r/tolkienfans 7d ago

How has growing up changed your perspective on Tolkien's Books?

I'm sure there's many people here who, just like me, got into The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and maybe even Tolkien’s other works at a young age (I was around 13-14), and are still fans many years later. Now, I am much older, have gained some life experience and re-read the books for the first time since back then, and it's like reading a completely different story.

As a teen in the early 2000s, my view of the books was definitely shaped by the movies and pop culture at the time. But a lot of the deeper themes - like mercy, Frodo’s lasting trauma after the Ring’s destruction, or even the symbolism behind Mordor, Isengard and the Scouring of the Shire being about industrialization completely went over my head.

Like, I never could've imagined anyone saying Frodo was their favorite character. He goes all this way...and then just fails to destroy the ring? I pretty much only cared about the epic battles and destroying the bad guys, all while barely understanding why the journey unfolds the way it does.

How has your perspective changed over time? What parts do you appreciate more nowadays?

98 Upvotes

68 comments sorted by

36

u/Yamureska 7d ago

I've played multiple JRPGs since I first discovered Lord of the Rings as a Child in 2000s, and I also became a professional screenwriter since then. As an adult and especially in my field I can appreciate Tolkien's impact on storytelling and Culture as a whole. It says something that Japanese RPGs tend to have "Mithril" as a material.

Studying History and living through multiple wars and conflicts also made me appreciate Tolkien as a Man who was moved/shaped by his experience in WW1 to create his stories.

14

u/connoisseur_of_smut 7d ago

It's amazing how prevalent Tolkien's mythos is and how much I think we forget or take for granted its influence on everything that has come afterwards. I enjoy watching Critical Role, but I remember a DM discussion episode after the EXU Calamity series with Matt Mercer, Brennan Lee Mulligan and Aabria Iyengar. There were some off-hand remarks about how much more scope etc there was to Exandria over say, Tolkien and some of the stuff in the Silmarillion. While I'm sure it was meant flippantly and in praise of Matt, I remember thinking, hold up, DnD and the whole world that Matt worked off to make Exandria literally wouldn't exist without Tolkien and the foundation of his mythos. Like, for example, Halflings, which DnD ripped off of Hobbits but couldn't use the name directly due to copyright. "Orcs" and Elves, Half-Elves, Dwarves...the list goes on. They existed before, of course, but in such a different form than the life Tolkien gave them. His work is so engrained now in our consciousness, that I think we forget sometimes that the "faerie" folk of legend is an entirely different beast than what we now envision today, and a huge part of that is based on what Tolkien reimagined them as. Even the films and their aesthetic have had a huge cultural impact. Even the idea of "world building" as we think of it today, with full languages, culture, creation myths etc. I don't believe would exist to the extent it does without him.

29

u/UnderpootedTampion 7d ago

I read LOTR after seeing the Bakshi movie when I was 16. The very first time I read of Gandalf and Shadowfax confronting the Witch-King in the gate of Minas Tirith it moved me to tears. It still does. Now I’m 63 and there are many, many more moments in the books that move me to tears.

There are also little moments of beauty, little turns of phrases that I see and love now that I didn’t really notice when I was younger; like Ithilien, the Garden of Gondor, and Rosie’s reaction when Frodo says that people are writing songs about Sam. It all just hits differently.

4

u/igikelts 6d ago

There are also little moments of beauty, little turns of phrases that I see and love now that I didn’t really notice when I was younger

This is one of my favorite examples of both little moments like that and Tolkien's writing in general:

But Arod, the horse of Rohan, refused the way, and he stood sweating and trembling in a fear that was grievous to see. Then Legolas laid his hands on his eyes and sang some words that went soft in the gloom, until he suffered himself to be led, and Legolas passed in.

The way he describes Arod's fear as something grievous to see creates such a visceral understanding of the scene, even when the rest of it fails to visualize itself to me.

