Tolkien fans of Ireland

GodlessM

Hi all,

I'm conducting on a bit of a survey to try and find an estimate for the reach of Tolkien's work in Ireland. This also includes adaptations of any kind of his work, and those finished by his son Christopher as well. Obviously boards is not representative of all of Ireland by far, but has a big enough representation to give the results a credible place to start.

I've made a simple poll at the top of the thread; if you are a fan of any of the books, the films, anything else Tolkien, or any combination of the above, please just click yes in the poll; the 'no' option is really only there for the sake of having a second option.

Thanks all for your help.

Cheers,
J.

gimli2112

Problem with this imo is I read LOTR/The Hobbit and loved them. Then tried to read The Silmarillion/Unfinished Tales and hated them.
Can I check both boxes?

On balance yes..... a fan

GodlessM

As I said, 'if you are a fan of any of the books, not all of the books. You can still be a Tolkien fan even if you don't like all of his work.

Ambient Occlusion

gimli2112 wrote: »

Problem with this imo is I read LOTR/The Hobbit and loved them. Then tried to read The Silmarillion/Unfinished Tales and hated them.
Can I check both boxes?

On balance yes..... a fan

I agree with you on Unfinished Tales because it doesn't really have structure. The stories in it are best read along with the Simlarillion (Read the chapter in the Simarillion, stop, read the longer version in Unfinished Tales, and go on). My advice is to read the Silmarillion a few times; it takes a while to appreciate it. I finished it for the umpteenth time about a month ago and I will admit that it was the only time that I actually enjoyed the book from start to finish. I feel that it's better to not even bother trying to remember who some of the characters are because you'll figure it out after a while. Having a print-out of the maps of Middle-Earth and Beleriand are essential to enjoying the Silmarillion, particularly this one. For the other segments that are in Unfinished tales, I'd advise, though I've never done it, to mark them off and read them in conjunction with their corresponding books. Read the other bits after you've completed the main body, but really the last portion of Unfnished tales isn't really that important IMO.
In fairness some of Tolkien's writing can be complete much. The Hobbit is probably the most enjoyable to read but maybe that's because it's a kid's book.

quickbeam

Yes, a fan of LotR, Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales and Children of Hurin.

Didn't like The Hobbit. It's just too childish for my taste.

stoneill

quickbeam wrote: »

Yes, a fan of LotR, Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales and Children of Hurin.

Didn't like The Hobbit. It's just too childish for my taste.

Yep -
in fairness The Hobbit was written as a child's book, and this theme does carry on into the first chapter of LOTR.
I would imagine someone with the moniker of Quickbeam would be a die hard fan!

Andy-Pandy

I'm a fan of Tolkien more for the genre he helped create than for his own works. There are many works of fantasy out there that are better than Tolkiens works, but it is his originality that has made him stand the test of time.