Dear Reader

Author: Dear Reader

  • Frodo’s Adventure: Encounters with Elves and Farmer Maggot, a/k/a Chapter 4

    Mushrooms and all.

    Well it’s the next morning after the elf sleep over party in the woods and the hobbits are gathering their things.

    They discover the elf’s have left behind elf bread and drink. They’re so excited about because apparently elf bread is the best. Frodo wakes up later than the group and Pippin tells him hey…. Sam made me leave you some food.

    I want to take a moment to point out that the elves knew Frodo was leaving the shire, they hinted at it then moved away from the topic.

    Also Sam the Gardner and Frodo’s companion in this adventure had always wanted to see an elf. And he not only got to see the elf he was able to hang out with the elves, eat their food, and listen to their stories.

    So at this moment Sam has been enlightened in a way he’s seen elves up close and experienced their unearthly beauty and now feels different. It happens to the best of us Sam, we leave our little community and realize the world is big and vast.

    Back to the story.

    The DnD party gathers their items and begins to travel again, they’re going over to the next hobbit town where Frodo has a new home. The story Frodo has concocted is that he wanted to settle back in his home town, his friends had set everything up for it.

    So they walk on and into a farm, a farm owned by a farmer named Maggot.

    Apparently Frodo and him have history: back in his youth Frodo ate a bunch of Farmer Maggot’s mushrooms. Farmer Maggot catches Frodo eating his mushrooms and then scares the living shit out of Frodo over it and threatens him with his dogs.

    So naturally Frodo notices Farmer Maggots property he’s like yeah guys lets not and Pippin is like whatever, because they literally have never met a stranger.

    And then they start yelling for Farmer Maggot to come out. Frodo tries to blend into the background and Sam just hangs out unaware of why Frodo is so uncomfortable.

    And out comes out Farmer Maggots along with his two dogs Grip, Fang and Wolf. What sort of names are these! And the dogs are just cute.

    Can we just take a moment to really take in how LoTR really set the foundation for Fantasy novels? This moment here just reminds me of Harry Potter going out to see Hagrid out back. Hagrid is scary and so are his pets but he’s actually very loyal and sweet.

    Sidebar: I am a little peeved though as a lady I would like a cool lady character about now but so far the ladies are delighted to be background characters. This is very much a fantasy adventure centered around friends and there will be no badass woman or a love triangle. And to be honest it would sort of ruin the story a little bit. I don’t know why I feel that way and I don’t feel like deep diving into that at the moment.

    Anyways Frodo really wants Farmer Maggot not to remember him but he does and he teases Frodo a little. Which sort of reminds me of all those scary mean adults we meet as kids and young adults. We think man they hate me or they are no fun but you run into them as full grown adult and realize they really aren’t. As young adults/kids you don’t realize they just are looking out for you. Farmer Maggot was teaching a young rambunctious Frodo a lesson and scaring him was one way to go about it.

    Alright also this book so far is about dudes going on an adventure, low supplies and running into friends and staying over for dinner and drinks. I mean this is a place of magic and mystery yet if you role the dice right you’ll end up with a good meal.

    Farmer Maggot greets the boys happily but he brings a Dark Rider who was asking questions. Before he could say more he tells the group to come in have a drink and they’ll chat.

    At first its them plus the farmer and his wife and then it turns into about 14 other people as the farmers employees join in.

    Farmer Maggot glares at Frodo a little, asks how they got here and then teases Frodo a bit calling him a rascal and bringing up his stolen mushrooms.

    Thats when the story begins…Farmer Maggot tells them the Dark Rider aka Big Folk was asking about Frodo.

    “Have you seen Baggins.”

    Farmer Maggot tells the Dark Rider to leave to be off Baggins isn’t here that he hear he went to Hobbinton, but the Dark Rider insisted and offered gold. When the Dark Rider didn’t get the information he wanted he hissed then rode off.

    Then Farmer Maggot brings up Bilbo’s travels and treasure, he also tells Frodo that if anyone else came looking for Frodo he would say Frodo was dead or whatever.

    He offers to drive Frodo to the ferry by wagon, and they go but the wagon has no lights on and then a dark rider shows up not he road.

    Farmer Maggot tells Frodo to hide and is about to square up with this rider.

    But its just Merry Brandybuck, his government name is Meriadoc Brandybuck.

    I get so confused in this book, so many names and I’ve had to start taking notes when I read. Its time consuming.

    Anyways I have notes for chapter 5 but I also have to go back into those and clarify what I read. Who knew this would end up a bit more complicated than expected.

