Bedtime Stories: The Fellowship of the Ring

Title: The Fellowship of the Ring
Author: J.R.R. Tolkien

Image via ANNIE HORN

After we finished The Hobbit as a read-aloud back in December, I was a little surprised, though certainly pleased, that Our Girl was eager for more Middle Earth adventures.  Nearly seven months later, we have just tonight completed the first book of Tokien's Lord of the Rings, entitled The Fellowship of the Ring.  "That's it?" she asked as I closed the book on the last page, clearly expecting a more dramatic finish.

"Well, that's it for this book."

"Can we start the next one tomorrow?"

"It's just as long as this one."

"Okay."

"And there's one more after that, just as long."

"Okay.  Is Gollum in the next one?"

"Oh, yes."

"Cool." So, we'll start Two Towers tomorrow night. 

There were 17 years between the publications of The Hobbit (1937) and The Fellowship of the Ring (1954).  As much as I adore the first book, there's no denying that the time in between was well-spent.  A far richer world is offered in this longer and broader story.  This was, I think, my third time through the Fellowship.  The Ringwraiths are always scary.  Tom Bombadil is good fun and I find myself asking the same questions the hobbits do: why not just leave the Ring with him?  This time, I was particularly touched by Gimli asking for the strand of hair from Lady Galadriel and his sorrowful parting from Lothlorien. 

While I would admit that The Lord of the Rings is the superior story to The Hobbit, it's far more challenging as a read-aloud.  There are sections of the earlier work which really come to life.  "Riddles in the Dark" is gorgeous and one can hardly read Gollum's lines without a creepy, dregs-of-the-mud voice.  While I did not actually sing all of the songs in Fellowship, I did my very best to slog through the Elvish.  I'll be interested to see if the reading gets easier with the next book, especially with Gollum playing a more prominent role.  We may need a flow chart going forward as there will be a lot more characters to keep track of soon.  Our Girl forgot, for instance, that Aragorn and Strider are the same person - understandable, and not the last time such confusion is likely to come up.

Bedtime Stories: The Hobbit

Title: The Hobbit
Author: J.R.R. Tolkien


Image via Orange Marmelade

Being sick stinks but when you're eight years old, there are potential perks. Mostly holed up in bed the past two days with a stomach bug, Our Girl did have the benefit of great pampering. Among other indulgences, we have spent much of the weekend reading to her. Yesterday, My Wife read her a major chunk of Anne of Green Gables. Today, I read the last eight chapters of The Hobbit to her, thus completing one of my goals for the blogging year.

This was my second time reading The Hobbit in its entirety. I first picked it up as a child, probably in late elementary school or maybe junior high. I was already a big fantasy fan at that point, having read C.S. Lewis and Lloyd Alexander in addition to playing loads of Dungeons & Dragons. In fact, I was already familiar with the story thanks to the 1977 animated film. But reading The Hobbit was a turning point in my personal history with books. For the first time, I saw past the story and appreciated the artful prose. I was drawn irretrievably into Tolkien's amazing world with a single sentence: "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit."

With the Peter Jackson film set to debut next December, I felt the time had come to introduce the story to our daughter. With most films, I have no problem with waiting for the DVD release but I know The Hobbit is one I'll want to see on a big screen, ideally at the Uptown in DC if it's there when we are. Even with the likely PG-13 rating, I'll definitely want Our Girl to come with us.

I wasn't sure what to expect. I was a little worried that she wouldn't like it, that she was too young or that she'd get bored midway through and we'd abandon it forever. As it turned out, I needn't have worried at all. She loved it, even reenacting parts of the story with her LEGO and Playmobil figures. After we finished the book today, I set out a new array of books for her to select our next read aloud. Many were stories I adored as a child: The Book of Three, The Headless Cupid, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, etc. She didn't even hesitate: The Fellowship of the Ring. Right back to Middle Earth we go!

Our copy of the book is Douglas A. Anderson's annotation. Included are many illustrations - Tolkien's own plus various interpretations from around the world. I think it would have been a fine read-aloud without the pictures but they definitely added to the experience for both of us.

Family Adventures: Brooms and Hobbits

It's been a long time since I was last a member of an athletic team, not since college intramural basketball, I think. That was nearly 17 years ago. I haven't done the team sport thing as an adult much at all, and much to my own regret. While my athletic talents are modest at best, I enjoy playing anyway.