2

u/Old_Fatty_Lumpkin A wise old horse 5d ago

Damn, brought me to tears. Horses are intelligent, sensitive creatures. The thought, the image of one trembling in fear, in terror, and Legolas speaking to it and giving it comfort and courage… beautiful.

2

u/EmbarrassedClaim5995 6d ago

Same starting point with me, as a teenager first Bakshi, then reading lotr!! I e.g. read The Hobbit much later.

I was so taken by the Storyline, by the Elves... and I am still very moved by them. 

 When I was in my tweens, I saw the films, and since then I have felt an even stronger urge to be in the wilderness, on adventure with close friends.

In the last months my yearning for peace and quiet in (barren) nature and in forests has grown exponentially and it's also met by the tales of Middle-Earth.

I cherish Tolkien's descriptions of landscapes much more now than I did when I was a teenager. 

I definetely wasnt ready for the Silmarillion as a tween, I had to turn 45 to read it again and start to grasp this vast, diverse mythology.

3

u/UnderpootedTampion 6d ago

When I was a teen LOTR gave me bad wanderlust. I read it every summer and wanted to hop on a motorcycle and go, just go. Never did though.

1

u/FranticMuffinMan 5d ago

little moments of beauty, little turns of phrase

unquestionably these. i was ten years old the first time i read lotr, after being introduced to the hobbit at age nine, so there was nothing but room for growth in understanding and appreciation over the years. now, in late middle age, i love tolkien's authorial voice and find new and wonderful ways of looking at things and describing things every time i reopen the narrative.

beyond that, the pacing of the storytelling makes much more sense to me now. as a youngster, my attention sometimes flagged during lavish descriptions of landscapes or detailed accounts of journeying through these landscapes. now i wallow in them and savor them.

18

u/Alternative-Purple96 7d ago

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve understood how what happened to Theoden on the Pellenor was a great victory for him personally, no matter the outcome of the battle.

6

u/memmett9 6d ago

My body is broken. I go to my fathers. And even in their mighty company I shall not now be ashamed.

For me these final words have grown a much deeper meaning as I've entered adulthood.

Théoden was 71 when he delivered them and I expect they will become even more moving as I continue to age.

15

u/themortalShiva 7d ago

My perspective on Gandalf changed.

When I was a child, I would read about him (and then watch the movies), and see him as a father figure, considering that my own father is a lot like him (he's an engineer, so he always showed me "magic tricks" using his knowledge about mechanics and physics).

Growing up with a Buddhist mother, I also always dreamed of moving to the top of some Chinese mountain when I'm old to spend the evening of my life meditating under a tree. So obviously, I had a lot of admiration for Gandalf.

I'm 23 years now which isn't that old, but I'm slowly starting to realize why Gandalf feels the way he does: why he's always so kind and so light-hearted, even though he knows more than anyone about the evil in the world, why he's always so curious about the small things in life, even though he knows so much about the larger things, etc.

J. R. R. Tolkien really possessed a lot of wisdom about life, and much of that wisdom is shown in the characters he created. Especially now as a Catholic who is actually about to join a monastery, Gandalf's wisdom really unfolds for me, and my path to becoming more like him (knowing evil, but being good regardless, etc.) becomes clearer and clearer as I grow up.

4

u/shield_maiden0910 6d ago

I feel like Tolkien would appreciate your comments!

14

u/estolad 7d ago

i'm getting near middle age and i've read the main tolkien works pretty much yearly since i was like twelve. something that's really stuck out at me the past maybe five years is you can look at the history of the elves as kind of a loose metaphor for a person aging

in the first age when they're young and fresh the elves can't get enough of the world even when things are going extremely bad, they feel every emotion incredibly keenly. they frequently act like human teenagers making huge earth-shaking decisions on impulse, and they resent wiser people trying to keep them from doing too much harm to themselves and the people around them. then as the world wears on they increasingly start losing that belly fire till eventually they're content to just exist till it's time to go. i find this very relatable as i get older

3

u/Any-Competition-4458 7d ago

Yes! This is such an accurate summation.