    But we are on an unexpected journey in this book.

    Till next time.

  • Hobbits, Elves, and the Journey Begins

    I forgot what chapter we’re on. But I picked the book back up and started on Chapter 3 it seemed like a good spot. Names will be miss spelled and locations have been forgotten.

    Alright so Bilbo is planning his party he’s however many years and he’s names Frodo his heir. Gandalf has showed up to bring fire works everyone in the Shire is super excited. It’s this big deal and the post office is full of invitations and replies to the invitations.

    And I’m like how big is this place really? Because … are we talking like Whoville big? Or Metropolis (1927 film) big?

    Anyways… he’s leaving and his inner circle knows. He has his party tells off the town folk and pops this ring on and disappears with a poof.

    He’s back at home and Gandalf shows up pretty much complaining about the ring stunt and how he had to make smoke appear.

    That’s when Gandalf is like yo you got your stuff situated are you gonna leave this ring to Frodo? Well suddenly Bilbo doesn’t want to leave this ring and Gandalf is like oh yes you are.

    While this is happening there are Dwarfs there helping him pack. So in the movie he leaves solo in the books his homies showed up to get him.

    Anyways…. Frodo stays behind with the ring and Gandalf checks in on him to see how he’s doing. Asking if he’s doing well and just checking on his aging. Because it’s pretty clear that Frodo and even Bilbo before him aged slower than usual because of this damn ring. Lets be clear the beings in this universe that are not human age slow to begin with.

    Eventually Frodo has a deep chat with Gandalf and Sam hears it all. He was gardening, which brings me to this he’s the Gardner that’s why he calls Frodo “Master Frodo.” In the movies I must have missed he was an employee I just figured he was polite.

    So Sam is listening in and so entranced by this story he broke his cover of trimming the hedges gets caught and voluntold he will be going with Frodo on leaving the shire.

    And Frodo tells everyone he’s going over to Buckland…Buckville look I’ve already forgotten this town. But it’s the town everyone in the Shire hates on whenever given the chance. And apparently not many like Frodo because his mom is from Buckland/Buckville so born to be disliked. His father is a Baggins and marries a buck foreigner they both died by drowning while out on a boat.

    Let’s side quest into this for a second: Not only are the Baggins rich so are the Buckin’s on Frodo’s mom side, take note of the name of the village/town. That’s right—Frodo’s family established Buckland/Buckville whatever so he’s rich and born into a founding father’s family. I mean this entire time (3 chapters) and I’m wondering what does Frodo actually do for a living? He doesn’t work. Bilbo not working just felt alright because the lore is he went off and took some nice gold from a dragon. But now we find out that this is a wealthy family with generational wealth.

    Frodo sets off after dragging his feet for a few weeks sighing about leaving and pout about it. You know who goes with him? PIPPIN AND MARY! In the movies I remember Pippin and Mary getting up to no good and running full speed into Frodo and Sam but in the book they leave together.

    Don’t ask me how this came about I was working and listening to the audio and missed that part.

    So the four of them set out to Buckin’s Buckland Buckville and see the Dark Rider. The Dark Rider is asking in one instant. The second Dark Rider encounter, Frodo got everyone to hide and fought the urge to put the ring on. The ring clearly wants to be found. This one sniffs the air and then leaves.

    Well they survive the Dark Rider sniff and run into the wood elves, who are singing. The hobbits are entranced by the elves eternal beauty. The book says, ” and the hobbits could see the starlight glimmering on their hair and in their eyes.”

    And the elves know Frodo! They spot him and and everyone stops and gather around the little hobbits. Frodo asks the leader Gildor Inglorious of the House of Finrod…how he knows him. Turns out they’ve seen him with Bilbo and they know all about him. I want to say they even knew he was leaving the shire.

    Full stop how did Tolkien come up with these DnD names and keep track of the lore.

    Back to the elves so they chat ask Frodo what they’re up and then Pippin is like hey y’all know about the Black Riders? And the elves seem spooked by them and make the call to take the hobbits with them. They even make it a point to say they normally don’t do that.

    They travel with them then the elves set up camp and everyone goes to sleep only to be awoken in the middle of the night for food and a party.

    They eat, they drink, pass out and wake up the next morning to the elves not being there.

    Sooooo we are three chapters in and already I’m pretty sure the movies were just INSPIRED by the books.

    Also I’ve recently started playing DND and I’m reading this like …all this feels family so I google and sure enough LoTR also inspired Dungeons and Dragons.

