How old were you the first time you read LOTR?

[Araréiel]

Sad, I was 21 when I first read The Hobbit, and 21 when I first read LotR-starting the day after the first one came out on DVD. *sigh* So much time wasted.

I know this is an old thread, but I beleive in giving children books and letting them decide for themselves when they are ready to read them. If a child glances at it and doesn't read it, then he's not ready. But he may pick up a book and devour it! Better to have that option available.

[Mithalwen]

I agree with that. I read the Hobbit aged 8 or 9 after it was serialised on Jackanory (a wonderful programme but probably far too low tech for today when children are expected to maintain attention for no more than a nanosecond - an actor reading a book with a few drawings would probably not cut the mustard ) and loved it. So I was given the LOTR the following Christmas. Although I was a quick reader and reading books way above my age range, I ground to a halt at the end of the 2 towers - this was before I was old enough to appreciate Faramir and i have always found the endless slogging agross wastelands with Frodo, Sam and Gollum the worst bit of the book.... by the time I got back to Gandalf and Pippin at the beginning of ROTK I had lost the plot..... I went back to it about 2or 3 years later and happily escaped into middle earth for the rest of my adolescence.....

[Pippin Pondlily]

I first read The Hobbit for school when I was in 4th grade -- so maybe 8 years old? Then I read the Lord of the Rings books the summer before 6th grade that would be about 10 years old then. I really enjoyed them even if I had some trouble with the vocabulary and immagery but I've read at least FotR annually since and parts of The Two Towers (my favorite of the 3) and RotK as well. But just recently I had to reread and analyze all three LotR books and I really got to appreciate the literature WHICH led me to this website.

I loved The Hobbit the most and I think that that is an excellent book to read to toddlers before bed or nap/kip time, I did to the little girl (4.5 years old at the time) that I babysit and she actually enjoyed it.

Happy reading eh?

- P. Pondlily

[Alda]

I remember doing a book report on the Hobbit in fifth or sixth grade. We had to use a shoe box and create a scene from our book inside. You would place the lid of the shoebox back on and peer inside through a peephole, the inside of the box being illuminated by one of those small white christmas lights. I don't think I recieved a very good grade, I wasn't (and am still not) very artistically inclined. But I was proud of my paper cutout of Bilbo stabbing a paper spider.

I read, and reread, and reread, the trilogy and the Silmarillion while in junior high. I discovered Unfinished Tales while I was in highschool. I remember being thrilled and kind of mad at the same time. I found the book at the library and saw that it had been published three years earlier. They had just gotten around to getting a copy. But seeing as I didn't even know it existed imagine my suprise.

I suppose it would be too much to hope that there might be another unfinished manuscript that Christopher Tolkien is busy editing at this very moment? A dusty sheaf of hand written notes recently found locked in a desk in the basement at Oxford? I dare not hope to believe in such treasures beyond the cellar door.

[Isowen]

I was 6 when I first read the hobbit. I was 8 when I read the fellowship of the ring, I was also 8 when I read the two towers, and I was 10 when I read Return of the king (it didnt take me two years to read the two towers though!\ ) and I read the silmarillion when I was 12, and I read them all in order, over and over again. I don't ever get bored of them! I read a chapter to my little sister every night before she goes to bed and she became attached to it, so on her 8th birthday, we bought her her own lotr books!

[Morsul the Dark]

I was a wee lad of 13 or 14 when I read the trilogy and here I am 3 years Later attempting(without luck) to read it a second time

I was 9 when I read the Hobbit, and 10 when I read the rest. Im 14 right now and a bookworm. [img]smilies/tongue.gif[/img]

[Luthien_ Tinuviel]

I read The Hobbit when I was eight, and LOTR when I was nine. And every year after that.

Nobody else barricaded themselves in their room and refused to come out for anything but food and other necessities until they completed all three plus appendices?

Well, the first time I read it, I basically spent the whole summer in my room reading... so if that counts....

Younger readers will not appriciate the beautiful works of LOTR, I did not understand it.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

No, I didn't understand it, in the sense that I understand it now, when I first read it. There was much that I missed. But I did derive a great sense of wonder from it. Looking back now, I feel that there is an immense amount to be gained from the Books when you are young and your imagination is at its height that you can never totally recapture as an adult reader, however greater your understanding is in other ways.

So, I don't think it matters at all that a young reader may not appreciate everything about the work - especially when they have many years of re-reading pleasure before them.

I agre, Saucepan.... I loved it, and I think I got most of it, but every time I read it again, I pick up more.... Altogether quite a pleasant arrangement.

Not to mention that a lot of kids might get choked up on the style Tolkien has.

