J. R. R. Tolkien was born on this date, January 3, way back in 1892. I’ve done a number of birthday posts on him, so I’ll not rehash those.
Today, I want to ruminate a bit, if you’ll allow a bit of self-indulgence. Tolkien has been on my mind some lately. I’m not really sure why. It may have something to do with having heard a Led Zeppelin song on the radio the other day, but I don’t think that was it. He was on my mind before that.
I mention Zeppelin because there are references to LOTR in some of their music. I’m not really a Zeppelin fan (don’t judge me), but I do enjoy some of their work.
I’m probably feeling nostalgic for my early days of reading fantasy, when Tolkien was about all that was available, at least in small to medium sized towns in Texas in the late 70s and early 80s. Brooks Shannara was just coming on the scene. There were the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant (which I didn’t read until I was an upperclassman in college, thankfully), and not much else that I recall.
I know that’s not exactly true, but that’s the way it seemed. The Ballantine Adult Fantasy line had been discontinued a few years before I was old enough to read fantasy that wasn’t in the children’s section of the library. And frankly, I was more interesting in science fiction at the time. Some movie about a guy named Skywalker had recently been released, and that was the direction my interests were running.
So Tolkien’s shadow was one I had fallen under as much by default as by intention. I remember the Hildbrandt calendars were pretty ubiquitous. To a large degree, they were what solidified the look of Tolkien’s characters in my mind. Today, I look back at them and think how dated they look. I still like them, though. But I think the Darrell K. Sweet covers are the best.
But Tolkien has been on my mind for other reasons. I find as I’ve gotten older and crankier, his themes appeal to me more and more. I’ve read the LOTR 2.5 times. The last attempt was when I was in Costa Rica and my father-in-law passed away unexpectedly while I was there. I’d taken an electronic version to read on the plane and never really got back into it after the funeral.
I do want to finish it, but I am growing more interested in some of his other stuff. I’ve only read The Hobbit and the LOTR. I might just dive into some of those if I find myself with time on my hands.
Outside of those two works, what do you recommend of Tolkien’s to read?
The Silmarillion. The greatest epic fantasy ever. I have read it several times, always with great enjoyment.
If I can block out the time, I’m going to try to read that this year.
I love the Silmarillion (and The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings) unreservedly and can’t count how many times I’ve read them; and would heartily recommend any of them.
Having said which, another option might be the Children of Hurin standalone book that Christopher Tolkien put out several years ago — it takes one of the longest and most complete (and best) of the stories from Unfinished Tales (also told, although in much more abbreviated form, in The Silmarillion) and does some minor clean-up to make it something approaching a complete story.
(The other standalones that CJRT put out — Beren & Luthien; The Fall of Gondolin; and was there maybe another? — are harder to recommend to somebody who’s not already hip-deep in the lore, being that they’re mostly collections of drafts & fragments from several sources, rather than single, coherent narratives.)
I’ve got all of those, Joe. They are also in the queue.
I’d suggest Phil Dragash’s free unabridged full-cast audiobook of The Lord of the Rings, with Howard Shore’s music. That third time read ‘in full audio, with music and FX’ should be a corker.
If I end up driving as much as I have this past week, I’ll need to look into that. Thanks for the tip.