now! Some of this, I am sure, is the bad habits of computer and smartphone, but much of it is trying to have something resembling a life of my own around the time-sucks of employment and parenting, such that while I *do* still read, the number of books I read overall has dropped--and if the rereading LotR takes up a more-or-less consistent ratio of books, the time required to read those books has increased.

I'm also waiting: I very much want to read all or part of The Hobbit and the LotR aloud to my children, and the first of them is not QUITE there (well, maybe he is for The Hobbit and I just haven't admitted the fact). So in the past couple years, there might be an element of "saving" it for an appropriate date.

William Cloud Hicklin · 06-16-2025, 04:28 PM

Sadly, having read, studied, analyzed and written about it for so long,, I am minded of the sensation Tolkien observed in Letter 232:

"My remarks, I fear, must savour a little of the legendary German professor, who wrote a large book on Das Komische. After which, whenever anyone told him a funny story, he thought for a moment, and then nodded, saying: 'Yes, there is that joke'."

Familiarity does not I think breed contempt, but it does somewhat dull the joy and wonder.

06-14-2025, 07:26 PM	#1
Morthoron Curmudgeonly Wordwraith Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Ensconced in curmudgeonly pursuits Posts: 2,515	I used to re-read the trilogy (along with The Hobbit and The Silmarillion) quite religiously since my teens. However, after the onslaught of the movies, I had to let the books sit for a couple decades in order to wash the actors from my mind. I spent that time strictly doing research and reading HoMe and related Tolkien materials. __________________ And your little sister's immaculate virginity wings away on the bony shoulders of a young horse named George who stole surreptitiously into her geography revision.

06-15-2025, 05:25 AM	#2
Formendacil Dead Serious Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Perched on Thangorodrim's towers. Posts: 3,328	It's interesting revisiting this nigh on eleven years later. Nothing I wrote before seems wrong (though I don't actually remember the writing of it). In the decade plus since, I've found that my rate of re-reading has slowed, for two reasons: neither of which has much to do with the works themselves. Firstly, time has sped up, meaning that the self-assigned gap of appropriateness between necessary re-reads has increased. The other is the constriction of time as children have entered the picture: I read so little now! Some of this, I am sure, is the bad habits of computer and smartphone, but much of it is trying to have something resembling a life of my own around the time-sucks of employment and parenting, such that while I do still read, the number of books I read overall has dropped--and if the rereading LotR takes up a more-or-less consistent ratio of books, the time required to read those books has increased. I'm also waiting: I very much want to read all or part of The Hobbit and the LotR aloud to my children, and the first of them is not QUITE there (well, maybe he is for The Hobbit and I just haven't admitted the fact). So in the past couple years, there might be an element of "saving" it for an appropriate date. __________________ I prefer history, true or feigned.

06-16-2025, 04:28 PM	#3
William Cloud Hicklin Loremaster of Annúminas Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 2,330	Sadly, having read, studied, analyzed and written about it for so long,, I am minded of the sensation Tolkien observed in Letter 232: "My remarks, I fear, must savour a little of the legendary German professor, who wrote a large book on Das Komische. After which, whenever anyone told him a funny story, he thought for a moment, and then nodded, saying: 'Yes, there is that joke'." Familiarity does not I think breed contempt, but it does somewhat dull the joy and wonder. __________________ The entire plot of The Lord of the Rings could be said to turn on what Sauron didn’t know, and when he didn’t know it.