When will I understand Tolkien like you guys? - Page 2 - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

VanimaEdhel · 03-09-2002, 03:24 PM

Hello...I feel your pain: I am a high school student as well [img]smilies/evil.gif[/img] (JUST a high school student: 9th grade) and when I came on here, I had not read Lord of the Rings in about five years. You learn, though, that, anyway, from my experience, people in the Chat Room, high school, college, or older, are, for the most part, know as much as you do about the books. There are LTTR experts, of course, but...so many of us on here ARE actually high schoolers or college-age students that just want to chat about something we like, that it is easy to follow conversation in the Chat (we do not much talk about LOTR in there anyway...we just throw people's heads into Minas Tirith... [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] ). If you have not yet been to the chat and only the boards, I suggest that you go. I will be there under this screen name if I am there...and I will probably be in one of the many questing rooms on there, if you want to talk. A, ar' sii' amin antin aut (Ah, and now I need to go). Tenna' ento lye omenta, mellynamin(Until next we meet, my friends).

03-25-2002, 01:57 AM

Gorin is right. Once you're 23, everything in the universe suddenly falls into place. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] lol... well obviously!! But truly, it can be hard to understand anything the first, second, thirtieth time around. Especially something as involved and intricate as tolkien's works are. Just keep on reading, just keep on enjoying it, and you'll almost not notice when all of a sudden you're an expert. Not that I'd know, because I'm not one. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] Here ends this lame 3 a.m. post!

VanimaEdhel · 03-25-2002, 01:49 PM

WOOO! Age isn't the only answer! Rereading is too! lol. I forgot to say that the other day.

And: I realize I understand more as I answer posts on here! lol. and I make connections when I read...no notes though (ick! Teachers make me do it! ARGH! *chokes*). Well, that's my advice!

Lossenavariel · 03-26-2002, 07:26 PM

hey, That's OK, i'm in 7th grade and to tell the truth i don't understand all of it either, but i try. and each time i read it i understand it more . keep reading! [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

Mirkgirl · 03-26-2002, 08:40 PM

To say you understand Tolkein means to confess you haven't understood anything [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

03-28-2002, 08:08 PM

hey, dont feel bad about not being able to understand Tolkien. When i read it for the first time i thought it was completaly un-understandable(for lack of a better word). I picked it up again just six months ago, and im almost fluent in elvish now. just give yourself time.

Quote:

Et Earello Endorenna utulien. Sinume maruvan ar Hildinyar tenn' Ambar-metta! (out of the Great Sea to Middle-earth i am come.In this place i shall abide, and my heirs, unto the ending of the world.)Earendil the Mariner

03-28-2002, 09:58 PM

hey man, the only way is to just read it over and over. well another suggestion too. read tolkien's biography by Humphrey Carpenter. that will get you on your way. then if you want to get hardcore you start studying welsh(jrr's basis for sindarin) and finnish(Quenya)

Joy · 03-29-2002, 01:09 AM

Dûrannoniel, Mae Govanna. Ellen sila lumenn' omentielvo. (Well met. A star shines on the hour of our meeting.)

Welcome to the Barrow-Downs. Post often.

Jessica Jade · 03-29-2002, 12:48 PM

Part of the fun and joy in reading Tolkien is being able to read a passage that you read just a few minutes ago and finding many things there that you didn't notice the first time around. Everytime i reread a passage, it's like the first time. I just finished LOTR about a week and a half ago, and already i feel the need to read the entire story again. I cannot get enough of Tolkien! I just read Ainunidale(sp?) and it's very interesting....extremely mythological style. I can't wait to get through the rest of The Sil so i can have much better understanding of Tolkien's world.After that, i might re read LOTR and maybe see it in a whole new light.

One of the things i love most about Tolkien is his ambiguity. He describes things in such minute detail,and has excellent imagery, yet it is all somewhat vague. For example, it's very hard to imagine what Frodo looked like. And the Dead Marshes as well. Remember the tricksey lights and candles of corpses? Those marshes continue to haunt my imagination all the time...what are they like, i wonder? In a way i think of him as a sort of impressionist, he paints the whole picture, yet leaves room for the reader's imagination and interpretation. He doesnt' want to imagine everything for us, and wants us to think and come up with our own ideas. That, i think, is one of the reasons TOlkien is such a genius-to be able to write the way he does is beyond my comprehension.

