21st Century Tolkien

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by davem

Bear with me while I digress.

The last five years have been my most intense period of interest in Tolkien. I first read LotR nearly 30 years ago & after about seven years, in which I read TH, The Sil, UT every year (& BoLT 1&2 once) I drifted into fairly regular readings of LotR & TH & TS & UT occaisionally, along with regular listenings to the BBC adaptation.

It was, ironically, the appearance of the movies which inspired me to get into Tolkien seriously, since when I've read HoM-e through & collected 60+ volumes of 'Tolkieniana', been to Oxonmooot & stood by Tolkien's grave 3 times, spent 5 days at an international Tolkien conference in Birmingham, joined the Down's & met someone who's changed my life.

Whether my interest will continue at this level I've no idea. I'll never not be a lover of Tolkien's work, but I suspect that as the general interest fades (& hence the books & conferences disappears) I'll drift back into my 'simpler' approach, which I think I really preferred in a way. You can analyse things to death.

So, my feeling is that Tolkien will become increasingly accepted in academic circles as a 'serious' writer as the years pass, but I'll probably drift back to TH & LotR every year or so, along with the BBC series, & the rest of the collection will probably find its way onto a bookcase in a back room to be taken down occasionally to check some obscure 'fact'.

I'm looking forward to it, in a way.....

Ah, davem has turned the thread into a soppy moment now.

...but I'm not so sure the collection will find its way into a back room now it has taken all that effort to reorganise the shelves.

I suppose from that respect I've had two phases of being a mad fan, first in the early/mid 80s and then in more recent years. As soon as it became news that the films were coming out I would get asked about them by friends - what they were about and so on. So of course I had to do more reading to make sure I gave them the right answers, and had to find good arguments when someone woulnd me up about 'Legless' and 'Bilblob' and so on... Of course this time around two things have been different. Firstly, I have the money to buy the peripheral books instead of having to get them from the library. Secondly, I have the net and the opportunity to talk to people who do not wind me up about 'Legless'!

I have no doubt that my interest will not diminish. It never has. But I also have the reason that Tolkien brought davem to me, and that's as good a reason as any. More soppiness.....