The Tolkien Coming of Age Club - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

**lindil** · 10-07-2002, 12:01 AM

better late than never.

I first read the Hobbit in 1977, right after SW came out. I was 11. as much as I liked SW I loved M-E.
They were selling the nice Tolkien artwork Ballantine editions at Safeway [and JEA Tyler's cool "Tolkien Companion' at grocery stores too! So I got all of my LotR there in short order. prob rad them an average of 1x/year. read Silm in HB at the end of the Year it came out. I did not really get it till the 2nd try.

That edition and the 1st Ed. UT were my oldest possesions [well UT is, I gave the Silm to my son in FL - age 13]

how did it effect me?

well in short, it caused me to revolt from suburban society and spend literally 1/4th of my jr and sr years of HS in the woods [ Northern Va. has some great old Oak forests.

After graduating I began looking into intentional communities, and in my quest for elvishness, studided Gurdjieff, Taoism and finally became an Orthodox Christian.

I played a little D&D and AD&D but it was never really my thing, compared to music or exploring the woods.

My best friend [whom i met as he spied me on the Bus reading FotR for the second time.

HE was reading it also, but I didn;t want to talk about it, it was way to private. It was my link to Truth. Well I let my guard down and we soon had everyone we knew reading LotR and Co. and we formed a Toliien group where we met and discussed various things such as Bombadil's nature [ we had an old timer come once who authoritatively declared that TB was a Maia
[img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] .

Anyway we all had nick's. and I was Lindil way back then.

recall reading BoLT1 when it came out. I curled up in a out of the way corner of Sprinfield mall and was enraptured as I read about the Cottage of Lost Play. I recall that it was a snowy day and the vanm i drove up in crashed into the guard rail on I-95.

I re-read the above and BoLT 2 but fell away for years though i peeked in HoME volumes as they came out, and re-read most of the books more or less yearly, buying new pb lotr/hobbits and keeping the HB SILM/UT.

And I must confess I never returned the public Library copy of the Road goes Ever on [ which I loaned to Saulotus and need to get back].

Sadly I had a chance to buy the Red single Volume of LotR for 45 $ yesterday and din't
[img]smilies/frown.gif[/img] .

I much prefer the aesthetics of HB reading.

Silm and UT in PB is not the same.

so 25 years for me.

my 6 yr old daughter is reading LotR w/ me this year and we just got to book 6.
I am ashamed to admit I almost always spend more quality time w/ the Legendarium than my prayer life or Tai-Chi. But somedays everything balances nicely.

10-07-2002, 12:01 AM	#1
lindil Seeker of the Straight Path Join Date: Jul 2000 Location: a hidden fastness in Big Valley nor cal Posts: 1,680	better late than never. I first read the Hobbit in 1977, right after SW came out. I was 11. as much as I liked SW I loved M-E. They were selling the nice Tolkien artwork Ballantine editions at Safeway [and JEA Tyler's cool "Tolkien Companion' at grocery stores too! So I got all of my LotR there in short order. prob rad them an average of 1x/year. read Silm in HB at the end of the Year it came out. I did not really get it till the 2nd try. That edition and the 1st Ed. UT were my oldest possesions [well UT is, I gave the Silm to my son in FL - age 13] how did it effect me? well in short, it caused me to revolt from suburban society and spend literally 1/4th of my jr and sr years of HS in the woods [ Northern Va. has some great old Oak forests. After graduating I began looking into intentional communities, and in my quest for elvishness, studided Gurdjieff, Taoism and finally became an Orthodox Christian. I played a little D&D and AD&D but it was never really my thing, compared to music or exploring the woods. My best friend [whom i met as he spied me on the Bus reading FotR for the second time. HE was reading it also, but I didn;t want to talk about it, it was way to private. It was my link to Truth. Well I let my guard down and we soon had everyone we knew reading LotR and Co. and we formed a Toliien group where we met and discussed various things such as Bombadil's nature [ we had an old timer come once who authoritatively declared that TB was a Maia [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] . Anyway we all had nick's. and I was Lindil way back then. recall reading BoLT1 when it came out. I curled up in a out of the way corner of Sprinfield mall and was enraptured as I read about the Cottage of Lost Play. I recall that it was a snowy day and the vanm i drove up in crashed into the guard rail on I-95. I re-read the above and BoLT 2 but fell away for years though i peeked in HoME volumes as they came out, and re-read most of the books more or less yearly, buying new pb lotr/hobbits and keeping the HB SILM/UT. And I must confess I never returned the public Library copy of the Road goes Ever on [ which I loaned to Saulotus and need to get back]. Sadly I had a chance to buy the Red single Volume of LotR for 45 $ yesterday and din't [img]smilies/frown.gif[/img] . I much prefer the aesthetics of HB reading. Silm and UT in PB is not the same. so 25 years for me. my 6 yr old daughter is reading LotR w/ me this year and we just got to book 6. I am ashamed to admit I almost always spend more quality time w/ the Legendarium than my prayer life or Tai-Chi. But somedays everything balances nicely. __________________ The dwindling Men of the West would often sit up late into the night exchanging lore & wisdom such as they still possessed that they should not fall back into the mean estate of those who never knew or indeed rebelled against the Light.