Monday, August 14, 2006

Bored of the Rings?


In a word... no.

I read the JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings as a teenager. I remember liking it, but I'm not so sure I "got" it.

I did a stint in my life as a street hippie, and adopted the name Frodo for a while, then Stryder (spelled "Strider" in Tolkien's books).

Prior to the release of the movie The Fellowship Of The Ring, I reread the trilogy and really enjoyed it. But I still didn't really follow it nor was I prepared to delve any more deeply into the Middle Earth and it's geography and people. It wasn't until I saw all three movies twice and re-read the trilogy for the third time that I saw the real magic. I've been taking some of the tours on The One Ring and reading some of the exemplary materials on LOTR on Wikipedia. Wikipedia has articles not only on the books but on individual characters and geographical locations - wonderful stuff.

I have to ask myself, of course, whether this is a cop-out. Shouldn't I be studying up on contemporary politics, or at the very least the arts? The fact is I do that also. But the brain occasionally needs a little good old fashioned intellectually challenging fun. This is mine, at least for now.