Hello everyone,
I’m working on a blog post about Voice in writing, still, but it’s not quite ready. I’m lacking free time between studying for midterms, trying to get some reading-for-fun in, being sick and working on my notes for Draft 2 of The Names We Chose. Life is nothing but busy! Anyway, you can expect my post on Voice by the end of the week. For now, it’s time for my much overdo post about the Lord of the Rings read-a-long.
Before we start, I want to talk about one or two things. First, thanks to Amalia over at her blog Good To Begin Well, Better To End Well. She so kindly gave me the Circle of Friends blog award! Her blog is really interesting — she’s got a book she’s querying with agents right now, and she so kindly let me read the first 53 pages of it (which were wonderful) — so, if you have any interest in myths, legends, tales, gods, anything and everything and good writing to boot, you should check out her blog! Thanks again, Amalia.
Next, I want to thank The Literary Omnivore for hosting the first leg of the Lord of the Rings read-a-long. It’s been a blast and she’s been an excellent host. She posts about a lot of great books, and I only wish that I had the time to comment there more often, but I do read her blog whenever it’s updated!
This blog post is about The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers, and as such it contains Spoilers.
The read-a-long for The Two Towers is being hosted over at Shelf Love, so many thanks there!
Now, without further ado, it’s time to talk about some hobbits (and men, elves and dwarves!) Let’s start with The Fellowship of the Ring and the questions posed to the bloggers by the Literary Omnivore.
Since we’re dealing with a third of a novel, instead of the first novel in a series, do you find anything different?
To start with, I think it would be very easy for most people to pick up The Fellowship of the Ring without ever having read The Hobbit — that’s not to say they wouldn’t be missing a lot, but I thought that was a nice thing to do for readers. Being the first part of a trilogy, the ending is obviously lacking complete closure. I think the fact that it’s part of a large work gives it more freedom to take its time. Tolkien certainly kept the cord of tension tight and worked at a great pace, but he also didn’t rush things when he didn’t have to. Being the first book in a trilogy afforded us the time to stop in Lothlorien, to really examine and see the world as we move through it. I was a little surprised by the words THE END at the end of my copy, instead of TO BE CONTINUED or something similar!
Do Books One and Two have significant differences to you?
Books one and two are very different creatures to me. The first half of The Fellowship is all about the group coming together. It’s very much a rock that starts rolling down a hill, gradually gathering snow until it turns into something massive. At the start, we have just a few little hobbits wandering in the woods, scared for their lives by the dark riders. It’s amazing to see the way in which new characters carefully work their way into the mix.
As for differences between book one and two, I feel there are quite a few. The tone in these book gets progressively darker and more mature as it goes, and that’s no exception between these books. I think Tolkien feels free to sort of pin-point more things in The Two Towers. He’s not afraid to separate the point of view from Frodo to Strider and the rest. He gives us a grander scope, and we get to step back and say: Hey, it’s really not just this evil concentrated on following Frodo about with the ring. There are terrible things going on all over the place. I see The Fellowship as getting an inkling of an idea, and Two Towers as a way of stepping back and seeing how grand the plan is.
Who’s your favorite character so far into the novel?
That’s so hard to say! Not having read the books in quite a while, I went in expecting to dislike Frodo.
I think some of this had to do with growing up. When I was younger, I don’t think I understood what Frodo’s problem was. Why was he always so moody, why was he always so overburdened. Reading it now, it’s crazy how visible the weight on Frodo’s shoulders are. One line struck me in particular, where I believe it’s Gandalf who mentions that the ring reveals itself to those who know its true purpose. When Bilbo had the ring, he just thought it was a neat trick and it never revealed itself to be more. The effects on him were slow to take, because of this — like a tiny trip from a faucet.
When Frodo wears the ring, he knows full well what it can do, and as such the weight on him is roughly 100x what it had ever been on Bilbo. You can feel the ring working at Frodo, wearing away the edges of him as he tries desperately to keep himself together long enough to do what he needs to. He’s truly a respectable hobbit. If you’d asked me when I was 12, I’d say that Bilbo was 10 times the hobbit that Frodo ever was. Now, I think Frodo truly came into his own, in my mind.
What surprised you the most?
How wonderful Pippin and Merry are! I knew that Sam would be wonderful, but I’d completely forgotten that Pippin and Merry were so great. They’re strong, intelligent (well, save maybe Pippin) and stalwart companions that you’d love to have in a pinch. I was also surprised with how much I sympathized with Boromir this time around. When Strider finds him and he admits to having tried to take the ring from Frodo — well, I just felt so bad for him. It’s not his fault! He was just one man trying to stand against the darkness and save the only home he ever knew. He didn’t really want the ring, but he was weak because of how much he wanted to be able to save his people. It was easy for him to be manipulated by the ring’s power, and in the end when the ring flew far away, Boromir was a broken and sad man, sitting with his broken horn. What a terribly sad scene.
What was your favorite scene?
Truly, I think it was the scene with Boromir that I just talked about.
If not that, then I have to say it was the flight through Mordor, and later on the scene in Lothlorien where Galadriel stands up for Gimli. There’s so much history in the words there, and in the descriptions of Mordor. You get a true sense that it was once a glorious place that’s fallen into ruin, and it’s a shining example of what Tolkien is trying to say is happening slowly all through Middle Earth. The drums are resounding deep in the earth, and they’re getting closer …
Now, let’s move on and talk about The Two Towers — with the questions that Shelf Love has so kindly provided.
Where are you in the trilogy right now? What do you think of the books so far?
I’m only a few chapters into The Two Towers right now, and I’m loving the books. I love the dynamics of the groups. They each have their own talents — and right now on their journey, they’ve been broken and battered but they still, somehow find a way to trust each other and keep putting one foot in front of the other. I love that they’re all such wonderfully realized characters. They have their problems, but they’re truly heroes. When their friends are kidnapped, they don’t hesitate in going after them, in doing the right thing. Sometimes I get tired of the new trend in Fantasy, that everything must be “gritty” and “realistic,” which tends to mean you have characters who are just ruthless bastards and never do anything truly respectable, or if they do they die shortly after.
I like the simple complexity of a good person standing up against all odds and carrying on.
What’s your past experience with The Two Towers? If you’re rereading, how does it stack up against the other two books?
I honestly remember The Two Towers even less than I remember The Fellowship. As such, it’s blowing away any preconceived notion I had of it. I’m loving it!
If you’re a first-time reader, what big questions do you have at this point? What are you hoping to see Tolkien deal with in The Two Towers? If you’re a rereader, what are you most looking forward to?
I’m most looking forward to Strider and co’s journey through these books. They really do come up to some seemingly insurmountable odds — and even though I know they’ll stand against them, somehow, some way, it’s still nerve wracking and I can’t wait to see it all realized.
What about the movie? If you’ve seen it, what did you think of it, and how much do you think it will color your experience with the book?
The only way the movies have truly been coloring my view, so far, is in the way I picture the characters in my head, now. The movies did a good job of giving me good images of what they might really look like — and in addition to that, a scope of what the landscape would be like. How many miles they travel, and what it really looks like around them. It’s true, there’s no greater scenery than the imagination, but it’s nice to have such breathtaking imagery as the movie provided to call back on.
All that said, I’m very much looking forward to continuing my reread! I’m working my way through it a little bit at a time, while also reading The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, two very different books! It acts as a nice balance between the two worlds, though, and I look forward to diving back into both when I have a moment of free time to breathe.
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