Re-Reading The Lord Of The Rings

I am re-reading The Lord of the Rings at the moment. I was reading a short review of LOTR in “Honey for a Teen’s Heart” by Gladys Hunt and Barbara Hampton, which is a book full of recommended good books for teens to read. It asserted that “you should become better yourself for having journeyed with Frodo through Middle Earth.”

Well, I had read the books before, and picked them up several times since then, always with the intention to read them from cover to cover, only to always skip to my favourite parts.  I had immensely enjoyed the story, but I hadn’t really got much out of it. It didn’t have much effect on my life. “Do Hard Things” by Brett and Alex Harris had been motivating, “That Hideous Strength” by C.S. Lewis was thought-provoking, and I had thought about the good and evil aspects in everyone’s character when I read “20,000 Leagues under the Sea”, but when I first read LOTR, I didn’t find much thought material.

The reason why was because I had just zipped through them, read a chapter then moved on too quickly onto the next. Mum has got us into the habit of “Reading Journaling”, which means that as we read a book, we write down our thoughts, our notes, our feelings about what’s happening. We can write down thoughts as we go about what the author is saying, or the issues that he is exploring. It’s a great habit, because it makes you slow down and think about what you’ve just read, instead of just turning the page to the next gem.

So I’ve decided to do that as I read “The Lord of the Rings” once again. I read the first two chapters of “The Fellowship of the Ring”. These are some of my thoughts ( I even had more to think about as I wrote this down!).

I have heard that someone once compared the One Ring to a drug addiction. That’s not a bad comparison. Gollum is like someone who is addicted to the drug, and is now struggling to stay “clean”. But that can be brought closer to home. I would say that the Ring reminds me more of any addiction - computer games, TV shows, foods, games, books etc. Addictions pull on you, calling you to try it again, until it dominates your mind and it’s all that you can think about. Gandalf warns Bilbo to let go of the ring, it had too strong a hold on him. But Bilbo had to let go of the addiction by his own accord, if it was forced off him then that would do more harm than good. I wonder, is that why God doesn’t force us to be righteous (having given us free will)?

When Gandalf explains the terrible history of the Ring and it’s dangers to Frodo, Frodo exclaims that he wishes that these dark days hadn’t come in his time. Gandalf tells him that it’s not our job to pick what times we are born into, but what we do with it. “And already, Frodo, our time is beginning to look black.” (Book I, chapter 2). That made me wonder- can you tell if your days are better or worse than any others? We don’t know all the details of the good and evil of former days, so when we compare our limited experiences of today with our very limited knowledge about yesterday we are making a very unequal and limited comparison. Were the Middle Ages worse than today? It’s an interesting thought.

So those were my thoughts after reading the first two chapters of The Lord of the Rings. I intend to share some more as I read through it, but if you haven’t read the book, I will be sharing spoilers, so skip my post and visit me another day! J.

11:33 AM - Jun. 10, 2009 - post comment

Hey!

Wow...thats amazing! I love your thoughts.
I have taken a book class for the third LOTR book and we talked about how some of the things relate to us these modern days. I think part of the reason we like authors like JRR. Tolkien is because they relate to us!! Thank you for the post! I loved it.
Can't wait to see more. =)

God Bless,
Sheilla Kiwi

Rachsters - 12:26 PM - Jun. 10, 2009

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Hey!

Well I kinda 'study' it. I have read some books about it and have lots of friends who do it also...so I go on trips with them and we talk about photography and such. So kinda, yeah! =) I'm glad you like the pictures.

God Bless,
Sheilla Kiwi

Rachsters - 7:43 AM - Jun. 16, 2009

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