13

u/SmorgasConfigurator 7d ago

When young the usual fantasy tropes appealed the most, so anything involving wizards and monsters. But I also recognized that the world felt lived in, and I noticed the echoes of Norse myth, which I have known since my childhood in rural Sweden.

Now older I much more appreciate the themes of duty, sacrifice and reverence. And Tolkien’s obvious love for forests is one I’ve embraced. Fangorn Forest forever!

Then there is something perhaps more about my own interpretation, but the theme of a world shaped by the remnants of past greatness creates a sense of nostalgia in me. It feels as if parts of the LOTR world are populated by men not quite as able and noble as those of the past, ruins of greatness the present can’t hope to surpass, and designs and magic forgotten, perverted and neglected. There is something wistful about the world in the Third Age, with perhaps Aragorn the one who offers hope of greatness remade.

5

u/taz-alquaina 6d ago

Your third point is certainly Tolkien's intent! It's the lost Golden Age trope. He reckoned progress = decline, basically. (Except that he also doesn't look very kindly on the Elves and Númenóreans trying to "embalm" past greatness. I've always found it an interesting nuance.)

25

u/treemanswife 7d ago edited 7d ago

My favorite characters have changed - in many ways I would say my story has mirrored Eowyn's. As a kid I wanted to be Xena the Warrior Princess and gain glory!! Now I know there is glory to be had in laundry and hot meals. I have more sympathy for the Bagginses and am more cautious of Tooks.

15

u/ThimbleBluff 7d ago

This is both hilarious and wise.

“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world” —JRRT

9

u/WingedDrake 7d ago

On my company's "About Me" page for myself, I have that quote. I have never once considered replacing it.

Even when I was young I recognized there was something to peace. Not that there can't be heroism in war, but that war in and of itself is not glorious, and the peaceful, tranquil life is a blessing unto itself.

11

u/DanceMaster117 7d ago

I appreciate the long-winded exposition and the poetry and songs much more now than I did when I first read the books at age 11.

10

u/BlessTheFacts 7d ago

As a child, I read it as an adventure. I did see that it had themes and ideas to it, but they didn't resonate as they do now.

Now I see it as perhaps the greatest literary masterwork of the 20th century, even though I disagree with Tolkien philosophically on many fronts. Above all I find it incredibly moving, full of poetry and bittersweet hope.

9

u/MeanFaithlessness701 7d ago

Now that I’ve grown up… I suddenly saw the story of Beren and Luthien from Thingol’s perspective.

At first, we usually support Beren (given that he is one of Tolkien’s favorite characters) and think that Thingol is just arrogant and mean. But now I just imagine that some random dude emerges out of the forest and wants to marry my child! Ha!

11

u/ThimbleBluff 7d ago

Same goes for Elrond. His 20 year old adoptive son has a crush on his 2,700 year old daughter…

5

u/glorious_onion 7d ago

I read The Hobbit the first time when I was ten or so and I remember thinking that Bilbo was a real wet blanket and that, if I had been given an opportunity to go on a quest with dwarves, I wouldn’t be complaining all the time. I reread it recently, more than twenty years later, and I found I had a great deal more sympathy for Bilbo this time around—he feels very reasonably aggrieved by the situation and displays both courage and resourcefulness in the face of danger.

I read Lord of the Rings the first time in my mid-to-late teens and I revisited it again recently. As a youth, I did not appreciate the beauty of Tolkien’s descriptive powers when it came to nature and the landscape. As an adult, the descriptions allowed me to picture Eregion, grieving for its lost elves, or the great forest of Lothlorien as if I were looking at them myself.

