# Reading Tolkien as a teen and as a grown-up



## Shieldmaiden of Rohan (Dec 29, 2019)

I am just getting started reading LOTR again. Friends of mine and my husband made a strange experience when they read LOTR again after years of being busy doing other things. In my other post I made it sound like my husband STARTED reading LOTR again. Well, he started and finished was what I wanted to say.
However: The work has changed for them. Parts that were not interesting for them when they were younger have gained a deep meaning. Most interestingly that this are always the parts set in the Shire which seem a bit dull to many a teen but not for the grown-up because as a grown up they realize that the parts were used to show the character development of the hobbits.
How was your experience rereading LOTR? How about the Hobbit? The hobbit has been read to me as a girl and I read it to my children (Oops, I failed to mention that in my introduction post). The hobbit was mostly the same to me when I heard it as a child than it was when I read it as a grown-up but then I didn’t remember it so well and might have missed something.


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## Olorgando (Dec 29, 2019)

The best I can do is say that, by Hobbit-standards, I was a "tween" (so not yet 33) when I read both the German translation and the original. I dimly recall (perhaps mainly from the 1983 reading of the German translation, the original followed about 1985) that I was a bit confused about some of the "hints at the edges" that were not elaborated. But since "Silmarillion", "Unfinished Tales" and the first two books of HoMe, the two "Lost Tales" volumes soon followed (also "The Hobbit"), being the beginning of my JRRT addiction, I began to understand more and more of those "hints at the edges". I must confess, though, that reading the two "Lost Tales" so soon after "Silmarillion" also caused some confusion in my mind (and later volumes of HoMe did similarly) as to which version of a story that I remembered was the "canon Silmarillion" and which the rejected older versions.


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## Shieldmaiden of Rohan (Dec 29, 2019)

I like the hints and edges. It gives you the feeling that this is not just a story but it’s really like traveling to a country with a history. I have never read the Sil but then I haven’t studied the history of every country I ever traveled and still could appreciate it.


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## Squint-eyed Southerner (Dec 29, 2019)

I reread LOTR at least every couple of years since my first encounter at age 17, so I can't give a perspective of someone with such a long age gap between readings. I can say I find new things every time.

In the past few years, I've become most interesting in the structural aspects of the work, and how Tolkien fits into the greater body of literature, rather than being the _lusus naturae _he was long looked upon.

There have been several survey-type threads here on when people first read his works, and their reactions, and similar themes. You'll find some, as you review some of the older threads and forums here (an exercise I highly recommend!), but here's one that's been running for the last 15 years:









How old were you?


How old were you when you first read this series? Personally I was 12 when I read the Hobbit, and was 15 before I read LOTR.




www.thetolkienforum.com


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