[Child of the 7th Age]

I love it because it's one of the few books where I can feel joy and sadness in the same scene and even in the same breath. Some of the finest moments in life are like that, but so very few writers seem to capture that sense of the bittersweet.

I love it because the characters seem so real and so believeable that I can not get them out of my mind or heart. Generally, when I shut the pages of a novel, even a piece of "great" literature, I may say, "That was good." or "That was not so good.", but I stop thinking about it in just a little while.

This is not the case here. I care so much about LotR that I even worry what happened to these characters after the book itself ends. I can not tell you how often I have thought and wondered about how Frodo might have changed and grown in the West. Did he ever find rest before going on beyond the circles of the world, or how lonely was he, especially after Bilbo chose to pass on? How hard it must have been to be a hobbit when no others of your kind were there!

And what about Sam. How often did his missing friend creep in to his thoughts in what was otherwise a very fulfilled life? Did he ever wonder why he had been appointed to take one path in life, and his closest friend such a very different and separate one?

How long did Treebeard live without his beloved Entwife? And how did the last Ent feel as he came to the final sleep and knew that there would be no others of his kind behind him?

And I wonder exactly how Galadriel was received as she stepped off that ship. And how Arwen felt as she sat in the forest with no elves and no humans about her and waited, alone, for death. I know I'm not the only one to take these things to heart, since Tolkien himself admitted in his Letters that he worried deeply about Galadriel returning to Elvenhome.

You know, part of me believes that, if I could understand the meaning in this book, I would do a lot better job sorting out the values and choices in my own life. I wish I had Aragorn's certainty about knowing that right does not change. Or I wish I could be like Treebeard, able to experience sadness but still not be unhappy. And, most of all, I need the commitment and gentleness that Frodo embodied, his ability to be obedient to the path he knew was right.

How many times have I wished that Tolkien had lived another 50 years so he could have told us more of what happened in this magical world. But that's the way life is. When you have a good thing, something that has meaning, you can't help but want more and more. Well, I am glad we have as much as we do!

sharon, the 7th age hobbit

[ May 29, 2002: Message edited by: Child of the 7th Age ]