Tag Archives: J. R. R. Tolkien

Day 21 of the Library Advent Calendar

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lettersfromfatherchristmasI have saved the best for last – Day 21 on the Library Advent Calendar is my personal favourite Christmas book. Letters from Father Christmas, by J. R. R. Tolkien (yes, the author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings) is a collection of the letters that he wrote to his own children, charmingly illustrated and lovingly detailed.

Every December an envelope bearing a stamp from the North Pole would arrive for J.R.R. Tolkien’s children. Inside would be a letter in a strange, spidery handwriting and a beautiful colored drawing or painting. The letters were from Father Christmas.
They told wonderful tales of life at the North Pole: how the reindeer got loose and scattered presents all over the place; how the accident-prone North Polar Bear climbed the North Pole and fell through the roof of Father Christmas’s house into the dining room; how he broke the Moon into four pieces and made the Man in it fall into the back garden; how there were wars with the troublesome horde of goblins who lived in the caves beneath the house, and many more.

 

Lord of the Rings anniversary

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hili-lotr-cover-paintingRaise your hand if you like Lord of the Rings. I have to admit, I’ve never read nor watched Lord of the Rings, which I know makes me some kind of social outcast but I promise it’s on my To-Do list!

The 20th of October this year was a very special day in the history of the series. 60 years ago on that day JRR Tolkein finished writing the final book and I personally think that deserves some kind of celebration. To date the books have sold over 150 million copies and of course been made into a series of very lengthy movies, more recently the prequel to the series “The Hobbit” was also made into a movie (or three.)

So if you’ve not read the books I suggest you pick up a copy from the library and get stuck in, I’ll join you!

Book of the Week – Letters from Father Christmas, by J. R. R. Tolkien

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LettersfromFatherChristmasThis week’s Book of the Week is suitably Christmassy, and is one of my favourite books, particularly at this time of year. Everyone knows that J. R. R. Tolkien wrote The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, but this book is less well known.

Letters from Father Christmas is a collection of the letters that Tolkien’s sons and daughter received every year for over twenty years – sometimes they arrived in the post, sometimes they appeared mysteriously. They are beautifully illustrated, and full of funny stories from the North Pole… I love the badly spelt Polar Bear comments on some of the letters, particularly when he has been responsible for chaos and is trying to make excuses!

Friday 24th January – The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien, reviewed by ND

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hobbit oldI’m not going to lie, I expected ‘The Hobbit’ to be really boring and hard to understand, on the assumption that classic means a gazillion years old. Boy, was I wrong! I’ve never read a more exciting, enticing and extravagant book. The songs were amazing and I had a better understanding of the lives of the characters than I thought books were capable of. I recommend this to anyone who is willing to give up the rest of their lives reading and rereading and  rerereading this book.

Wednesday 23rd January – The Fellowship of the Ring reviewed by J McK

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Lord of the Rings – The Fellowship of the Ring is an outstanding novel about a young Hobbit from the Shire and how he began this epic journey. Following on from The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien returns to Middle-Earth with a new character, Bilbo’s nephew, Frodo Baggins. Bilbo’s ring, which he stole from Gollum in The Hobbit, has been left to Frodo after attending his ‘eleventy-first birthday’. Frodo is instructed by Gandalf the Grey, Bilbo’s trusted friend (also from The Hobbit), to keep The One Ring safe. But in the darkness of Middle-Earth, evil is always lurking in the shadows.

The book follows Frodo’s journey, along with eight other companions (naming them The Fellowship of the Ring), up the highest mountain and even to the depths of Moria. This page-turner is phenomenal, especially to The Hobbit fans. but Sauron the enemy of the free people of Middle-Earth and the creator of The One Ring is returning with death and destruction to follow him.

The Fellowship of the Ring is the first part in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, by J. R. R. Tolkien.

Friday 14th December – How to read The Lord of the Rings without stress, written by RN

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So, with all the hype surrounding the new Hobbit film, it is possible you have already read the prequel to The Lord of the Rings and now you want to read the famous trilogy itself. Unfortunately they are quite lengthy, over 1000 pages if you add them together, and not every word contributes to Tolkien’s story-telling genius. So just how do you read The Lord of the Rings in the most enjoyable manner? That is what I plan to explain here.

Firstly, get used to the fact that Tolkien loves to describe everything in detail, and I mean EVERYTHING. The door to that person’s house? Check. That one dead leaf on the ground, well hello there, three lines of adjectives. If you really want to enjoy the Lord of the Rings you need to become good at missing a paragraph or two, or three… you get the idea. Skim through the parts laced with fancy adjectives until you are confident you have arrived back at story driven content, not only does this increase the enjoyment of the novels, it will also greatly shorten the time taken to traverse the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

If you have already read The Hobbit then the next guideline is something you may have already picked up on. Throughout the three novels Tolkien weaves in various examples of poetry and songs, none of which really contribute to the story and some of which occupy several pages, it is heavily advised that you do not read through these rather trivial additions. It is even as if the publishers wanted us to avoid the songs and poetry by centring them and placing them in italics. I do wish I could thank whoever’s idea this was.

Finally the most controversial part of this ‘guide’ concerns the battle sequences in The Lord of the Rings, indeed I had a battle within myself deciding what to write about. It is all about personal opinion, some people love the battle scenes and others hate them. You should make a decision early on in the trilogy and if you do not like them, just skim through to get the main points.

So there we have it. Some tips on how to read Lord of the Rings with as little stress or boring sections as possible.

Wednesday 12th December – more hobbitness

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To continue the hobbit theme, here are three interesting sites about different aspects of The Hobbit. The first one, http://www.thehobbitblog.com/ is the blog about the making of the films; Tolkien online, http://www.tolkien-online.com/hobbit.html is a site with all the information you could ever need to know about the author J. R. R. Tolkien and his books, and the third, http://www.thehobbit.com/ is the official film site, with lots of photo galleries, video clips and downloads.

Enjoy!