Today in the Shire…

Posted 3.25.2020 | Wednesday
categories: Reading
tags:


Today is Tolkien Reading Day!

Anyone who knows me also knows that I love high fantasy. There is no question that Tolkien is the gold standard of that genre.

Why the 25th of March? Because that is the date of that Sauron met his mortal end during the fall of Barad-dûr. This is the day that Frodo destroyed the One Ring, finally completing his quest.

One of the reasons to celebrate Tolkien is his incredible dedication to the craft of writing. There are 15 Elvish languages in the LotR trilogy, all of which were created by him. But they weren’t created for the novels. No, he created the novels as a backstory for the languages.

Another interesting thing about the books is the fact that they were purposely written to be as if they were originally in Westron, one of the languages Tolkien created, but translated into language.

You want to know a true measure of dedication Tolkien had to his craft? He used two fingers to type the entire 1200+ pages of the trilogy. TWO FINGERS!!

The books have become a part of so many peoples lives. Even before the movies, the actor Christopher Lee read them every year for 40 years. It was his dream to play Gandalf, but his age concerned the powers that be, so he played Saruman instead.

It’s a great time to try a new read, and this is a series that will take you away from THIS crazy world.

About Kim

A mom, a wife, an Army vet, a hardcore reader, and a writer with too many stories to tell! Read more here.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.