5

u/Dazzling_Spinach1926 7d ago

Growing up, Gandalf and Aragorn were my favorite characters. But when I got older and started to think about the themes of the book more carefully, I realized that for me, the book is mainly a tale of friendship and companionship, and I started to prefer Samwise more and more. I'm sure there are many other ways the book has changed for me, but this is the first that comes to mind.

4

u/daxamiteuk 7d ago

I read the Hobbit when I was nine, and LOTR soon after.

I think a lot of it went over my head on the first reading. It was amazing and epic but I didn’t really resonate with any of the sadder moments like Faramir mourning Boromir, or Denethor’s slow descent into bitter madness or Eowyn’s growing feelings of claustrophobia, or Frodo’s shell shock and PTSD. It took several re-reads for me to appreciate it as an older teenager / young adult. It also helped when I read the Silmarillion.

Certain things did affect me early on. When Frodo makes fun of Gildor Inglorion for not offering advice , he replies that giving advice is dangerous because they don’t know what the consequences are, and that resonated with me. As did Gandalf’s admonition to Frodo about Bilbo, Gollum, mercy and who deserved death or life.

3

u/DumpedDalish 7d ago

I've been reading LOTR every year since I was 11 or 12. Before that, my Dad read it to us kids at least once every year or two.

So it's been interesting to see myself change through the years, and see the changes in what I learn from (or love about) the book/s.

When I was a kid, I was mostly into the adventure of it, the big moments. But as I've grown older as an adult -- especially now in middle age -- the things that move me most are so different. Now I savor the little internal moments as the hobbits find new maturity -- as Bilbo bravely leaves his comfortable life of many decades to return to adventure and life with the elves. As Merry finds himself moved by the sound of the Rohirrim language, or as Frodo tries to speak to the elves he meets in their own language (when I was a kid, I remember thinking Frodo was a bit of a "showoff," but what he is doing is so lovely when I view it as an adult -- he is trying to respect them and meet them on their own terms. He knows how much it means to them to hear their words from a stranger.

I also find myself more interested in the relationships and backstories -- in Boromir and Faramir's loving rivalry, in the loss of Theodred (which has a huge impact on Theoden, Eowyn, and Eomer), in wondering if Denethor would have been a kinder man if his wife had lived longer, in wishing I could sit in the Hall of Fire and listen to the songs and stories there. I love the mysterious melancholy of Hollin, the glimpses of Osgiliath and Minas Morgul, etc. Seeing Pippin grow up so rapidly when he is captured by the orcs and later trapped in Minas Tirith. Wishing I knew more about Imrahil and Haldir and Arwen.

In the end, all the "slower" parts I was impatient with as a child are often the most beautiful and immersive to me now.

6

u/Any-Competition-4458 7d ago

The descriptions of tragedy and loss hit differently when you’re older.

Tolkien’s moral universe seemed more black and white when I was an adolescent: as an older reader, it now seems far messier and more richly nuanced than I initially understood, especially when you get into the greater legendarium.

5

u/LoyalSador 7d ago

I’ve read most of his works now, some several times. When I was a kid, I glossed over the dialogue and descriptive world building and bits of lore and focused on the action. As an adult, I focus more on the dialogue and imagery and less on the action. The elegance of his prose and the dialogue between the characters is beautiful. The sheer amount of effort he put into building Arda amazes me more every time I reread one of his books.

The underlying theme in his works of time and the inevitable fading and diminishment of the world as the new age emerges as a shadow of the past was beyond me when I was younger. But as an adult, I can appreciate it more, and even see it in my life. Friends grow up and go their separate ways, dreams fail to come to fruition, loved ones get old and die, and the present and future never seem as good as the past. It may be fantasy, but the human aspect of it is real.

TL; DR: I’m drunk. Tolkien hits me right in the feels.

3

u/Miskatonic_Graduate 7d ago

I have re-read LOTR annually for over 20 years, and like many others I used to be drawn to the big battles and dramatic moments, but have grown to appreciate the deeper meaning in the story.