When i first came here to the 'Downs i was a bit overwhelmed too. There was so much going on that i had missed in my reading. It's great to be able to read and participate in these discussions, because i've coem to understand the books better, as well as view different interpretations and meanings. I know that 20 and 40 years from now i'll still love reading Tolkien's works. They are true masterpieces and you can never read them enough times. Some people read the books and just like it for the epic story that it is, some find symbolism and "deep" meaning in almost everything that happened. I believe there are no right or wrong answers...everyone's own interpretation is just as valid. Ultimately, what matters is what Tolkien's writing means to you- you personally, that is...how it touches your heart, how it moves you, and how meaningful it is to you--how does it make you feel and what does it mean in your life? That is what counts.

dragongirlG · 03-30-2002, 11:10 AM

Rereading will definitely help you understand his works better. When I first finished LOTR, I said, "Okay, that's it." But then I kept going back and opening it up to a random page and kept reading the trilogy (book) again...and again...and again. It also may depend on your maturity, and your patience. At first you may not like Tolkien's style and find it too descriptive, but when you get used to it, you'll love it. Many people I know just don't have the patience to get through all of LOTR, and stopped reading and thinking about it as soon as they finished Fellowship. I'm in 8th grade and I understood LOTR just fine. I read The Hobbit in 6th-7th grade (during the summer) and understood it well too.

I admit that I was quite overwhelmed when I found this site too. I bookmarked it but never came to it, because I wasn't prepared or mature enough to handle people with such knowledge of Tolkien's works.

I haven't read the Sil yet, unfortunately. My sister is reading it first.

[ March 30, 2002: Message edited by: dragongirlG ]

Merendis · 03-30-2002, 04:58 PM

power to lowly high school students [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] maybe it's one of those things that 'clicks' like shakespeare, one day it'll just come to you.

VanimaEdhel · 03-30-2002, 05:53 PM

Oh! And hang out on the board, waiting for brave souls to ask the dumb-sounding questions that you really want to know: you learn a lot that way! Or just look at the smart questions too!

Just a little tip I just thought of...

Ancalime · 04-06-2002, 10:17 PM

Oh, my, do I feel overwhelmed! I'm a college freshman and I just finished reading LotR for the first time this past week. I must confess I didn't start reading it until I decided that I wanted to see the movie and thought it might help if I read the book first. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] And yet there are all these junior high and high schoolers who have read it multiple times! You guys put me to shame. [img]smilies/tongue.gif[/img] I plan on tackling the Silmarillion next, and then going back for another go at LotR. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]
Though I will say in my defense that I did notice that Eowyn was in love with (infatuated with) Aragorn. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]
But I will also say that, judging from some of the threads here at the 'Downs, I have a long way to go in grasping everything that's being said by Tolkien. Goodness gracious, I get downright lost sometimes! (and that's in the novices section!) [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

NinjaFerret · 04-16-2002, 02:39 PM

Well, I think I fit in somewhere in the middle of all this. I have read the trilogy a whole bunch of times (lost count), but I still haven't finished absorbing everything from it. I haven't tackled the Silmarillion yet. But hey, there's so much going on, there are very few people who will be able to absorb all of Tolkein.

For all you high school people, NYU had a Tolkein and Lewis class, but I don't know if they are offering it this fall... or ever again, b/c I didn't see it in the course book. But Tolkein scholars do exist... dunno how they make enough to eat, but if I did, I'd become one. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] Now I'm going to find a topic where I can rave about Peter Jackson... Peace.

03-09-2002, 03:24 PM	#41
VanimaEdhel Etheral Enchantress Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Wellesley College! Posts: 1,461	Hello...I feel your pain: I am a high school student as well [img]smilies/evil.gif[/img] (JUST a high school student: 9th grade) and when I came on here, I had not read Lord of the Rings in about five years. You learn, though, that, anyway, from my experience, people in the Chat Room, high school, college, or older, are, for the most part, know as much as you do about the books. There are LTTR experts, of course, but...so many of us on here ARE actually high schoolers or college-age students that just want to chat about something we like, that it is easy to follow conversation in the Chat (we do not much talk about LOTR in there anyway...we just throw people's heads into Minas Tirith... [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] ). If you have not yet been to the chat and only the boards, I suggest that you go. I will be there under this screen name if I am there...and I will probably be in one of the many questing rooms on there, if you want to talk. A, ar' sii' amin antin aut (Ah, and now I need to go). Tenna' ento lye omenta, mellynamin(Until next we meet, my friends). __________________ "I think we dream so we don't have to be apart so long. If we're in each others dreams, we can be together all the time." - Hobbes of Calvin and Hobbes

