CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

So, who likes any of J.R.R. Tolkiens works?

9Lord of the Rings, The Samarillion, The Hobbit, Book of Lost Tales, etc)?

I loved the Samarillion and Im going to start to read it again

<--- a fan of Professor Tolkien here. ^^ read the Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, the Sil, Unfinished Tales, the earlier books of the Histories of Middle-earth series, The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son, Tree and Leaf, Farmer Giles of Ham, the Adventures of Tom Bombadil, and his own translations of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and The Pearl. (i think i'm forgetting something, but i can't remember)

still gonna read Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien and his full-length biography and the literary criticism compilations/ books people wrote of him and his style of writing. >.< they're piling up in my bookshelves like crazy.

SwordSkill: Tolkien's translation of Beowulf?

Personally, I'm a big Tolkien fan, but I haven't read any of the history volumes. Just the LotR trilogy, The Hobbit, the Silmarillion (which is my favorite Tolkien book), parts of one of the Unfinished Tales volumes, and Tolkien's translation of Sir Gawain And The Green Knight. And of course, his translation of Beowulf (which was in my high school textbook, somehow).

@ The Grammarian...nope, not that. i read Seamus Heaney's translation when i did Beowulf. as an aside, Prof. Tolkien also wrote that essay "Beowulf and the Critics" though i haven't read that one yet. he also translated Sir Orfeo, but i haven't read that one either too. ^^;; hmmm....but anyway, yeah, i think i've already covered everything i've read of him.

His essay "On Fairy Stories" is also pretty well known. I've been trying to find a copy of his translation of Beowulf, but have been unsuccesful so far. I forget which translation we used in highschool, but the poem was required reading for us.

One book that's about Tolkien's work that I'd highly recommend, would be "The Road to Middle-Earth" which examines many of the literary and mythological sources the Tolkien drew upon.

yeah, "On Fairy Stories" was amazing, part of Tree and Leaf, along with Leaf by Niggle, which was pretty hilarious. XD man, the way he expained the concepts of fairy stories was so convincing. Primarily and secondary worlds, lol, i still remember all that. ^^

"The Road to Middle Earth"? //interested// yes, i've seen it, but i didn't know it was about what sources he used. cool tip; i'll have to look out for that book again.

*Raises hand*

I loved "The Hobbit" and the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy... quite a lot.
Right now, I am reading "The Silmarillion". Thick, syrupy reading, that is.

I love Tolkien. I love his world building. I like a lot of the imagery that he uses. However, what drives me crazy (in reading "The Silmarillion" in particular), is how some of his sentences are structured and the endless names. I find myself going back and re-reading a particular sentence or passage 3 or 4 times just to try to make sure I'm understanding it. It also gets a bit confusing keeping track of the many diffrent names he'll have for a particular person or place.

It's a bit plodding, so I'm reading "The Silmarillion" a bit at a time... I am finding a lot about it very, very cool. It has wonderful creation-type story... intriguing mythology, and some pretty cool characters. I like Feanor for some reason... his firey attitude... I like Yavanna and Niessa... I like Orome the hunter and his horse Nahar... I was all "Glee!" when I learned the origin of Ents and Dwarves!

So far, I'm about at chapter 11 or 12.. just after the chapter on the coming of Men.

Haibane Shadsie wrote:*Raises hand*

I loved "The Hobbit" and the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy... quite a lot.
Right now, I am reading "The Silmarillion". Thick, syrupy reading, that is.

I love Tolkien. I love his world building. I like a lot of the imagery that he uses. However, what drives me crazy (in reading "The Silmarillion" in particular), is how some of his sentences are structured and the endless names. I find myself going back and re-reading a particular sentence or passage 3 or 4 times just to try to make sure I'm understanding it. It also gets a bit confusing keeping track of the many diffrent names he'll have for a particular person or place.

It's a bit plodding, so I'm reading "The Silmarillion" a bit at a time... I am finding a lot about it very, very cool. It has wonderful creation-type story... intriguing mythology, and some pretty cool characters. I like Feanor for some reason... his firey attitude... I like Yavanna and Niessa... I like Orome the hunter and his horse Nahar... I was all "Glee!" when I learned the origin of Ents and Dwarves!

So far, I'm about at chapter 11 or 12.. just after the chapter on the coming of Men.

The Samarillion is indeed a good book, just wait until you get to later int he book, names begin to sorta melt together

Tolkienb's books and writings have something that alot of writers don't have: a story that has a history. I've read tons of books and they don't really have a history to back it up most of them. As indeph as Lord of the Rings history goes. Some books may have the history of the story in the book but I havnt seen any books yet that has seperate books telling of the history behind it.

I would say without a doubt Tolkien was a abosolute genius of writing (anglo-Saxon). Heck, it's hard enough to create a entire history but seevral whole languages msot of been hard!

XD Half my time spent reading The Silmarillion was looking back in the glossary trying to keep my names and places in order.... But I did really love that book. I didn't finish the last 20 pages though. Gotta do that. After reading [most] of the Sil, I went back and read LotR again and it's amazing how some of the things make so much sense (The first time when Faramir said "May the Valar protect you" I was like whaa? - had StarWars flashbacks there)

The Sil is awesome - it's got some of the best (and extreme) characters of all time. If you thought Gollum was complex, you got another thing coming. Let's see... there's scheming Elves, proud men, dragons, supernatrual beings, HUGE battles, jewelry obsession, and, uh, incest. I think they should make a movie out of this book, or at least one about Turin Turambar. (In fact, I know someone on another forum who wrote a Turambar movie script just for fun - it's awesome!)