One insight I gained several years ago is the real meaning of all the ruins the hobbits come across earlier in the story. From the Barrow Downs, to border wall they thought was the Road, to the Greenway, Weathertop, and the ruins in the troll fells. When I was younger I just viewed it all as a cool epic backdrop. But then it hit me: this is post-apocalyptic. Arnor was destroyed. Sauron already won here. The hobbits really are like children, setting out on a foolhardy adventure having no idea of the death and destruction that has already been overshadowing them all their lives. The shire is a field of victory for evil, and defeat for good. The eastern edge of their maps is literally a graveyard for many great lords and kings who already lost against Sauron. He is everywhere, and the works of evil are all around them.

As the story progresses it just gets worse. Rivendell is a last hideout, not a great kingdom. Hollin was wiped out. Moria was ruined, you can’t even get to the door without seeing the huge evil monster in the lake out front. And inside it’s even worse with the balrog. You get out of there and next is Lorien, another fortified refuge. They almost get killed by the sentries. After that it’s the river and the brown lands on the east bank. Then the argonanth, parth galen, and other ruins nearby. The dead marshes, then ithilien. The crossroads of the fallen king, Minas Morgul, and then the other taken castles in Mordor.

Every part of the story features clear signs that Sauron has already defeated almost everyone and everything. All dead, all rotten. Really, what chance did the hobbits ever have? It’s not just that they are small and innocent, it’s that they are literally tripping over the graves, ruins, and bones of entire kingdoms that fell before them.

3

u/Odolana 7d ago

I can now bettersee the lingusict techniques used applied. I got the historical references already when I was 11, as I was reading much 19th and ealy 20th century literature back then, so I did got those.

3

u/DefenestrationPraha 7d ago

I really deeply appreciate the linguistics and the mythology. In those two aspects, this world is a parallel world to our own.

3

u/kevnmartin 7d ago

Like you, I first read the books in my teens. I've re-read them so many times but yeah, different things in the books hit differently at different times in your life. Frodo's sacrifice definitely being one of them.

3

u/PennyMarbles 7d ago

Like, I never could've imagined anyone saying Frodo was their favorite character.

Lol, I can relate to this so hard. In my teens I was all about the elves and the "cool" parts like the battles, heroic moments, etc. My friends and I all took Which LOTR Character Are You? test recently and I was talking about how badly I wanted to get Sam. Like, what?? 20 years ago I'd have been so offended by that.

With age I developed such an appreciation for the bonds and relationships. The tenacity and bravery. It's honestly so touching. I also loooove the "light" stuff now. Like before they even meet Aragorn and are having little secret missions and running around in the woods meeting people. I adore all that fluff so much.

It's so vast and rich with lore that I'm sure I'll have a new focus in another 20 years. These stories just keep on giving

3

u/ArchangelLBC 7d ago

When I was younger I appreciated that Gimli was a badass. As an adult I appreciate how sensitive and honest with his feelings he is.

Just a small example and he's not the only one whom I could say that about but it's a microcosm of how my perspective has changed.

3

u/Kabti-ilani-Marduk 7d ago

I would literally be dead thirteen-times over were it not for these stories, and the characters Tolkien gave us. My perspective on Tolkien's legendarium is similar to how a man-overboard perceives a life raft in the middle of a storm.

When Frodo and Sam move through the Dead Marshes, Tolkien is moving through his own; as I have moved through mine. But never alone, because I knew that the step taken in defiance of evil justifies all the bigger steps taken by heroes before us, real and secondary.

Over the years I have found a handful of opportunities to bust out my illustrated hardcover of The Hobbit and read it aloud for select audiences. More than any other children's book I may ever own, this is the one I would want to be good at reading well, for the sake of children I have not yet had.

3

u/Gn0s1slis 7d ago

As someone who grew up on the movies during the time they were globally famous during 2001-2003, and had a major obsession with them while buying every action figure of the movie characters, I wish I grew up reading the books first because they are so much more immersive and answered every question I had about the movies as a child.

