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posted by cmn32480 on Wednesday October 28 2015, @10:46PM   Printer-friendly
from the one-ring-to-rule-them-all dept.

"I never expected a money success," said Tolkien, pacing the room, as he does constantly when he speaks. "In fact, I never even thought of commercial publication when I wrote The Hobbit back in the Thirties.

"It all began when I was reading exam papers to earn a bit of extra money. That was agony. One of the tragedies of the underpaid professor is that he has to do menial jobs. He is expected to maintain a certain position and to send his children to good schools. Well, one day I came to a blank page in an exam book and I scribbled on it. 'In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.

The piece is a pleasant read about the greatest fantasy writer of all time.


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  • (Score: 2) by lentilla on Thursday October 29 2015, @07:08AM

    by lentilla (1770) on Thursday October 29 2015, @07:08AM (#255917)

    ...there are a number of long-winded drinking songs in The Lord of the Rings. Should be right up your alley :-)

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  • (Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday October 29 2015, @06:27PM

    by DeathMonkey (1380) on Thursday October 29 2015, @06:27PM (#256152) Journal

    ...there are a number of long-winded drinking songs in The Lord of the Rings. Should be right up your alley :-)
     
    I always just skipped the songs...

    • (Score: 2) by boristhespider on Thursday October 29 2015, @08:43PM

      by boristhespider (4048) on Thursday October 29 2015, @08:43PM (#256227)

      I am, to the surprise of no-one, an absolute nerd. I've even read the History of Middle Earth series - barring "The Lays of Middle Earth" because I can live without reading two epic poems about Beren and Luthien and about Turin, one in alliterative verse and the other in blank verse. I've read the Lord of the Rings probably ten times or so, and I've read the songs... twice. I can even remember one of them. It starts "Gil-Galad was an elven king; of him the harpists sadly sing", which pretty much sums it up. Another starts with "Earendil was a mariner who tarried in Arvernian; he built a boat of timer felled in Nimbrethil to journey in". I mean, fuck's sake. An excruciating set of songs pretty much start, end, and fill their middles with "Ho! Tom Bombadil! Tom Bombadil-o!"

      Not reading the songs is the first step towards enjoying Lord of the Rings.

      The second step is that when the Hobbits leave Breeland and slip through the hedge into the Old Forest, skip through to when they arrive at the Road a few days later. "Where did we get these swords, master?" you imagine Sam saying. "I... I don't know," Frodo replies. "I guess it's just one of those ineffable mysteries." "Cor!" Pippin says.

      Trust me, your experience of Lord of the Rings will be a lot happier if you do these two simple steps.