03-25-2002, 01:49 PM	#43
VanimaEdhel Etheral Enchantress Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Wellesley College! Posts: 1,461	WOOO! Age isn't the only answer! Rereading is too! lol. I forgot to say that the other day. And: I realize I understand more as I answer posts on here! lol. and I make connections when I read...no notes though (ick! Teachers make me do it! ARGH! chokes). Well, that's my advice! __________________ "I think we dream so we don't have to be apart so long. If we're in each others dreams, we can be together all the time." - Hobbes of Calvin and Hobbes

03-26-2002, 07:26 PM	#44
Lossenavariel Pile O'Bones Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: The Marish Posts: 17	hey, That's OK, i'm in 7th grade and to tell the truth i don't understand all of it either, but i try. and each time i read it i understand it more . keep reading! [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] __________________ Lossenavariel

03-26-2002, 08:40 PM	#45
Mirkgirl Haunting Spirit Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Germany Posts: 84	To say you understand Tolkein means to confess you haven't understood anything [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] __________________ "Hobbits! Well, what next? I have heard of strange doings in this land, but I have seldom heard of a hobbit sleeping out of doors under a tree. Three of them! There's something mighty queer behind this."

03-29-2002, 01:09 AM	#48
Joy Spirit of a Warrior Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Wandering Posts: 1,012	Dûrannoniel, Mae Govanna. Ellen sila lumenn' omentielvo. (Well met. A star shines on the hour of our meeting.) Welcome to the Barrow-Downs. Post often. __________________ God bless, Joy KingdomWarrior@hotmail.com http://kingdomWarrior.jlym.com As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?

03-25-2002, 01:57 AM	#42
pennhothwen Guest Posts: n/a	Gorin is right. Once you're 23, everything in the universe suddenly falls into place. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] lol... well obviously!! But truly, it can be hard to understand anything the first, second, thirtieth time around. Especially something as involved and intricate as tolkien's works are. Just keep on reading, just keep on enjoying it, and you'll almost not notice when all of a sudden you're an expert. Not that I'd know, because I'm not one. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] Here ends this lame 3 a.m. post!

03-28-2002, 09:58 PM	#47
doderic hedgeworth Guest Posts: n/a	hey man, the only way is to just read it over and over. well another suggestion too. read tolkien's biography by Humphrey Carpenter. that will get you on your way. then if you want to get hardcore you start studying welsh(jrr's basis for sindarin) and finnish(Quenya)

03-29-2002, 12:48 PM	#49
Jessica Jade Wight Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Tirion upon Túna, Atlanta Posts: 154	Part of the fun and joy in reading Tolkien is being able to read a passage that you read just a few minutes ago and finding many things there that you didn't notice the first time around. Everytime i reread a passage, it's like the first time. I just finished LOTR about a week and a half ago, and already i feel the need to read the entire story again. I cannot get enough of Tolkien! I just read Ainunidale(sp?) and it's very interesting....extremely mythological style. I can't wait to get through the rest of The Sil so i can have much better understanding of Tolkien's world.After that, i might re read LOTR and maybe see it in a whole new light. One of the things i love most about Tolkien is his ambiguity. He describes things in such minute detail,and has excellent imagery, yet it is all somewhat vague. For example, it's very hard to imagine what Frodo looked like. And the Dead Marshes as well. Remember the tricksey lights and candles of corpses? Those marshes continue to haunt my imagination all the time...what are they like, i wonder? In a way i think of him as a sort of impressionist, he paints the whole picture, yet leaves room for the reader's imagination and interpretation. He doesnt' want to imagine everything for us, and wants us to think and come up with our own ideas. That, i think, is one of the reasons TOlkien is such a genius-to be able to write the way he does is beyond my comprehension. When i first came here to the 'Downs i was a bit overwhelmed too. There was so much going on that i had missed in my reading. It's great to be able to read and participate in these discussions, because i've coem to understand the books better, as well as view different interpretations and meanings. I know that 20 and 40 years from now i'll still love reading Tolkien's works. They are true masterpieces and you can never read them enough times. Some people read the books and just like it for the epic story that it is, some find symbolism and "deep" meaning in almost everything that happened. I believe there are no right or wrong answers...everyone's own interpretation is just as valid. Ultimately, what matters is what Tolkien's writing means to you- you personally, that is...how it touches your heart, how it moves you, and how meaningful it is to you--how does it make you feel and what does it mean in your life? That is what counts. __________________ http://www.cadential64.com The musicians had indeed laid bare the youngest, most innocent of our ideas of life, the indestructible yearning for the way things aren't and can never be. ~ Philip Roth, The Human Stain