I loved the Hobbit too. My dad read it to me when I was 8. And then I read LotR and thought what happened to the giddy elves? Hobbit is a much more light-hearted book, but no less epic or entertaining.

I haven't read any other of Tolkien's works, but I'd like to read Book of Lost Tales and maybe some Letters.

i like tolkien's writings, ive read the hobbit, IMO was an awesome book, ive seen the LOTR movies, which made me to want to read the books badly, but i still havent gotten around to it lol

I feel that I am absolutely required to mark this thread and observe the discussion at least. This one holds himself very much as a fan of Tolkein's creations, and for the time his writing was good.

Since we're speaking about the Silmarillion at the moment... I think I got entirely through the book, but had a difficult time of it. Interesting stuff, but not the most interesting of reading, especially when one feels there are other things one could be doing.

What I enjoyed more were all the books consisting of his notes, little details about various issues. For example, the origin of the Wizards is critical to understanding much of what the Valar were doing during the Fourth Age, and some of Gandalf and Saruman's motivations.

Hey, Tolkien fans, add another to the group! I've only read the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but I read all of them in less than two months, I was so addicted. With school, for me, that is something big. I love the fantasy aspect of his writing. The world he creates is so far removed from what I know as reality, yet has all the real world emotions and charaters to fill it up with. I think that's what I like so much about his books (and to a degree, anime also), and he has a wonderful gift for it as well. I'm impressed with all the maps of the middle-earth and the languages he created probably the most, because it just makes it so much more real. I love the singing and the down to earth-ness of the Hobbits- I can relate to most of their eccentricities. Anyway, I'm bordering on rambling, so that's it for now.

Hobbits rock. They just do. Peaceloving, earthy... and how can you not like people who insist on second breakfast? Heheh.

I think my favorite race are the Elves, though. I like their... sad immortality and their mystic wisdom.

I like the Elves to, my favorite of th efactions are the Dark Elves (sorry thier name escapes me). I also like the Kingdom of Rohan and the men of Rohan.

I'm a big fan of Maedhros. The only left-handed elf, one of the Noldor and son of Fëanor. I'd say that I like the Noldor most, although Thingol Greycloak's realm of Silvan Elves was interesting too, since it was sort of the only safe refuge of any place from the first two ages (thanks mostly to Melian's Girdle, his maia wife's powers protecting the kingdom).

I woul dlike of visited Doriath. My favorite "tale" is the Lament of Beren and Luthein. It is such a buetiful (yet sad) story.

I read the Hobbit, the LOTR books and the Simmarillion is next on my list. ^_^

<----fanatic


*lols* Heh, my dad read me The Hobbit when I was 7, and I've been hooked ever since. ^^ I've read The Hobbit, the LoTR trilogy, the Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, Lost Tales 1 And 2, The Lays of Beleriand (Lay of the Children of Hurin and the Lay of Leithian), and The Adventures of Tom Bombadil. I think that's all, although I very well might have forgotten one or two. ^^

The elves are definately my favorite race. Heh, it used to always make me angry that the elves in The Hobbit got drunk (what an un-elvish thing to do!). *lol* I'm a big Gondolin-fan. ^^ I mean, what an awesome place to live! The people of Rohan are really neat too, though. Horses are awesome. ^^

Yea the elves are my fav too! ^_^

I've read the Hobbit and I'm currently reading The Fellowship of the Ring. J.R.R. Tolkien really amazes me because of the things he did in creating Middle Earth. He made the elven language, history book(The Silmarillion) and many other stories etc. That's quite a lot of work and it makes for a large epic story.

While we're speaking about favorite races, I may as well join in. My favorite would probably be... the Valar. I'm not sure if they count, but I'm picking them anyway.

am more a dwarves and elves fan myself, Glorfindel was the coolest elf by far, and i was fascinated by Moria while reading LOTR (not the one poorly portrayed in the film), ummm have read LOTR, the hobbit, the unfinished tales, the silmarillion and two of the history of middle eart books - The Coming of the Shadow, nd the treason of Isengard, as wel as having the atlas of middle earth.

Ah yes, another Glorfindel fan. My dad was quite upset when he was taken out of the movies quite a bit. I barely remembered him...

Ah yes, another Glorfindel fan.

I was infuriated when they replaced him with Liv Tyler as Arwen (:spit:) in the movies. It ticked me off when I saw that they replaced him with Legolas in the Ralph Bakshi (sp?) version from the '70s, too.

hey whats wrong with Liv Tyler!!!??? lol

Anyways ::sends darts through eyes at Grammarian:: (actually, I think Miranda Otto is much cuter then Liv Tyler )...

I like Tulkas and Oromë cause they are just awesome. When I picture Oromë, i pciture someone who look slike on eof the Rohirum. Now, when they Valar took shape...What did they look like. Did they take a appearence of men or of elves or a how entire identiy different then from any other person?

well... Ive loved the LOTR series and the hobbit for a long time.

Random LOTR thingie... my friend calls our school Rohan due to all the horses on campus.

Hitokiri wrote:hey whats wrong with Liv Tyler!!!??? lol

She's no elf, that's for sure. Way too round of a face.

are elves supposed to be pointy faced??

Elves are supposed to have perfectly structured faces not pointy or round.

Yea and Tolkein did n amazing job on creating a whole world in all of these books. He has a wonderful imagination and creativity! ^_^

Tolkien is amazing.

I read The Hobbit when I was quite young, The Lord of the Rings in high school and again last year and I'm currently into The Silmarillion. I've also read many of Tolkien letters and lost tales.

I find the imagery incredible. Nothing else I've ever read has painted such a vivid picture on the canvas of my mind.