Photo (not us) via Madison on the Cheap

In my experience, it's relatively easy to get adolescent-to-young-adults on the same page in an athletic contest whereas it gets more complicated as we get older. On our broomball team, for instance, I'd say there's quite a range not only in talent and experience but also in competitive inclination. Some are eager to win in that way many children (okay, boys) are taught to seek some ill-defined sense of superiority. Others are just in it to have a good time. To my mind, both attitudes are just fine as long as you're willing to embrace them. If you want to win, learn to play, invest, be purposeful. If you don't really care about winning and just want to enjoy the affair as a social activity, make the most of that aspect. The trouble is when you have people of both inclinations on the same team or, perhaps even more complicating, when individuals are torn between the two desires.

Personally, I'm prepared to go in either direction. How's that for a cop out? It's the tweener state that drives me nuts. Forced to choose, I guess I'd rather invest in winning. More to the point, I think I'd genuinely enjoy learning to play well, win or lose. I did a little bit of research on the ol' Web and found this. I think it's as good a place as any to start.

Oh, we lost again: 5ish-1. We have a bye this coming weekend.


Image via WhatCulture!

On the home front, Our Girl and I got started on The Hobbit this past week. So far, we're averaging about four pages a night so we should be able to knock it out in a few months. We've done longer chapter books before - the first three Narnia books, for instance. She seems to be enjoying it so far.

12 Books in 12 Months: A Classic Work of Children's Literature

Title: A Swiftly Tilting Planet
Author: Madeleine L'Engle


Image via The Warden's Walk

Just how long does it take for something to become a classic? By the early '90s, classic rock stations were already claiming U2 as one of their own. ESPN has its Instant Classics, an excuse to replay a game from Sunday again on Monday. As such, I think a book written in 1978 can stake claim to classic status. That's 33 years, a generation-plus, after all.

I have long been a skeptic of time travel narratives. For one thing, they are rarely done well. For another, I often get the sense that TV shows turn to time travel when they've run out of other ideas. With Lost, there's no question that was the case. Even with a sci-fi classic like Star Trek, I can't help feeling that their time travel stories are a bit awkward. I'd prefer a showdown with the Borg anytime. In short, a time travel story must have well-established rules and must abide by them. In fact, the same can be said for fantasy and sci-fi literature in general. Even an imaginary world must have limitations in order to be plausible.

Settling in to read A Swiftly Tilting Planet, I quickly realized that a big part of why I'm so particular about time travel stories is this very book. I think I must have read it for the first time in my early teens and it has always been my favorite of L'Engle's Time series. She clearly put a lot of thought into time travel and as such, she did it right. Her explanations of the five dimensions and tesseracts in A Wrinkle in Time have stayed with me my whole life.

I'm not sure what it was about this, the third book in the series, that was so meaningful to me. Perhaps as a boy, I was better able to relate to Charles Wallace than to Meg. Perhaps as a young adolescent, the socio-political issues addressed in the book fueled my own developing social consciousness.

But then, there is so much to like about this book. I love how the chapter titles follow the lines of the rune. I love the fact that science and spirituality are not treated as mutually exclusive concepts. I love Gaudior, the unicorn who serves as Charles Wallace's guide. He is not an Aslan/Gandalf equivalent. He reminds me more of Clarence, George Bailey's guardian angel in It's a Wonderful Life: vulnerable, uncertain, yet unfailingly devoted.

Thanks to Wikipedia, I have learned that there are two further sequels in the Time series that I didn't even know about before: Many Waters and An Acceptable Time. I may need to check those out at some point.

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I hope that you, too, will join the 12 Books in 12 Months challenge. Details are here. My own list and books read by others shall be maintained on the pages list on my sidebar. Other blogs currently participating:

My Wife - Wikes! Hikes on the Long Trail
Mrs. Mock - Exclamation Point (!)

Two friends of My Wife are also participating: TonTon via Facebook and The Hermitess via Goodreads.

If you'd care to join the challenge, please let me know by commenting below or e-mailing me at armchairsquid@gmail.com. Also, please tell me how and where I can follow your posts. Don't be shy about suggesting other categories, either. It is my intention to compile a new list of 12 once this one is completed. My only parameter is that no one should have to buy anything in order to complete the challenge - nothing beyond a library card required.