    My DND character is a tifling paladin … pirate. She’s a complex being.

    See you in chapter 4.

    Side note its been a busy year and while I did keep to my new years resolution pretty well I’m disappointed I didn’t keep up with this book blog.

    But I haven’t read a lot of books this year; I’ve tried. Anyways the books have been bleeding into my gaming sessions with the bestie.

    You can catch me on my twitch channel LoopyLu1928 and bring some insight.

  • My Reading Goals: Finishing Projects and Books

    My Reading Goals: Finishing Projects and Books

    It’s bee a while and I forgot about this project. However this years goal is basically to finish all projects, products I purchase, and complete pending tasks.

    So hopefully we can get through this. Last year I started Lord of the Rings and just got off track. I’m going to go back re-read chapter 1-2 and get to chapter 3.

    I will read LoTR. I’ll also continue reading other books. I figure I’ll include a little insight on here too. I mean according to Kindle I’ve read about 38 books so I had material to blog about.

    Anyways…goals this week re-read chapter 1-2 of LoTR and also I am going to try and get through Dracula AGAIN.

    I hate only one book and it’s Bram Stokers Dracula. Over the years I have honestly tried to read and listen to this book. It is an Epistolary Novel, and I find it hard to read. This style of writing has me just wondering away from the story often.

    See you guys soon.

  • Chapter 2 – Gandalf’s Return and the Ageless Frodo Baggins

    Chapter 2 – Gandalf’s Return and the Ageless Frodo Baggins

    The Fellowship of the Ring

    I’m currently listening to the audio book for the Two Towers, what can I say..I LOVE A GOOD SPOILER! But I can at this very second say that I do not like the hobbits. Fight me.

    And lets get to it.

    Frodo thought people would move on from Bilbo’s 111th birthday extravaganza but that didn’t happen. They talked and talked about this for years and Frodo kept throwing a birthday party for Bilbo and himself. Until it just became the norm, lets all celebrate that one dude who gave great parties and disappeared…a lot.

    He also was just as silly as Bilbo. And he went around town with Merry (real name Meriadoc) and Pippin (Peregrin Took) on most days. When they weren’t around he just kept to himself and would be seen out on late night walks. And maybe even visited the elves.

    “They say she was seen on occasion. Pacing the rocks staring out at the midnight sea.” -Taylor Swift

    Reading how he was off on his own —reminded me of T Swifts Great American Dynasty. We are off topic.

    Continuing on.

    So Adeline I mean Frodo is living his best life. He’s got money now and doesn’t really worry much for anything in life. But he kept track of rumors.

    He would chat up the elves that passed by the Shire and came to the conclusion they were leaving Middle-earth for good.

    Did I mention he’s 50 now. Gandalf legit said yo Frodo stay here I got stuff to do but hang tight to this suspicious ring and I’ll be right back, could be tomorrow could be 17 years from now.

    So he’s 50 now looking way younger and now he’s restless. I suppose it happens you’re carefree, rich and in need of something to scratch that midlife crisis.

    So he’s out there walking the forest asking random elves for news of the outside world. And itching for an adventure. Sometimes he met dwarves who also mentioned something was up. We’re at the story where its obvious there an entity out there stirring the pot.

    Well Frodo, Sam and some other hobbits are discussing the creepy stories he’s heard from the elves and dwarves. We get introduced to the trees, it’s gossip. But most of the story telling chit chat turns out to be true here. The beings of Middle-earth don’t seem to lie much. They are super suspicious of everyone leaving and discuss it.

    And this is when I figured out Sam is the Gardner. In the movie you find him outside in the dark trimming stuff and I thought it was a funny joke. But no he really is the Gardner.

    Eventually Gandalf comes back after spending 17 years working on a thesis on this random Ring he should have really had on his radar decades ago.He shows up looks at Frodo and I swear he took Frodo’s vitals.

    Gandalf is looking at Frodo and his slow aging process and asking how his health is doing. So he takes off again fast forward 9 YEARS.

    ‘All well eh?’ said Gandalf. ‘You look the same as ever, Frodo!’

    Was he honestly coming and going just to see if Frodo was aging slowly. Bet he kept a book, a log deep in the middle of its pages. In it he writes, ‘Adeline has not aged since the ring.’

    SIDE BAR: Age of Adeline is about a woman who gets into a car accident then a lighting bolt strikes her at the right time and she stops aging forever at 30. I wonder if the writer of that took inspiration from good old Frodo never aging like Peter Pan. Anyways the movie is cozy and it has Harrison Ford in it, either he really loved the script or he had bills to pay. I’m not mad about it but it is odd to see Harrison in a romantic drama.

