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The One Ring Forums:
Tolkien Topics: Reading Room:
TORN 10th anniversary post: Thanks, RR:
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a.s.
Doriath
Apr 27 2009, 12:19am
Views: 1805
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TORN 10th anniversary post: Thanks, RR
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I had a hard time coming up with something spectacular for a Reading Room-specific celebration. So I didn't. Come up with something spectacular, that is!
But I did come up with some nostalgic, wandering thoughts about this dear old place, with its dim lighting, its squishy chairs and that comfortable old couch (remember those? Anyone seen them, since we moved to this lavish new place in 2007?).
To think I have been here five years now, and even been modded up occasionally, and if I was never modded down, I was squired a time or two.
I have learned to define my terms, cite my sources, and turn a critical eye to my own expository ability, right here in the training ground that is the RR. And if I have occasionally been testy about that, I beg the pardon of every gentle lady and sir in the room, retroactively.
Since I'm older than the hills, I've been reading Tolkien a long time (if by "reading Tolkien" one means the LOTR!). Even before I found Torn, I would occasionaly lurk on the old rec.arts.books.tolkien USENET group (never daring to post, not EVER, I knew the value of my life!). I bought the Sil when it came out (first edition, hard back) and an occasional book of Tolkien analysis (I have a 1975 copy of Lobdell's "Tolkien Compass", for instance, and a 1979 first American edition of Carpenter's "The Inklings"). My copy of Tyler's "Tolkien Companion" is inscribed in my mother's writing: "April 1979, with love from Mother and Dad". My hardback, second edition, HM copies of LOTRs went with me from naval post to naval post, in the early years of my marriage, and helped me whenever I was homesick or lonely.
I owe much to Frodo and Co.
So, I cannot claim that the RR introduced me to Tolkien. But in the last five years, I have learned more about Tolkien and related subjects than I did in the previous 35 years. In fact, my "bookmarks" are now so overflowing that it takes about 30 seconds to scroll from top to bottom.
So I thought: why not share some of the "cool" stuff I have amassed over the last five years, thanks to 1) mention in the RR or 2) preparation for one of my chapter discussions or 3) a search brought about by something posted in the RR, etc. I know many of you have bookmarked a bunch of other cool stuff, too, so I'm hoping you will share. And if you have a story to tell, that's good, too.
Some of my favorite links of posts from the RR:
Last Day old RR
Tolkien and Dante, part one, part two, and part three
List of old posts saved by Tornsibs
Squire's 2005-2006 LOTR Chapter Discussion links (thanks, squire!!)
Hatster's archives May 2002 through end 2004 (thanks, hatster!)--these are invaluable
Link to NZ Strider's discussions of color in LOTR
Squire's list of RR acronyms
Modtheow's "Brush Up On Your Old English" post
NZS: Sea-longing in the LotR: Tolkien's use of "The Seafarer"
Smith of Wootton Major discussion links
TORN's FOTR 50 yr celebrations
I'm sure there are a million more I have overlooked! Please add yours.
And then there are the hundreds of links I've amassed by searching for something because the RR sparked my interest in same. Some of my bookmarked favorites (in no particular order) are:
Birzer's lecture: "Tolkien, Wagner, Nationalism, and Modernity"
Chronology of the Silmarillion
Tolkien Studies, first edition, articles available online
Interview with Tom Shippey (Writers Write)
The True Elves of Europe
Riddles in the Dark (comparison between the two Hobbit versions)
Sacred Texts' "Sources of LOTR"
Lyrics in the movies for ME languages (elvish, orcish, etc)
The Lord and Lady of the Rings (Caldecott)
NYTimes Tolkien Archives
Links to online versions of old texts such as Beowulf, Caedmon, etc, including some audio (I have not checked these links in a while...)
Tolkien's Oxford (picture tour)
Clark's Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary online
Lewis, Tolkien, Williams and Barfield explore Theosophy and Reincarnation
Mythic Truth: LOTR and Catholicism
Bones in the Soup
Tolkien Society's Anglo Saxon Study Packs
Tolkien's Linguistic Cellar
Tolkien and the New Art: Visual sources for LOTR
The Chesterton Review: JRR Tolkien: Mythos and Modernity in Middle Earth (this is the whole journal edition, 305 pages, opens slowly)
Romenna Meetings Archives/reports
Croft's: Training, Signalling, Intelligence, and Maps in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Fiction
Songs and Poems in LOTR
Well, there's more, but I'm sure you all have links to share! So please do. Tell us where you wandered off to, in the vast internet, on a mission of interest from something you read in the RR, or in preparation of your own discussions here.
Finally, here's a toast (in reserved good taste, as befits the RR): to Torn's Reading Room! Long may it stay open for business. Thanks for all the friendships and teaching and learning that went on over the last 5 years of my residency. May there be many more discussions to come!
a.s.
"an seileachan"
God is eternal, without beginning or end. Don't worry too much about tomorrow. God is already there.
(This post was edited by Altaira on Apr 27 2009, 2:04am)
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Edit Log:
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Post edited by a.s.
(Doriath) on Apr 27 2009, 12:22am
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Post edited by a.s.
(Deleted) on Apr 27 2009, 2:04am
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