Review of Tolkien

Ok, so I have a bunch of nerdy friends (birds of a feather flock together, amirite?), so I've heard a lot about Lord of the Rings over the past few years. However, for some reason, I did not officially get psyched about it until Christmas break. I guess my being an English major contributed to me recognizing the books as a literary marvel, so I decided to give it a try. I read The Hobbit (aloud to my parents, because that's the best way to go) in December, and then began a course dedicated completely to J.R.R. Tolkien in January. Over the semester, I have read all four books and seen all six movies — the extended versions, if you were wondering. I've also read a ton of Tolkien's other stuff, and I'm in the middle of the Silmarillion right now. So basically I'm a Tolkien genius and ultimate fanatic now.

So first let's address the books. I loved The Hobbit. Books like that are always fun, especially when you read them out loud. It was an easy read and kept me involved. I especially loved how Tolkien directly referred to the reader a few times — it was amusing and unique. The trilogy, however, was way harder to get into. If you've read all of the books, you definitely know what I'm talking about. In my version of the books, The Fellowship of the Ring is 150 pages longer than The Hobbit, and the words are closer together, sooo there's that. Plus, in some ways, it isn't as narrative as The Hobbit. Another thing is that in the trilogy, Tolkien tells the full story of one party and then goes to the full story of the other party. This can be hard to keep track of, especially since Tolkien's timelines are so precise. Anyway, it still was an amazing story, especially with my in-class discussions about them. I've learned that Tolkien is a philological genius as I learned the literal meanings and origins of his proper nouns. Also, I dove into the idea of the "cauldron of story" that Tolkien created, which basically says that every idea comes from somewhere and all literature is connected in some way. For instance, Tolkien's LOTR cauldron includes spoonfuls from Norse myths, the Bible, and Arthurian legends. Learning all of this along with reading the text made it come even more alive (and inspired me to be a more studied writer myself!).

For the movies, I would say that The Hobbit ones were not as good as the trilogy. At first, I really enjoyed the relationship between the dwarves and Bilbo. I even wrote a short essay about it for class, just sayin'... Plus, the characters of Bilbo and Kili are simply amusing. However, the random inclusion of Legolas, Tauriel, and some of the songs really threw me off, especially when they added super-elf capabilities to Legolas' character in The Battle of the Five Armies. I watched it with a group of friends, and all of us were just rolling our eyes at the impossible things Legolas was doing, and the fact that the plot was changed so that Kili's death was caused by a made-up character! Like, what the heck?! Anyway... I liked the very last scene at least. As for the trilogy movies, holy cow. I tried watching the first one a few years ago, but I somehow never got into it. This time, though, I guess my mind was fully committed to the pure amazingness I was about to witness and I was not disappointed. The acting, the score, the cinematography, and the overall representation of the books was astounding! I was completely wowed at the experience and since then I have been falling asleep to the soundtrack every night since I've seen the movies.

Verdict: If more of us valued people like Tolkien above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.