Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit

[shadow]

We've had a Lord of the Rings Christmas as well as my son got the new Lego game. He is absolutely hooked and I must admit the map feature on the game is impressive. I read the books for the first time about 15 years ago and really enjoyed them, just need to find a few days free time for a re-read.

[Francis]

I would need a lot of time to re-read this book. Have to admit that the Fellowship
is my favourite as well. Maybe I will take it when i go on holiday.

[Katharine]

My favourite book is the Fellowship of the Ring as I love the visits to Rivendell and Lorien,

I love those bits too, they feel so real, I am left with a longing that I could go there. I also agreed with your comments about some passages becoming too 'geographically detailed'. The first time I read the books I got a bit too bogged down trying to work out which direction I was supposed to be imagining the scene, but on re-reading I just slightly skimmed those bits so I got a general feel for the scene rather than trying to focus on the smaller details.

I actually had a similar experience last week when reading Five on a Treasure Island to my daughter. It described the children's first sight of the sea and it says 'am there, on the right, was the shining blue sea, calm and smooth in the evening sun.' For some reason I'd always imagined the sea to be on the left, and for a moment or two struggle to reverse the image in my head. Then I realised that it probably doesn't really matter which way round I picture it, the important point is the description of the the children's first sight of the sea and their subsequent delighted reaction.

[Wolfgang]

I think it makes sense to assume that the sea was on the left, because if it was on the right you'd think that they drove eastwards from London, not to the west. That makes me wonder though - it isn't unusual that George and her family are snowed in in winter despite living close to the coast which I always imagined having the effect for mild winters because of the Gulf stream. Do both the east and the west coast suffer from heavy snow fall in winter, or is it a regional thing?

[Katharine]

That's a good point Wolfgang, although I'm not sure that my brain would have been that logical when I first read the book as a child. I'm not sure about being snowed in during the winter. Here in East Anglia we tend to escape the worst of the weather, and the coast is generally less affected, but I know in the past there has been the odd occasion of extreme weather. I think during the 1950s the sea even froze slightly during one particularly bad spell, so I would guess that no where in the UK is free of the risk of being cut off during the winter.

[Lawrie]

Yes Katharine, I just skim over those bits now too, once I worked out they wouldn't affect my following of the plot. And I have always envisioned the sea on the left when they first see it; even after numerous readings I didn't notice that it states quite clearly that it's on the right . But this just highlights one of the reasons why I am not particularly interested in discovering the actual locations of places in books, especially if they have been fictionalised, as Enid's are. For me, they exist in my imagination, and even if I were to see the "real" place, it wouldn't alter how I've always "seen" it when I'm reading. This is why neither of the Julian and Dicks of the TV series work for me as they just don't look enough like Eileen Soper - and I! - picture them.

[Katharine]

I've always liked the Eileen Soper drawings best, probably because they were the first FF illustrations I came across, but also because they pictured the children at the time the books were written. The Betty Maxby drawings for example showed children and hair styles from the 1970s which is when the paperbacks were issued, so relevant to the children who were reading the books at the time, but weren't always in keeping with the text - it depended on how much the books had been updated.

However, I sometimes wish that the original FF books hadn't been illustrated at all. I will never know how much my visualisation of the FF is due to my own imagination and how much is down to Eileen Soper. Having just started re-reading Five on a Treasure Island I notice that Julian's eyes are described as being brown. I have always imagined Julian to be fair haired, and although it isn't impossible, generally speaking fair haired people don't have brown eyes. So presumambly I've taken his fair hair from Eileen's drawings.

[Lawrie]

I will never know how much my visualisation of the FF is due to my own imagination and how much is down to Eileen Soper.

That's true for me too - though as "my" Julian has had blue eyes for the past forty plus years, I just can't make them brown now, no matter how hard I try. I've always seen him and Anne as blue eyed blondes, Dick as having brown hair and eyes, and George blue eyes and brown hair.

[silver1945]

Love LOTR - both the films and the book. My favourite in the films was Legolas, oh to be able to run and jump like him
The only part I cannot watch or read is the part with the spider - yuk!

[Lawrie]

I've just finished watching all the LOTR films, after re-reading the books. The first film- Fellowship of the Ring - seems to stick the most closely to the book. I was appalled by the changes to Faramir - why?? and why add the bit about Frodo turning against Sam? I missed the scouring of the shire, but can see it wasn't strictly necessary to the overall plot. I was struck not only by the comparison of Frodo and Sam to an army officer and his batman, but also by how the plains of Gorgoroth in Mordor are so reminiscent of one of the First World War battlefields with the burnt waste and the craters. The fact that Frodo never really recovers also made me think of the wounded in body and in mind after the First World War. Terrific stuff - but alas I must come back to harsh reality and get the Christmas decorations down - and be forced to contemplate all the dust they have been so kindly concealing .

[Lucky Star]

I went to see the film of The Hobbit last night; has anyone else seen it yet? It was good though not as good as the Lord of the Rings films. They took quite a few liberties with the story. Which is probably not surprising when you consider that The Hobbit is only about 300 pages long yet they want to make a three part, near nine hour film out of it. Got to pad it out somehow I suppose. But its beautifully filmed and the scene where Bilbo and Gollum play the riddle game is fantastic, the best part of the whole film.

[Fiona1986]

I'm hoping to see The Hobbit soon. We were going to see it near Christmas but we were both unwell.

[Anita Bensoussane]

I went to see the film of The Hobbit last night; has anyone else seen it yet?

*SPOILER WARNING*


My daughter, son and I went to see The Hobbit Part 1 a couple of weeks ago and enjoyed it. We too thought the Gollum scene was particularly good and we liked the way the film brought out the humour of the book. It's a bit hard to believe that Bilbo and the dwarfs (or "dwarves" as Tolkien calls them) survive all that virtually unscathed though!

[Fiona1986]

Well there are two more films to go, it wouldn't do to lose too many characters this early on! I'm sure there's still plenty of time for the dwarves to get hurt (as long as it isn't the one played by Aidan Turner!)

[Anita Bensoussane]

I remember what happens in the book, but watching the way things were portrayed in the film it seemed that some of the "dwarves" ought to have been goners quite early on!