Powerful Tolkien experiences

[Galadriel55]

Originally Posted by Thinlómien

This time, however, the storyteller, a guy in his early twenties, told us the story in his own words. That was because he was blind. He told us the story of Aghan the Drûg from The Unfinished Tales. Amazing is a lame word to describe it.

Lommy, I can't say that I had a similar experience (because I haven't ) but I can easily relate to it. When I read UT I found Aghan's story something more than just "special"; UT is filled with touching emotional stories. But this one really triggered something inside me. After I finished the book I went back and reread the story, and although I couldn't be full of it I could not recapture the full depth of the feeling I had when I first read it. It is the kind of thing that only happens once.

Another Tolkien moment that I had is when I was watching Earendil. I know this might sound silly, but I have been trying to catch the right moment for a few months before I succeeded - either I was too early, or too late, or it was too cloudy, or I just plain forgot. And this time it wasn't me but my sister who noticed it. She said that the first star is out, and my mother corrected her saying that it's Venus. I stood outside just looking at it and thinking about how Gil-Estel first appeared, and the whole story behind it, until my mother called me home. All the tales seem much more real when you look at this clear silvery bright spot in the darkening sky (and it was unusually bright, considering that the sky was just beginning to darken). It's much easier to think of it as Earendil with the Silmaril on his brow guiding his shining ship through the sky than any scientific term.

I'm not sure why this moment was so special. I wasn't really interested in Gil-Estel: the North Star is and will remain my star. It's all the stories, I guess.