[OddEvenstar]

It is truly difficult to tell the essence of Tolkien, the heart of which has captivated me. When I first read "The Hobbit" in 5th Grade, I found it quite...unique, for lack of a better word. The daring escapes, the jokes that brought a smile to my face...that was what I liked about that one. Tolkien admitted it was really the public's demand that made him decide to write "Lord of the Rings". The trilogy was what I hung on to. I learned about the painstaking detail and effort that Tolkien had composed this entirely new world. Middle-Earth had its own cultures, (awesome) languages, stories...everything that makes our world. It was then that I realized I loved those books. A young writer myself; they were more than just a good read, they were the example. The essence of Tolkien, I believe is that the real story behind his stories was that the bottom line was remarkably simple, the morals down-to-earth. They were about the struggle of good against evil, will vs. temptation, nature vs. industrialization, and most of all, that small people can do big things. What awed me was that he could put all these things together as a seemingly complex concept. That he had the rare ability to put his entire soul into his work awed me.