03-30-2002, 11:10 AM	#50
dragongirlG Wight Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Stock, the Shire Posts: 151	Rereading will definitely help you understand his works better. When I first finished LOTR, I said, "Okay, that's it." But then I kept going back and opening it up to a random page and kept reading the trilogy (book) again...and again...and again. It also may depend on your maturity, and your patience. At first you may not like Tolkien's style and find it too descriptive, but when you get used to it, you'll love it. Many people I know just don't have the patience to get through all of LOTR, and stopped reading and thinking about it as soon as they finished Fellowship. I'm in 8th grade and I understood LOTR just fine. I read The Hobbit in 6th-7th grade (during the summer) and understood it well too. I admit that I was quite overwhelmed when I found this site too. I bookmarked it but never came to it, because I wasn't prepared or mature enough to handle people with such knowledge of Tolkien's works. I haven't read the Sil yet, unfortunately. My sister is reading it first. [ March 30, 2002: Message edited by: dragongirlG ]

03-30-2002, 04:58 PM	#51
Merendis Animated Skeleton Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: An hour from Eden and the Stairway to Hell Posts: 45	power to lowly high school students [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] maybe it's one of those things that 'clicks' like shakespeare, one day it'll just come to you. __________________ Merendis Mthe Mmariner's Mwife Riding one day in the forest of the Westlands he saw a woman, whose dark hair flowed in the wind, and about her was a green cloak...and he knew her for Erendis...then suddenly he knew in himself the love that he bore her, and he felt the emptiness of his days.

03-30-2002, 05:53 PM	#52
VanimaEdhel Etheral Enchantress Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Wellesley College! Posts: 1,461	Oh! And hang out on the board, waiting for brave souls to ask the dumb-sounding questions that you really want to know: you learn a lot that way! Or just look at the smart questions too! Just a little tip I just thought of... __________________ "I think we dream so we don't have to be apart so long. If we're in each others dreams, we can be together all the time." - Hobbes of Calvin and Hobbes

04-06-2002, 10:17 PM	#53
Ancalime Pile O'Bones Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Numenor (I wish. . . Milwaukee, WI) Posts: 15	Oh, my, do I feel overwhelmed! I'm a college freshman and I just finished reading LotR for the first time this past week. I must confess I didn't start reading it until I decided that I wanted to see the movie and thought it might help if I read the book first. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] And yet there are all these junior high and high schoolers who have read it multiple times! You guys put me to shame. [img]smilies/tongue.gif[/img] I plan on tackling the Silmarillion next, and then going back for another go at LotR. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] Though I will say in my defense that I did notice that Eowyn was in love with (infatuated with) Aragorn. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] But I will also say that, judging from some of the threads here at the 'Downs, I have a long way to go in grasping everything that's being said by Tolkien. Goodness gracious, I get downright lost sometimes! (and that's in the novices section!) [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] __________________ Giorraíonn beirt bóthar (Two shorten the road)

04-16-2002, 02:39 PM	#54
NinjaFerret Animated Skeleton Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: NYC Posts: 31	Well, I think I fit in somewhere in the middle of all this. I have read the trilogy a whole bunch of times (lost count), but I still haven't finished absorbing everything from it. I haven't tackled the Silmarillion yet. But hey, there's so much going on, there are very few people who will be able to absorb all of Tolkein. For all you high school people, NYU had a Tolkein and Lewis class, but I don't know if they are offering it this fall... or ever again, b/c I didn't see it in the course book. But Tolkein scholars do exist... dunno how they make enough to eat, but if I did, I'd become one. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] Now I'm going to find a topic where I can rave about Peter Jackson... Peace. __________________ "An epitaph is a belated advertisement for a line of goods that have been permanently discontinued." - Irvin S. Cobb