    Back to Gandalf he’s about to spill the beans when he stops and he’s like we should talk about this during the day.

    Folks he afraid to speak you know whose name into the dark night. So they discuss it in the daylight.

    And this is when I come to the Marty Stu (male version of Mary Sue) of it all apparently the mortal race cannot handle the weight of this ring. But Hobbits are magical in a way to be able to just hold on to this ring and chill for decades with the side effect of…aging slowly. I’m sure he’s slowly becoming evil to but I think that is tied into how the hobbits came into possession of the ring.

    For example Gollum doesn’t hesitate to end his friend’s life over this ring. Guy went zero to obsessed in a heartbeat and ya know it’s his birthday, he deceived it MORE. Then we get Bilbo who finds it on the floor, finders keepers and all that but also he won that riddle game fair and square and he didn’t kill anyone. He actually spared Gollum’s life. And last we have Frodo who got it as a part of his inheritance. We go from really dark, gray, and white in shades of how badly these three hobbits got this ring.

    So I think that’s why Gollum got the worst of it, he was already rotten the core.

    “I think the apple’s rotten right to the core.” as Charlie xcx said

    Alright let’s leave it here because these chapters are so long.I’ll be updating my post as I typically only have small window to write my thoughts down on this.

    I think I’ll get the hang of blogging eventually.

    Apple- Charlie xcx

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  • Chapter 1-2 Gandalf, Frodo, and the Secret Ring | Fellowship of the Ring

    Chapter 1-2 Gandalf, Frodo, and the Secret Ring | Fellowship of the Ring

    Fellowship of the Ring

    We have finally made it to the first chapter. But Dear Reader I have a secret… I’ve listened to the entire audio book.

    Anyways–in this chapter we find Bilbo Baggins planning his party for is birthday 111 years young.

    Hobbiton is always whispering about him. He’s so young looking. He is so well preserved. Ladies and gentlemen we have an Age of Adeline situation here.

    They gossip about that one time he disappeared for a while and came back with lots of loot. Bilbo has always been super nice and generous with his money. While he was away on his adventure, his family secretly opening hoped he never returned. Even before his adventure it seems he had a pretty good thing going for him.

    But he wasn’t really close to anyone for years until Frodo (his cousin) got older and then Bilbo named him his heir.

    Gossip on Frodo: His parents drowned so he’s an orphan. His parents names are Drogo Baggins and Primula Brandybuck. And of course the family wasn’t too happy with the marriage. I gathered they may have been related on a … Sweet Home Alabama level. But it’s surprising because most if not all hobbits are related to each other. And they all proudly know their family tree through and through.

    Back to the party…

    Bilbo orders lots of food and beverages, and eventually Gandalf shows up with his own special fireworks. So at the party Bilbo gives this whole speech. He goes out there it sounds pretty prosaic, then he gets shady the crowd isn’t really clapping. And after some more words he slips the ring on says goodbye and poofs away.

    Bilbo and Gandalf have a talk which starts off civil nd takes a turn when its becomes apparent that Bilbo does not want to part with the ring as he had earlier promised Gandalf. Bilbo tries to reason his claim for this ring and argue why he should keep it. I wonder if the ring knows Bilbo is traveling and it wants to be found.

    Anyways Bilbo departs and he does leave the ring and puts Frodo in charge of handling his affairs as his heir. Frodo and Gandalf have a conversation about the ring in which Gandalf tells Frodo to keep the ring secret and safe. He does go as far as to say not to make use of it. At this point Gandalf knows nothing of this ring. Which c’mon they all know what happened right the war and what not way back when.

    So Frodo is left to settle Bilbo’s affairs ie: the distribution of things he wanted to give people from his estate. At first it was orderly and hobbits were given items left to them in the will however that didn’t last very long.

    The town all wanted a piece of Bag End and whatever they dreamed Bilbo had hidden away from his adventure. Frodo was left to manage the fights, label swapping, hole punching walls, and the digging in the pantries floors that the hobbits started doing.

    And not many were happy with the arrangements Bilbo left in place with Frodo as heir. Mostly the family and they were very vocal about it.

    The town even wonders if Bilbo died. Did they think he just took himself outback and ended it all?

    I’m currently on the second audio book and it’s like pulling teeth at this moment. I liked Fellowship of the Ring more.