Now, I don't want to sound arrogant here, but it seems to me that a lot of us who love and really "get" Tolkien are the intelligent ones. It's the so-called "smart kids" who can read and enjoy LOTR, whereas the others get bored and quit (I saw this happen to two boys in my sixth grade). I think young kids reading LOTR is great, as long as they enjoy it. I for one wasn't scared by it.... well, maybe a little bit.... okay, okay, I admit, some things still scare me, but the scary parts are scary by necessity. And I have problems with Shelob because I'm rather arachnophobic.

Anyway, back to the point, miellien, I think that as long as your son wants to read the Hobbit and LOTR, he should go for it.

[Seagull Jonathan L.]

I was 14.I remember that I didn't let my brother come into the house until he brought me the second book.It was fun

[Earendil Halfelven]

I was in 7th grade when I first started to read the Hobbit and then the LOTR trilogy. All thanks to my dad for having an old book collection in which was contained 1960's editions of the Hobbit and LOTR. I'm 18 now, but I don't feel like doing the math. Typical lazy teen, huh? [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

[Eggy]

Well i first read the Hobbit when i was 16 and since then ive ate all tolkien i could find, but i think if somebody were to read it when they were too young they would miss alot of the little beauties. Or mabey im just to sad in my old age. (19 hehe)

[miellien]

Wow, this has gone all the way to 2 pgs! About the kid in question: he hardly reads anything beyond a 10 chapter book, although I know he's capable of more. I would like him to be a Tolkien fan, but not necessarily fan-atic. I don't think it's genetic; or maybe his dad's lack of interest cancels out my fanatic genes. Did that make any sense? So I guess when you combine an avid reader of all topics and an anti-reader who is obsessed with sports, you get a boy who reads sports books. Would like to expand that realm!!When I let him watch the movies, it was all part of my evil plan to do so! [img]smilies/evil.gif[/img]

[The_Hand]

Its very fun to read about this! Here's my story...
I am a new fanatic. I dived right into it! But when I was young I watched The Hobbit all the time. It was only until after I heard they were making a movie I thought I should read the books. And now two years later I'm on my forth history of middle-earth book and I love it! Everyone thinks I'm crazy and I think I am. Even my sister who read Lotr first and told me to says I'm insane. Now I'm the one trying to convice HER to read Silm... got any ideas by the way on how to make/force/get her to read it!? [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] [img]smilies/evil.gif[/img]

i first read the lord of the rings at 7, after seeing a play version of the hobbit. i only got past the first chapter and didn't understand it at all. after fotr came out in cinemas i read it again at 12. didn't understand the concept or difference of ringwraiths or orcs.

[Snowdog]

I was 17 when I read the hobbit and started on the Fellowship. I think I was at the Prancing Pony when I turned 18 (how appropriate) and read the rest of the trilogy at that age. I was 19 when the Silmarillion came out and I read some of it, but got bogged down in it and didn't pick it up again until I was 20. I was 27 when I picked up a copy of the Unfinished Tales.

[Phervasaion]

I read Lotr recently, i tjink i was 13 and im 15 now. I have also recently started reading the sillmarilion.

[Eggy]

I thinks its all about wanting to read, "the collection" as its called in my house, or needing to read "the collection". I had to read it to keep myself sane(a kinda stress relief more than anything else) because the story kept just playing over and over again in my head, and i couldnt put it down because i was always wanting to know wat happened next...

[Guinevere]

What strikes me in this thread - almost everyone here had their first encounter with LotR as children or teenagers! Maybe because you belong to a generation whose parents were already fond of Tolkien and so introduced their children to his works?

Well, I am the big exception here, since with me, it was just the other way round. I first read LotR at the age of 50 !! (That was 2 1/2 years ago. I surely must be the grandmother of this forum [img]smilies/eek.gif[/img] [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] )

´Heaven knows why I never came across Tolkien before. It was only when my son (then 15) read the Hobbit and LotR that I discovered it.
The funny thing is that I soon got much more "hooked" than he! For him it was just another exciting adventure and fantasy story, but for me it was kind of a revelation.
I have read much in my life, yet no other book has ever so thrilled, moved and fascinated me and stirred such an interest in its author and all his writings and thoughts.

Miellien, I understand you very well. I also have a husband who never reads any fiction... My boys both like fiction and fantasy but they were both very late and slow readers (they preferred for a long time that I read to them) I hope they will reread LotR (in English, since they only read the German translation which lacks all the charm and beauty of Tolkiens wonderful language) later in life.
Because, as several others have mentioned adults do get more out of LotR!