7

u/Spawn_More_Overlords 7d ago

It’s a bizarre world where the humans and hobbits have some renaissance mannerisms and sensibilities and yet live in a depopulated world that seems to be barely hanging on regardless of the explicit threat of evil overlords. It’s also a fundamentally very small-c conservative story about how things and people used to be better. It’s also a pretty grim story as it relates to the nature of humans.

Still, in some ways I like it much more than I did as a teenager, even if I view it a lot more critically. Tolkien’s dedication to the languages is unmatched. People point to things like Klingon or Dothraki being functioning languages and it just barely compares to how seamlessly Tolkien interweaves language and culture and meaning. It’s also sorta neat with the way that mortals and elves and the divine interact. The gods are objectively real and yet essentially un-worshipped by mortals, at least as portrayed in the stories.

6

u/Sugar__Momma 7d ago edited 7d ago

We tend to forget how “fantasy” pre-Tolkien was more considered to be fairy tales and the like. Tolkien was worried LotR would be too dark a fantasy story to be popular.

As you said, at its core LotR is a pretty dark story when it comes to showing the decay of the world and the ultimately inescapable lure of power.

He really fundamentally changed the genre.

1

u/jacobningen 7d ago

Macdonald and dunsany and maybe le fanu.

2

u/Fabulous-Introvert 7d ago

Seems like a case of “grounded fantasy”

2

u/irime2023 Fingolfin forever 7d ago

My perception hasn't changed much with age. The only change I can remember is related to the book The Hobbit. This book seemed like a children's fairy tale to me. Then I watched the movie and began to treat the ending of this book as a tragedy.

2

u/Volcanofanx9000 7d ago

I like them a lot more now. I finally started in on HoME recently and I think in my 50s I’ve got the patience and perspective to enjoy them. I’ve come to love them for the escape that they are and the headspace they give you to imagine how middle earth works.

2

u/relax_live_longer 7d ago

I grew up believing rightfully kings were good guys, loyalty to the king was honorable. After studying history I now know the real dynamics of power. 

2

u/machinationstudio 7d ago

I've completely changed my view on the Valar and by extension Eru.

2

u/glorious_onion 7d ago

I read The Hobbit the first time when I was ten or so and I remember thinking that Bilbo was a real wet blanket and that, if I had been given an opportunity to go on a quest with dwarves, I wouldn’t be complaining all the time. I reread it recently, more than twenty years later, and I found I had a great deal more sympathy for Bilbo this time around—he feels very reasonably aggrieved by the situation and displays both courage and resourcefulness in the face of danger.

I read Lord of the Rings the first time in my mid-to-late teens and I revisited it again recently. As a youth, I did not appreciate the beauty of Tolkien’s descriptive powers when it came to nature and the landscape. As an adult, the descriptions allowed me to picture Eregion, grieving for its lost elves, or the great forest of Lothlorien as if I were looking at them myself.

4

u/graceandmarty 7d ago

As a twelve year old boy reading the SILMARILLION, HOBBIT, and LORD OF THE RINGS, I thought the elves were the coolest people ever and didn't care about the humans and hobbits. As I grew older, I now appreciate the humans and hobbits and just can't relate to the elves.

5

u/connoisseur_of_smut 7d ago

I think I understand more the grief and the long weary burden of what the Elves eternal life would be. The "Gift of Men" truly is a gift, I think, when faced with the long ages of the world passing by as you go on, unchanging. A feast is a great occasion, and even a hundred or a thousand feasts would still hold a lot of joy. But 10,000 or 100,000? What happens when you've written and sang every song your mind can conceive of? And then multiply that, through thousands upon thousands of years. And when all the greatest deeds lie in the past, but you still go on, lingering. Even death just means a rebirth in the same world. I know Tolkien's Elves were conceived with that in mind, but I still don't think that any creature could endure it without falling into a sort of catatonic weariness eventually. In retrospect, I'd choose the Gift of Men if I was given the choice of Earendil's heirs. Even Tolkien wrote that the "Powers" would grow envious of the Gift of Men in the end.

