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Last night I started reading The Lord of the Rings for the I-dunno-whattth time. I'd been putting it off for several months, till the mad pace of teaching was diminishing, and I'd finished other stuff I was reading. I'd just finished "The Gunslinger", and decided on the spur of the moment it was time for Tolkien. It was just like settling back into a really comfy old chair again. I love the slow, deliberate pace, the gradual unpeeling of the layers of history of Middle Earth, the detailed physical descriptions, the overhanging threat of evil that Tolkien evokes so well. So much to savour, to slowly relish. It's the first time I've read it since any of the movies came out. I read it first in 1975, after my mission, the same summer I got married, and read it every summer for the next 5 years, and have reread it several times since then. I just don't get sick of it. It envelops me.
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Many. The confrontation of Frodo and the Black Riders at the Ford. The final scene at the Cracks of Doom (I am overwhelmed at the power and the pathos of Gollum's exulatation at finally regaining his Ring, and Frodo's grim statement that he does not choose to destroy the ring, that it is his, is chilling). The very final paragraphs. The description of the land outside the Black Gates. Gollum. and and and... What're yours?
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It's hard to think coherently about the parts of Tolkien's work that I love the most because SOMEONE posted very silly Christmas cards that impinge on the pathos and delicate beauty of the master's renowned work!
*grumbles*
The cards were very funny in many cases, and I don't think Tolkien would mind, not at all, my precious, not at all . . .
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I love the Battle of Helms Deep in The Two Towers... it is EXTREMELY rare that a book gives me the shivers... that scene always does. I just love it so much. Of course I love the whole history and world so much that I took to trying to recreate it in MUD form ([shameless plug] http://www.middle-earth-mud.tk ...[/shameless plug]) Posts: 3295 | Registered: Jun 2004
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Hmmmmm... for me it is Galadriel. She is just too cool for words. Most royal elf left in Middle-earth, almost a demigoddess with her Ring, etc...
Of course the Mirror of Galadriel is the best... "All shall love me and dispair!" "I will diminish, and go into the West, and remain Galadriel..."
The next would be the breaking of the Great Gates of Gondor...and the Witch-King riding through the archway that no enemy had ever passed before. A mirror for the End of Days when Morgoth attacks Valmar under the Holy Mountain.
Next would be just the awesome set up at Hobbiton and as Cashew says the lingering evil air all about. The switch from cold war feeling to full out attack on the world.
Next would be the end...and the death of the Elven civilization. So sad. So beautiful. Magic leaving the world forever... *sniff*
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The Pass of Cirith Ungul, where Sam takes the ring and feels its weight and passes his own test, and the rejuvenation of the Shire with Galadriel's gift and the Mallorn party tree!
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Cashew, you're inspiring. I think that's my Christmas break reading. I haven't read them yet this year. I get the chills just thinking about it. Ahhhh...
I always wait for the battle of Helm's Deep. The true love and friendship between Eomer, Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli has me all choked up every time I read it.
I love the houses of healing, when the people begin to spread the word that their true king has returned as a healer and bringer of peace.
The charge of the Rohirrim...the final battle in front of the black gates...
But I think the best is that scene where Gollum witnesses Sam and Frodo together and sees how much love they have for one another...and the glimpse we get of Gollum as Smeagol, a being who hasn't been loved or felt love for so very long...
Ah. I can't wait to read it again!
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I loved The Scoring of the Shire...Tolkien called it the most important chapter in the book, and even before I heard that I had always thought that. It is the culmination of all the changes that had happened in Middle Earth, both for the world in general and for each Hobbit specifically.
Frodo is so used up that he can't do anything other than guard the women and children, and the others take up the mantle of saviors, showing how much growth has happened since they had left. Both literal growth and spiritual growth they had experienced.
Eowyn, fighting at Gondor, with Merry crippling the Rider..
