rikard.me/blog/008.txt                                Thu 04 Jan, 2024


                   Thoughts on the works of Tolkien


At the end of July last year, I sat down to read through The Lord of
the Rings.  I read Fellowship in middle school, but never actually got
around to the other books.

I love Fellowship, it's by far my favourite book of Tolkien's.

The sense of adventure you get following Frodo out of the Shire is not
something I've experienced reading other books.  As we leave the
Shire, there really is a feeling of leaving something behind.  But
it's not sadness, it's a form of wistfullness that comes as we're
treading through Bilbo's footsteps, taken on his adventure long ago.

We pass through woods, and towns and ruins which all belong to a world
that feels lived in, that is yearning to be explored.  Those ruins
aren't just a set piece, they once were something, in an age long
forgotten.  The world is mysterious, and throughout the story we are
only given glimps every now and then into its past.  It is this sense
of adventure and mystery that makes Fellowship such a hard book to put
down.

Two Towers and Return of the King did not capture that same energy, in
those the story operates on a larger scale.  No longer are we
following a band of adventurers, instead we are faced with large
battles, the clash of good and evil, reminding us all too well of what
awaits Middle-Earth would the ringbearer fail his quest.

One of my favourite moments in the books is toward the very end, when
the hobbits finally return home to find a Shire different from the one
they left.  The way they deal with that situation speaks volumes of
how they have grown.  They have all markedly changed and feel like
completely different characters from the ones introduced in
Fellowship.  But this does not feel strange in the slightest, we have
seen them grow, we have seen all the incremental actions which have
turned them into who they now are.  They're no longer reliant on
Gandalf to get themselves through the world.

Lord of the Rings is great, and putting down Return of the King I was
left wanting more.  I wanted to see more of the the world that Tolkien
had so believably described throughout the trilogy.

I continued my journey with 'The Fall of Gondolin'.  This is the first
story ever to be devised in Middle-Earth, originally written in the
trenches of World War I.  Taking place in the elder days of
Middle-Earth, it tells of how the hidden elf kingdom of Gondolin
finally came to succumb to the powers of Morgoth.

This book, and the two other books that I will soon mention, are
fascinating reads.  The Fall of Gondolin is not just a story, its a
compilation of all versions of the story that Tolkien toyed with
throughout his life, presented in chronological order.  Compiled and
edited by his son, Christopher, we are sporadically (and outside of
the foreword, very conservatively) given insight into Tolkien's life
and additional information about the stories which probably no one but
his son would know.  I often found myself being more drawn in by these
notes from Christopher than I were by the stories themselves.

Following on from this I read 'The Children of Húrin'.  Out of the
books I mention in this article, this is probably the one I enjoyed
the least.  I'm not saying that because I disliked the story, in fact
I remember liking it in the moment.  It's just that thinking back on
it now some months later, I am actually struggling to recollect what
it was about.

'Beren and Lúthien' came next.  This one tells the story of the man
Beren, who comes down from the north and happens upon the elven
princess Lúthien.  They immediately fall in love, but Lúthien's
father, the elven king Thingol, forbids them to marry.  To prove that
he is worthy of his daughter's hand, he tasks Beren with retrieving
one of the Silmarils from the iron crown of Morgoth, who sits atop his
throne in the depths of hell.  It's an absurd task, an impossible feat
meant to crush Beren's hopes.  But he's not deterred.

This story is notable in that it's the first time we are introduced to
Sauron, a necromancer ruling over an island castle where our hero
finds himself unfortunately imprisoned.  It is also interesting to see
how, in the very early version of the story, Sauron was nowhere to be
found, and his place in the story was held by large talking cats.
They're a whimsical but lovely part of the story, and I actually wish
they would have been kept in some form.

I was absolutely taken by Beren and Lúthien, and out of all the
versions I actually preferred the poem (originally known as the Lay of
Leithian).  Its rhythm and language had me read the entire thing in
one go, not putting the book down for anything.  I particularly loved
the section where Beren finally enters Angband, and comes face to face
with Morgoth:

  "About him sat his awful thanes,
   the Balrog-lords with fiery manes,
   ...
   And o'er the host of hell there shone
   with a cold radiance, clear and wan,
   the Silmarils, the gems of fate,
   emprisoned in the crown of hate."

These three books all present stories from the Silmarillion in various
stages of their life, from their very first conception to their more
final forms.  They are an interesting read if you are interested in
Tolkien as an author, and just how much time and thought went into
building his world.  The Silmarillion was never published during his
lifetime, but these stories had been with him his entire life, and
it's fascinating seeing them grow with him, and how they came to
influence his published works.

At this point you may notice that I have not mentioned reading the
Silmarillion, having read separate stories from the book instead, and
if you're familiar with them, that I have read them in reverse order.
This was not intentional, I did not know that the stories were part of
something greater.  But I'm glad that I somehow managed to go about
things this way.  Going into the Silmarillion after having finished
Beren and Lúthien, I had a much greater appreciation of it.  I got to
see the stories in their now final form (some of which I sadly did not
prefer to their earlier versions).

The Silmarillion tells of the creation of Middle-Earth, the Eldar that
rule it, and the elves that they created.  It is a creation story much
in the vein of the ones from ancient mythologies.  The central point
of conflict in the book is that of the Silmarils, three precious gems
holding the light of Valinor, crafted by the elf Fëanor, and stolen by
Morgoth, the fallen Eldar.  It is a classic tale of man (in this case
elf) having been given everything by their creators, but still
reaching for more, and in their arrogance and hubris dooming
themselves and the world.

I finished my excursion into the world of Tolkien with 'The Hobbit'.

The reason I put off reading The Hobbit for so long was because, as
with Fellowship, I had already read The Hobbit many years ago.  Coming
back to it now I had forgotten how different it was from Tolkien's
other works.  Being primarily intended for children, it has a more
jolly and less dark tone.  The narrator is much more whimsical and
conversational.  We are presented with a far more grounded adventure.
Nothing with world altering consequences is at stake.  We follow a
troop of dwarfs, a hobbit and their wizard on a journey to reclaim
their stolen gold from the dragon Smaug.

While I do love the story of Bilbo's journey, it pales in comparison
to the Ring trilogy or the stories from the Silmarillion.  Perhaps to
be expected from a children's book.

Overall I am happy that I finally took myself the time to read through
these books.  I've seldom been so captivated by a single author, and I
can see myself coming back to these many times in the future.