Many Meetings

Tonight we read Many Meetings. The kids enjoyed hearing what Gandalf told Frodo about the Ford and other things. But just before I read the name Biblo both of the older two got very excited (ecstatic really) and were so excited that they got to hear about Biblo again! Like they wouldn’t sit still for a paragraph or two.

Flight to the Ford

Today I was listening to Beowulf (a reread of Seamus Heaney’s translation) and noted the moment when the sword that he used to kill Grendel’s mother started to melt (photo from Tolkien’s translation of Beowulf).

Then tonight I read Flight to the Ford and noted that the disappearance of the Morgul blade was not altogether dissimilar. I know the format of disappearance is different, but I thought the comparison interesting to note.

I wonder if Tolkien was inspired by Beowulf’s disappearing blade when writing of Middle-earth. The blade of Merry’s sword later similarly vanished after he used it to help Éowyn dispatch the Witch-king.

A Knife in the Dark

I’m having so much fun watching as my kids make guesses or figure things out as we read through Fellowship. Today we read A Knife in the Dark and when Frodo saw the distant lights on Amon Sûl my six year old started yelling. “Gandalf!! His fireworks!!! Gandalf!! His fireworks!!!”

Strider

Tonight we had a funny crossover between the Middle-earth and Redwall…

I read the sentence that ends “ran back here like a hare.” Then my six year old broke in.

“Hares? Do they know about Redwall?”

I replied, “no. Hares are real animals.”

She was utterly shocked, “ WHAT?!?!?”

At the Sign of the Prancing Pony

 

“Oh no!!!

” my six year old daughter shrieked as soon as Strider said Baggins. “He found out!!”

It was fun to see the scene play out in her mind. I can’t wait to see what she thinks when we get to the next chapter.

Fog on the Barrow-downs

Today as we left behind the home of Tom Bombadil my six year old drew a picture of Goldberry. It is so fun to see the kids into the story as I read.

A Conspiracy Unmasked and The Old Forest

The kids persuaded me to read two chapters of Fellowship tonight since they’re so short. When we got to Old Man Willow I asked “Do you think this will be a good nap?”

The six year old shrieked “No!!! He will sleep for ever and ever and ever and ever unless a spell is created…or something like that.”

Three is Company

Today we read Three is Company. My six year old (who hasn’t seen any movies and so far has only listened to the Hobbit and prior chapters of Fellowship of the Ring) interrupted me to say that she knew who the black rider was.

“Oh?” I asked her. “Who is it?”

“The one that used to have the big ring, that is looking for them. Or one of the nine.”

I told her that Sauron didn’t leave the borders of Mordor any longer, but was quite impressed she’d thought about the Nazgûl when all she has heard of them has been me reading the LotR poem to them a couple times.

The Shadow of the Past

As soon as I read “Because it’s my birthday, my love, and I wants it…” my six year old daughter said “It’s him!!!” (She hasn’t seen the movies but was remembering when we read Riddles in the Dark while going through the Hobbit).

It is so cool to watch my kids make connections as we read. And yes, everyone convinced me to read, so we’re on day two of reading through LotR. Whenever I pause for breath or a drink (it is thirsty work) one of them says “keep reading!”

Smaug's Treasure Room

Tonight while reading the Hobbit to my kids we came to the point where Bilbo crept down the passage in the Lonely Mountain to Smaug’s treasure room.

“…you can picture him coming to the end of the tunnel, an opening of much the same size and shape as the door above. Through it peeps the hobbit’s little head. Before him lies the great bottom-most cellar or dungeon-hall of the ancient dwarves right at the mountain’s root. It is almost dark so that its vastness can only be dimly guesses, but rising from the near side of the rocky floor there is a great glow. The glow of Smaug!”

“Daddy,” my daughter asked. “Is that the painting you have downstairs over the fireplace?”

Why yes, yes it is.