‘The Lord of the Rings’: The return of the blog
It took us almost a whole year, but our family read ‘The Lord of the Rings’ out loud.
Well, I’m back.
We did it. We finished The Lord of the Rings. On August 22, to be precise. Nearly one year after starting it. And exactly a month from the autumnal equinox. There’s some near symmetry to make Tolkien proud.
A whole year. It took Frodo & Co. less time than that to destroy the One Ring. Though I think that’s what you get when you read this to kids under the age of 10. I had moments when I thought that it would be too much. Too many characters. Too many allusions to elven lore. Too many timelines and timeline changes. Too many questions from the kids about what’s happening and which king are we talking about now, and is Eowyn the elf or is that Arwen? And just so. many. pages. One thousand and thirty one, to be exact.
But we persevered. And it was worth it, and I’d do it again. I had hardly finished the final page when Lily, our youngest, requested that we start at the very beginning and read up to the part where Frodo learns the truth about his uncle’s ring.
Parenting mission accomplished. Lily will get an extra share of her inheritance.
I find it interesting—revealing—that she wanted to read only the beginning chapters again. Maybe she knew she couldn’t take the full journey again. But why the beginning? It could be because we spent several hours one cool, misty September morning last year devouring much of that section. Perhaps the physical memory of learning the truth about The Ring, wrapped in blankets in our living room with a fire on the hearth, has imprinted on her a unique importance to those opening sections.
I think this is true. And it reinforces the truth that the slow beauty of the Shire is just as compelling and enchanting and enthralling as Lothlorien or Edoras or Minas Tirith. Because even as the hobbits found themselves at the heart of a universally important story that began ages before their setting foot on the stage, they just wanted to go home. The glories of Numenor and the vastness of the plains of Rohan cannot compete with that. Tolkien built up a world of home before wrenching us out of it. A true myth always points toward home, and Tolkien steeps us in that truth so fully that if we sit with it, we come to see our own homes and gardens and things with a renewed sense of spiritual significance.
Then, almost as soon as the hobbits return to the Shire, they face another journey: Frodo and Bilbo’s departure from Middle Earth at the Grey Havens. Our home is not our final home. At least not yet. Healing and resurrection require the “swift sunrise” of death and resurrection. It brought to mind this prayer from the Prayer Book—and I’ll quote it now and trust that Tolkien wouldn’t be too offended about an Anglican prayer being used when discussing his writing.
O Lord, support us all the day long, until the shadows lengthen, and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over, and our work is done. Then in your mercy, grant us a safe lodging, and a holy rest, and peace at the last. Amen.
Which is to say that I sobbed my way through the last half of the last chapter. Lindsey was ready to jump in and finish it, but I found a way.
I also choked up reading through the post-Gray Havens timeline in Appendix B. Aragorn brings out the burial beds of Merry and Pippin so that he dies and lies in state alongside them? Legolas stayed in Middle Earth until Aragorn passes, then takes Gimli with him? It’s too much.
(Yes, I read from the Appendices to my kids. And, yes, James wants to learn elvish now. Parenting mission accomplished, again.)
A day or so after we finished, Linds and I surprised the kids with two puzzles I found in a vintage store in Old Town. They are making great progress on “Bilbo’s Last Song.”
I’m not really sure where to go from here, so I’ll close with a handful of observations and highlights. I’ll do so as if you were interviewing me. Who doesn’t love a good Q&A?
And that’s all I have time for this week. Hope to have another post later this month. Thanks for reading!