The Grey Havens scene at the end fit so perfectly into his world that it always affected me strongly as well. I hurt when I read it, and it stills aches inside when I read it today. It is so fitting that Frodo go into the West to become whole again, although it is heartbreaking that such healing could not happen in his beloved Shire.
As far as action scenes, I loved the Barrow Wights, and Shelob....but the best of the lot of Galdalf's fight within Moria, with the Balrog.
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I love the part where Frodo just wakes up in Rivendell and talks to Gandalf.
Gandalf says "If I may say so, I added a few touches of my own you may not have noticed, but some of the waves took the form of great white horses with shining white riders; and there were many rolling and grinding boulders."
Gandalf's such a kid sometimes Posts: 2756 | Registered: Jul 2002
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So, without wanting to sidetrack discussion of the book , and just by way of comparison, what were your favourite parts of the movies? For me: Gandalf riding into the Shire; the battle with the balrog; the death of Boromir; Treebeard; Helm's Deep; any scene involving Aragorn and Arwen; the scene with Arwen and Elrond when she tells him that she loves Elrond too (my daughter married a guy from California,and they live in Utah, so I can relate to the loss of a daughter idea in that scene, it gets me every time); the ride of the Rohirrim at the Pelennor Fields; Minas Tirith; ...
The lighting of the warning beacons of Gondor in Return of the King. The music, the visuals, its amazing. It gives me cold chills everytime I watch it or listen to the music, and it made me cry with joy in the theater. When I saw it ROTK in the theater I hadn't cried with sadness or joy in like a year (despite a few attempts), and that scene did it. I love it.
A few other favorites: Gandalf riding into the Shire definately, the introduction of Treebeard, the charge of the Rohirrim and the Battle of Helms Deep.
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Yes! The lighting of the beacons, definitely. "Tenkte på bauner, om de skulle brenne, og byde mannskap mot fienden opp..." From the city anthem of my hometown. The image of those fires calling for aid over hundreds of miles speaks to something in me. That's how the Norwegian kings defended our coastline, and the system was used as late as the wars with Sweden.
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I can finally get all the way through the trilogy without getting mushy EXCEPT for the charge of the Rohirrim. Theoden's speech, Eowyn's line "Courage Merry. Courage for our friends."
AH! I get choked up just thinking of it. And that charge and strike is one of the coolest pieces of filmdom to hit the screen. Ever.
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I loved the movie version of the fight with the Balrog, and I thought the city of the dead was very well done in ROTK, but I HATE the battle of Helms deep.
Legolas was the only Elf there, dammit....the whole point of the battle was to show the world of men standing up and resisting Sauron, regaining their nobility, and Aragorn growing into his destiny with Andural in hand, saving the day.
In the movie, they only lived because the Elves came.
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My favorite part of the books is when Merry and Pippen greet King Theoden at the ruins of Isengard, and Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli are so delighted to see them again. "...my companion, who alas is overcome with weariness (here he gave the other a dig with his toe)..." )))))))))))))))))
Oh and "Is everything sad going to come untrue?" by Sam when he wakes up on the Field of Cormallen after being rescued by the Eagles.
Also the whole interlude in Ithilian and the way the moonlight looked behind the curtain of the waterfall as the full moon set just before dawn.
Oh and the interlude with Treebeard... and the whole time in Lothlorian.... and in Rivendell at the start... and at the Havens at the very end when Sam realizes Frodo is leaving... and when Sam sings the song about the stars when he gives up in the tower when they have Frodo captive and he can't find him.... and Frodo hears him and answers.... and when Sam realizes in Mordor that he has won all the battles with his will and now there's only going on until his strength is totally spent.
Middle Earth is so beautiful! It's only England of about 1905 or so. We could have that back if we wanted it. Why don't we decide to do that and do it? Why don't we just make a place that's like that and keep it that way and all live there?
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I get the chills just thinking about it. Ahhhh...![[Hail]](graemlins/hail.gif)
, and just by way of comparison, what were your favourite parts of the movies?![[Mad]](mad.gif)