Like Tolkien himself stated in one of his letters (189):

I find that many children become interested, even engrossed, in The Lord of the Rings, from about 10 onwards. I think it rather a pity, really. It was not written for them. But then I am a very "unvoracious" reader, and since I can seldom bring myself to read a work twice, I think of the many things that I read - too soon! Nothing, not even a (possible) deeper appreciation, for me replaces the bloom on a book, the freshness of the unread. Still what we read and when goes, like the people we meet, by "fate".

On the other hand, Tolkien had stated in "On Fairy-stories":

...though it may be better for children to read some things, especially fairy-stories, that are beyond their measure rather than short of it. Their books, like their clothes should allow for growth, and their books at any rate should encourage it.

[Fyara]

I read the hobbit when i was like 7 years old and also lotr. Ive been reading all my life and have read about 3000 books :P im currently 18 will be 19 on april 9 :P

[Arathiriel]

I read the books first when I was 23 years old, in January 2002, after a failed
viewing of FOTR in theaters - yes the orcs scared me silly as I didn't understand what they were. I saw enough of the movie that I had to read the books to find out what happened to Frodo after he was stabbed by the Witch King and so I read the books - and LOVED them!!!

I have since reread them once since then and I have now stalled (just outside of Moria) on a third reading as I began to read another series...

[ArathorofBarahir]

I saw the making of the movie for the Lord of the Rings The Fellowship of the Ring before Christmas Break of 2001 when I was 15, and I was totally awestruck by it, and after watching the behind he scenes special, I went out and bought the Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings and read them in a few days, fell in love with the story and feel the exact same about the books to this day. They are classics.

[Galenondowen]

My cousin recommended LOTR to me, about the same time the Fellowship of the Ring's about to be shown in cinemas. I, by then 14 or so, had never heard of LOTR, and thought that nothing's gonna be better than Harry Potter. (Ignorant, huh?) Anyway, I listened to my cousin's advice, and got myself a copy. I watched both the film and books at the same time, and became totally obsessed with it. The passion dies down a little now, but I still regard LOTR as the best books and movies ever. ^_^
Sorry for drifting off! -_-;; I read Hobbit at the age of 15 I think, and then Silmarilion some time before turning 16.

Oh, do you know where I can get some good avatars?

[Elizabeth Elindel]

I read them when I was about 13, actally, I have a funny story about that. See, my younger brother got "The Hobbit" first, and read it (he was 12). He kept talking to me about "this great book that I really should read", but I didn't want to admit that I was intersted. <sigh> At last, I happened to pick it up one day, read it in about four hours (yeah, I read fast) and was hooked. However, I didn't want to let on. Next, he wanted me to get the FotR for him. I got it, but secretly read it first, hiding it under my pillow. I gave it back to him after I was done (about three days later) and admited it to him. BUT... guess what? I did the same thing with the TT! We never got the RotK from the liberay, I got the set for Christmas. I've been hooked ever since. :-)
~ Elizabeth Elindel

[Mantauriel]

I remember it... I was seven. Though it's only been about four years scince I began! [img]smilies/eek.gif[/img]

I read them either just before or after I turned 16 I can’t remember anymore.

[Arothir]

I read Hobbit when I was 10 and LotR when I was 11. Hmm... that was only a few years back and now I have all of the History of Middle-earth and I've read the Silmarillion!

[Leona]

I actually had my father read me "The Hobbit" when I was about 7, so 10 is not too young. We began reading the FOTR, but never got very far. I kind of forgot about it, and saw the FOTR movie without even thinking about reading the books first. Amazingly, the entire movie made perfect sense, and so did the FOTR when I finally got around to reading it. But TTT was so much more complicated for me, I got it and everything, but it was just so much more complex. I think that seeing the movie helped me get a general idea of the direction of the story, so I could consentrate on some of the details that made the story so memorable. People say that seeing the movie ruines the experience, but from where I'm standing, you did the right thing by letting him see the movie before he reads the books. But, that is just my opinion, hope it helps.

Later,
Leona

P.S. Come to think of it, I'm still working on locating any other books on Middle Earth. I am not very determined, I should try harder.

[miellien]

Hobbit flashback!!I suddenly realized that i wore out a recording of "The Hobbit" which went with a little illustrated book when I was about 5. Now, that was to go with the old animated movie, and it was on a record. Spinning discs that contained sounds that we had in the olden days. So, my own ME obsession goes back farther than I originally remembered.
The unsuspecting boy's b-day is this month. I'm not making The Hobbit his present, but I will get him his own copy this month and see what happens. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

Age o' 9 years here! I was an extremely literary child, though. My mum introduced the books to me when I was in 4th grade and I've been in love with them ever since.

[Eowyn:Lady of Rohan]

I began reading LOTR when I was 14 years old. I've read it two more times since then, and I'm 18 years old. As one gets older he/she will understand the book better.

