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Dreamflower's Musings by Dreamflower	4 Review(s)
KathyG	Reviewed Chapter: 13 on 2/12/2021
I remember Scholastic Book Days! When I was in the 6th or 7th grade, I ordered a copy of Romeo and Juliet from them. It was a movie tie-in; it had a scene from the movie that starred Olivia Hussein as Juliet. That was back in the early 1970s. Unlike many of you, I am a latecomer to Tolkien. I never thought that I would be interested in any fantasy novel that was set completely in another world. The only fantasy novels that really interested me were the ones in which people from our world traveled to fantasy worlds (The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, etc.). Since The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings do not fit into that category, I was convinced that I would never be interested in reading them. But then, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey came out in the theaters in December, 2012, and Wal-Mart began an all-out promotional campaign on its behalf. It sold both novels in the book section (The Hobbit was a movie tie-in); it sold the Lord of the Rings movies in the DVD section; it sold posters, Lego sets, you name it! Suffice it to say I could not help but be interested, so even though I didn't go to the cinema to watch the movie, I did put the 2 novels on my Christmas wish list; they were included among my presents on Christmas morning. But I was determined to also get a copy of C.S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia to read alongside them. I was able to get one in January, 2013, and then, while I was reading The Magician's Nephew and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, I was reading The Hobbit; as I continued to read the rest of the fantasy novels in The Chronicles, and after I had finished reading The Hobbit, I started reading The Lord of the Rings. Well, something happened to me that I never expected: I became a diehard Tolkien fan! After I had finished reading TLOTR, I could not simply put it back on the shelf and leave it there. I kept returning to it, reading and rereading sections in it that really interested me. And I started wanting my own copies of the Peter Jackson movies as well as my own copy of The Hobbit movie when it came out on DVD; eventually, I got them, and later on, the extended editions and the original animated versions. And I got copies of the rest of The Hobbit trilogy as they came out. Etc., etc, etc. =) So, while I did not grow up on Tolkien, once I finally made his acquaintance, I fell in love with his works. I have purchased and read as many of his other works as I can get a hold of.

Larner	Reviewed Chapter: 13 on 4/16/2013
I was thirteen-fourteen. Couldn't find the library's copy of "The Ship of Ishtar," so the librarian in the SF-Fantasy section said, "If you like Merritt you will undoubtedly appreciate this, too," and she handed me The Fellowship, and I was lost. Tolkien and Lewis joined Abraham Merritt and Rosemary Sutcliff as favorite and inspiring authors. My dad was in the Air Force when I was born, but died when I was a baby. I, too, was seen as one of the school oddballs--very short and too young in my looks for most to take me seriously, and with definitely unusual tastes. Others were reading the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew while I was reading Howard Pyle and Abraham Merritt. My girl classmates were eyeing the boys while I was watching diatoms and fairy shrimp in our drainage ditch and ponds. Other kids were playing on the baseball team while I was learning the ropes of breeding, raising, and training dogs. My classmates were considering growing up to be stewardesses while I was headed for teaching from Kindergarten. And for years it seemed I was the only one in our huge high school who had read The Lord of the Rings! My life-long friends I made in college, not grade school or high school. My attention was drawn mostly by the nobility of Aragorn and the growing sense of brotherhood I saw between Frodo and Aragorn and Sam. That Aragorn vowed himself from the start as one to protect and guide Frodo was what struck me most in that first reading. I'm appreciating that friendship known between Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin more now that I am an adult and now have such friends myself. But I always saw it as significant that Frodo's closest friends all were younger than he, although we aren't certain just how old Folco was. Author Reply: All my closest friends were younger than I was--though only by a couple of years. Still that made the dynamic of the hobbbits' friendship very personal to me. I could never have envisioned those few friends I had sticking by me the way I stuck by them--I was older and should take care of them, not the other way around. (And that explained why I always felt a fifth wheel as my friends began to pair up.)But wouldn't it have been cool if they had looked up to me and cared about me the way Frodo's friends did? It wasn't until I was an adult myself that I realized that Frodo's friendships with his cousins and Sam must have been nurtured over the course of their lifetimes. I've always imagined Folco as about the same age as Fredegar. Perhaps it seemed logical to me that the two of them were closer to each other than to Frodo, Merry or Pippin.

Antane	Reviewed Chapter: 13 on 4/13/2013
Yes, I do remember Scholastic! :) I do not have any cradle to grave friendships myself. i love the way you say that, how true for our hobbits and their great strength. They have taught me so much about what love is really all about. This quote of Merry's is one of very favorites. Thanks for this great tribute to them! There's a delightful Facebook page called Concerning Hobbits, that you would be right at home at. I certainly am! Namarie, God bless, Antane :) Author Reply: I don't know if they still do that or not, but it was a great way for kids to get books! I'm glad you enjoyed this little essay. It was nice to do a little biographical meta without having to do any research or anything. I might check it out, but even though I have a Facebook page I almost never go to it or do much with it--I am afraid I've never cared much for Facebook, even though I know everybody seems to be there.

Lindelea	Reviewed Chapter: 13 on 4/9/2013
Ah, yes, books. Comfort, adventure, new worlds, (eventually) old friends. I came later to LOTR than you did -- tried to read it at 13, several times, because a brother enthused about it, but found it tiresome for some reason. I think I was unripe. In college something clicked (once I got past the Party and Frodo had left Bag End behind), and I became a lifelong fan. hugs Author Reply: I am always happy to hear of the various ways my friends came to be a part of this very amazing and diverse fandom! ((hugs))

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