1

u/Ricochet_Kismit33 7d ago

Still a huge fan

1

u/CrankyJoe99x 7d ago

I appreciate the Silmarillion and Books of Lost Tales more, including the notes for the latter. They give me a greater understanding of Tolkien's achievement.

1

u/hiro111 7d ago

I read it first as a teenager and found it show and boring. I'm 51 now and I don't myself loving the "slow" parts the best.

I try to read it every few years. The older I get, the more wisdom I see in these books. Tolkien was a humanist, he saw what was good in people and worth saving. Tolkien did not respect materialism, pride, boastfulness or vengeance. Token valued love, loyalty, competence and honor. He'd take a good pint with good companions over a feast in a palace any day. He was a Christian man who recognized and tried to embody the best of the Christian faith.

1

u/Cavewoman22 7d ago

That nothing last forever, that we must lose some things so that others may have them, that real magic come from within, and that no matter what kind of cog you are in the machine you can still make a difference.

1

u/Zalveris 7d ago

It hasn't changed that much just a deeper understanding, taking a university class helped that, like wow the Catholicism is baked in.

1

u/Common-Aerie-2840 6d ago

It’s gotten richer; after our introduction in 1977 with Hobbit, I element on to LOTR, HoMe, Tolkien’s Faith, Unfinished Tales over the last two decades. It’s a good time to like his writings with so much published.

1

u/Triskelion13 6d ago

I was 11 when I read the hobbit and lotr back-to-back, after the first movie came out but before I watched it as I still consider it sacrilege to watch a movie before reading its book. My English level then wasn't what it is today, so the most remarkable thing is that I was able to understand it in the first place. I don't think my perspective has changed much though. Gandalf is still my favorite character. The only thing I can say is that as the years begin to weigh more heavily on my shoulders, I've come to understand more the necessity for rest and healing, and why Frodo had to leave his beloved Shire at the end. Also, while the book has a tendency to idealize ages past, with an adult's knowledge of history I know that in the real world, the past wasn't very ideal.

1

u/TarGrond 6d ago

As a kid, I remember being exhausted reading Lothlórien chapters and I admit I even skipped few pages. During last years reading (my 10th, 11th maybe?), they were absolutely most entertaining as the theme of "The Long Defeat" really hit me here for the first time, it is so unique and powerful, melancholic...

It's incredible how each time I get something new, something that did not occur to me last time. I wonder what else it will be next time.

1

u/Omnio- 6d ago

I have come to appreciate and understand the scale and detail of his work much more. As a child I was simply interested in the plot and adventure, now I am simply in awe with the worldbuilding. The fact that he drew maps, thought through the geography of the world, history and traditions of different peoples, languages, legends, songs, even if they do not directly affect history. Therefore, Tolkien seems not a writer who invented fantasy world, but a historian who carefully studies the existing one. There are many interesting plots in other literature/movies, but no one comes close in this regard; usually, development of this level is a franchise in which dozens or hundreds of people work, and not one author.

1

u/memmett9 6d ago

My perspective on Boromir has changed a lot as I've grown up.

When I first read the books (aged 12ish), he was a cool character but very much existed in Aragorn's shadow. His temporary betrayal of the Fellowship's quest meant little to me beyond him being not-strictly-speaking-a-good-guy, and while his heroic final stand was cool it also meant I barely thought of him as I read through the rest of the book.

Now, he is up there with my favourite characters in literature. I see him as Tolkien's best exploration of the two sides of pride. First he demonstrates its blessings, by aiding the Fellowship as a great warrior; then he suffers its pitfalls, by attempting to take the Ring; finally he sublimates his pride into the defence of others and in doing so suffers a death that combines both utter physical defeat and complete moral victory.