    Well anyways.. see ya later

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  • The Prologue: A Brief History of Hobbits and Elves | Explained

    The Prologue: A Brief History of Hobbits and Elves | Explained

    J.R.R. Tolkien

    The prologue occupied itself with a brief history of Hobbits and Hobbit characteristics. We are told about their likes, hobbies and homes. A crash course on Hobbit families.

    In the prologue we learn that Hobbits and Elves use to communicate often and got along until Hobbits started to distrust them and avoided them.

    For the most part they have a idilic lifestyle and enjoy the cozier things in life. They don’t seem to work but rather coexist together in an off grid style of living. One would look after their own gardens, home and personal needs.

    They invited smoking the pipe, they called it a weed which was mostly picked for its fragrance before they started smoking it. Tolkien calls it a pipe-weed or leaf so we can speculate as to what the Hobbits or anyone else was smoking.

    Gollum is mentioned in this prologue a throw back to The Hobbit where he encounters Bilbo and loses his ring. The odd game of riddles and eventual realization Bilbo found and too the ring. Bilbo who found the ring thinks its just luck being on it his. Working theory: the ring wants to be found.

    -Good Night

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  • Forward to the Second Edition: Fellowship of the Ring

    Alright…

    Not yet at chapter one. Sidebar: did anyone else know that his full name is John Ronald Reuel Tolkien. That’s such an nice name, lets take a moment to breath that in.

    This forward introduces a new Tolkien reader such as myself to his style of writing. It’s flowery, masculine, descriptive and captivating. I love so many lines in this.

    “..I had many duties that I did not neglect, and many other interests as a learner and teacher that often absorbed me.”

    He had better things to do during this time and he’s letting the readers know. This is very much acknowledging he took his time with the books and does not make apologies.

    In this forward he states that he started on the Fellowship of the Rings soon after The Hobbit. He really likes the history of this world he built and wrote. He does make it clear that WWI had only a little inspiration to his story. Such littler inspiration he uses the word slender to describe this inspiration.

    It also was surprising to me that he had to handwrite his work and then type it himself.

    “And it had to be typed, and re-typed: by me; the cost of professional typing by the ten-fingered was beyond my means.” <– Its ten degrees chillier in this sentence due to the shade thrown at the typist.

    Ten-fingered just gave me the image of someone with very long fingers clothed in dark robes typing away charging an ungodly amount coins for their services.

    And…Tolkien passed away in 1973, this wasn’t that long ago. I suppose this piece of information regarding the type writer has shocked me more than it should have.

    Wholesome moment: He would send his stories (shorts) to his son when he was in the RAF. His son passed away in 2020, but he spent decades organizing and publishing unpublished works by his father. Amazing.

    I wish I had known of Christopher Tolkien sooner so I may have been aquatinted to his work before he passed.

    It’s such a strange time then. Tolkien lived through a time where type writing was high tech and trench fight. His son got to see laptops and Tesla’s … they literally watched the world change so much.

    I enjoyed this forward it gave me a moment with Tolkien, as if he was chatting with his readers over tea. Short explanations to the why, what and where of it all.

    Good Night.

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  • J. R.R. Tolkien

    J. R.R. Tolkien

    Let’s start with what I know.

    I actually saw the Lord of the Ring movies in theaters. I don’t remember much about them. I recently binge watched all of the LoTR movies and it was all so brand new. The themes were interesting and dare I say had undertones of … Catholicism? And so my hyper fixation began. The idea of reading the books never crossed my mind but I checked volume one out of the library.

    Tolkien

    I was interested in him as a person mildly not too long ago due to Tolkien staring Nicholas Hoult and Lilly Collins. So what I gathered from one movie trailer (never got around to watching it) was that he was in The Great War (WWI) and these books had things he encountered woven into them.

    What I did learn in the Note on the Text was he really cared about his work.

    So there are different versions of his books from the beginning that have errors. He spent many years trying to correct his work, a good example of an error would be the word “elves” that was changed to “elf’s”.

    I was also surprised by how much people really loved and cared for the books in the beginning. They would sent letter (some even wrote to him in elvish) asking for more information or just to express their feelings on his works.

    The Note on the Text was written by Douglas A. Anderson who is an author and bookseller. His works focused on Tolkiens work mostly analyzing it (I’m gonna read some of his stuff) and he also runs a business focused on forgotten authors. That’s pretty cool in my opinion.

    And that’s what I took for the Note in the Text. I did google a few times to better comprehend things here and there but I really liked it.

    -Good Night

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