All posts filed under: The Lord of the Rings

Middle Earth since the films…

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picture from digitaldomain.com Despite being known primarily as a lover of books, I think I should make it clear from the start that I love Peter Jackson’s three films that make up his adaptation of the Lord of the Rings.  I don’t think Tolkien’s classic work could ever be completely captured in its entirety on film, but I really don’t think that anyone else could have done it any better – they really are fantastic. I could try and nick pick here and there, how I wished they’d portrayed a particular part, this way or that, but I won’t bother – the film adaptation is just that, an adaptation, and it is a very good one. The films have done a lot for the fantasy genre as well.  They showed how the incredible advances in in CGI meant that virtually any imagined concept or world can now be achieved via the medium of film.  It used to be thought that fantasy novels could only be achieved in either books or animation because of the limitations …

Why the Lord of the Rings is still such a great book!

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Because the Lord of the Rings was brought to the forefront of everyone’s attention by the release of Peter Jackson’s magnificent set of films, it is easy to forget how great the books are.  For anyone interested in fantasy novels, The Lord of the Rings is still the most important book you can read, and here are a few reasons why. Picture from Reddit.com Depth.  Middle Earth is incredible.  Not just because Tolkien envisaged such a land of rivers, mountain ranges, great forests, and towering ancient cities, but because of the depth and detail he used.  Well researched languages, myths and legends that go back millennia – only a selection of which made it into the pages of the trilogy.  New types of animals, races, and magic all imbue Middle Earth with its own mysticism.  If you research the history of any of the lands great cities in Tolkien’s other writings you will find details on who founded the city, why it was built, and the great battles fought for it.  No other author has …

The first time I read The Lord of the Rings.

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I was eleven years old, when I first read The Lord of the Rings, and it changed my life.  I’d been a sporadic reader up until that point, occasionally reading a book when bored, or reading something to appease my parents.  But I soon realised as I slowly made my way through all three volumes over a long hot summer in the mid-eighties, that The Lord of the Rings was different.  This was a book that I loved. So much so, that from that point on I became an avid reader.  I was then always known to be the boy with a book in his hands, desperately wanting to recapture that feeling of complete immersion in a world far removed from my own.  Be it fantasy novels or historical, throughout university and beyond, the sight of me carrying a book or with a novel stuffed in a coat pocket or bag was so common that it was only remarked upon on the rare occasion it was missing. The attraction of escapism is obvious, but this wasn’t …