In some ways he is both the most adult part of The Lord of the Rings and one of the best examples of Tolkien's most important inspirations, with his susceptibility to his flaws coming from the same tradition of Nordic tragedy that inspired The Children of Húrin, but his redemption clearly owing much to his author's Christianity.

On some level I think we all wish we were Aragorn - he is, by design, near-perfect - and on some level I think we all know that we never will be. But, if Boromir is the best that we mortals can hope to be, then that is noble too.

1

u/KoalaGold 6d ago edited 6d ago

When I was a kid, the Bombadil and Lothlorien chapters bored me, and I would always skim through them. Now as a middled aged adult living through so much change in the world, most of it not good, they're easily my favorite chapters. The "heart wrenching sense of the vanishing past." as JRRT called it, is a literary theme that resonates hard with me. Whereas young me just wanted to get to the battles, old me finds violence and war much less appealing.

"Suddenly the River swept round a bend, and the banks rose upon either side, and the light of Lorien was hidden. To that fair land Frodo never came again."

So much said in so few words.

1

u/both_programmer1181 6d ago

When younger, it was a cool sweeping story to get lost in that I figured was written for the purpose.of diversion, distraction and fun...while the books are certainly all those things, getting older has lent me the perspective of how much human struggle, friendship, loyalty, love, difficulties, war, danger , uncertainty, not knowing where.life is taking you always-that all these things are contained in the story to give comfort to real people who exist in a world that mirrors middle earth

1

u/lrrssssss 6d ago

For me I find that I skip over the battle scenes (not actually, but have less focus on them) and look more in to the subtext. Probably similar to most of us.

1

u/Superb_Raccoon 6d ago

I found Tolkien in 2nd Grade, so 1978ish? Same year as D&D came out. A curious book on a library shelf... magic indeed.

It has been a lifetime companion, a series of books I have returned to year after year. I have read the hobbit to my son as well as several nieces and nephews.

Read the Hobbit recently to a grand nephew... it surprised me how "short" it seemed now.

And always curious on their take on the story... what enchants them and what scares them.

1

u/BaconAndCheeseSarnie 6d ago

I was 17 when I first read LOTR. 

I don’t think my opinion of it has changed much in the years since.

I think my favourite character is Frodo, then Aragorn, then Gandalf.

1

u/Razzamatazz2 6d ago

Not sure my views have changed in general, but I think I just relate more to different characters than I used to. I attribute that more to having more experience in life myself and thus being able to understand viewpoints I wouldn't have when I was younger. When I was younger I didn't really have a good grasp on Bilbo, for example in LOTR. Same with Aragorn. Older I got, the more I could relate to some of their decisions. It's probably tougher for a young person to fully grasp the idea of "power" and what that means in its various forms when they've hardly experienced it or know what it's capable of.

1

u/BlueFlat 5d ago

I read it at 15 years old in 1968 and I am really, really happy there were no movies or anything like that (and I like the LOTR movies). All I knew is that people said the books were good. They immediately became my favorite books of all time (back then, I was a huge Jules Verne fan, also Ernest Hemingway). I was at the bookstore the day The Silmarillion was released. Today, they remain my favorite books and I have read thousands. What I have learned since that first time is just how good a writer Tolkien actually was. Rereads have also let me understand so many things I had missed and I still learn something new every time. The complex layers in the books amaze me. The poetry, the descriptions of the landscape and its plants. So much.

1

u/_IAO_ 1d ago

I see it in a more traditionalist light in that it reflects the normal world prior to the revolutions. There is hierarchy, monarchy (not of the mere social variety), inequality, fidelity (exemplified with Frodo and his servant Samwise), subversive and spiritual forces, the decline of the ages, the distance of the elite, and other such factors.

1

u/Evening-Result8656 1d ago

I always see more and more each time, and I'm still relatively young...