[barandilwen]

When i first read the Hobbit, i was 11 yrs. old. My uncle gave it to me as a birthday present, then he gave me Lotr, Fotr and Lotr, Ttt, Christmas that year, and eventually i read it and the rest was history! i'm now 14 years old and I have read 7 books of Tolkein [img]smilies/tongue.gif[/img]

[Arwen_Evenstar]

I read the Hobbit first, then found LOTR too complicated (i was nine at the time). Then i fogot about the trilogy until FotR came out at the movies, then when i saw that i FELL IN LOVE! By the time TTT came out I had read the trilogy Three times, and now i have read it four. My plan is to read it anually from now on.

Now i have read the Sil, UT, Tales of the Perilous Realm, A few of the HoM-E, and many more that I can't bring to mind at present...but i have two shelves dedicated to the Wonderful World of Tolkien!
There's my story!!!
[img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]
Have a nice day!

[ November 07, 2003: Message edited by: Arwen_Evenstar ]

I was 11 when i read the hobbit, and 13 when i read the fellowship. I didnt see the fellowship movie till this year, and i'm 24

[lothiriel]

When I first read FotR I was 10 or 11. I found it sooo boring, I stopped reading it before I even had read the prologue!

Then, two years ago, when I was 13, I started reading it again. And I LOVED it. Then I got The Hobbit for Christmas, and I liked it, too. But I found it a bit irritating to read, as it was translated differently than the trilogy. They had different words for "hobbit" and some of the place names, and such.

As you can see I read the trilogy before I read The Hobbit, and I regret that a bit...

I read the Silmarillion when I was 14, and the Unfinished Tales earlier this year, in the age of 15. Right now I'm reading the Book of Lost Tales 1.

That's my story. I won't let my children read the trilogy before they read the trilogy. And I won't let them read the trilogy before I think they are able to understand it.

[kittiegirl]

Um, okay, I read the Hobbit when I was almost 12, and I skipped through parts of it because i thought it was boring.
Then I did the same thing with the trilogy.
I saw the movies after I "read" the books, and I only really read the parts which were in the movies(which proves how much I actually read)

Then in January of this year, I read The Hobbit again, and i was a little shocked at how much I had missed out on.
I read The trilogy again too,(This started my anguish against Peter Jackson)

I highly reccomend kids, like say 11 at the youngest NOT reading LOTR because they will not be able to comprehend the stories.

[Lady Snickerdoodle]

Hey Kittiegirl, at first I was gonna say something really rude about skipping but then i read the rest of your message! [img]smilies/tongue.gif[/img] so many skip-readers don't change their ways... kudos to you..
anyway I read the hobbit when I was 7 and the whole trilogy when I was 8. I suggest only reading little kids the books if you can already tell that they love to read and if they can sit still and are not one of those immature snot nosed hyper brats. If they are, just forget about it until they become immature hyper brats.

[kittiegirl]

Yes, I agree with that too.
For example, my friend's mom read her The Hobbit when she was younger, and my friend loved it.
i think it just depends on the person too, like, some people have longer attention spans than others, or certain things hold their interests more than others.

I read The Hobbit and LOTR in my junior year of high school many, choke, many years ago after being turned on to them by a good Lit teacher. I think The Hobbit is suitable for a 10 year old, but LOTR might be a little dark and deep for your son. I remember being somewhat affected by some of the darker story lines, bad dreams and a certain amount of....not depression, call it blue funk, because the 'real world' didn't look much better. I was also quite upset by Frodo not being able to enjoy the benefits of his sacrifices, at that age you still expect life to be fair.

[Theron Bugtussle]

miellien,

I have some boys, too. The oldest read FotR at about 13-14 years. He is very smart. He found it boring, too detailed, not enough action. But he had already read many other fantasy books. I assume they are not as full textured as Tolkien, though I have not read most of them. I think they appeal to an adolescent mind and attention, especially boys raised on computer and video games, and action movies.

The next two boys have both read only FotR. probably around 12-13 yrs of age. They both failed to continue. They are both smart. One is more of a reader than the other.

I think if I read it out loud with them, they would appreciate it more. (I have read out loud with all my sons, quite a number of books.) It takes a long commitment for such a large book, though, so I have not done it with them as of yet. (I murdered The Hobbit with them a few years ago, taking too long, so they definitely lost interest. [img]smilies/frown.gif[/img] )

This weekend I read part of a chapter to the 12 year old. He enjoyed it.

Finally, I read it myself when about 13-14. I discovered it in the library, and thought I was the only person in the world who knew how great this was!

38... and counting. Still haven't finished TTT [img]smilies/redface.gif[/img]