Hello there! I have been following for a while trying to branch out (I dont know tumblr that well tbh) however. All the posts or weblogs you have had about lord of the rings has me interested. You see, I watched the movies at a very young age and in theaters at that. The very long movies and my very short attention span together were torture for me at the time so I never revisited them. If I may, would you be willing to recommend me a way to visit this universe?
Yes! Yes I would.
Okay, so, I’ll be honest - as much as I love the Jackson films, I don’t think they’re the automatic best way to introduce someone to Middle-Earth. I tend to recommend them to people who have trouble with the books, because as adaptations they’re functional in a lot of places, but the older I get the more flaws I find in their handling of the subject matter (particularly politics. There’s a lot of politics in The Lord of the Rings, even if it all happens sort of in the background of the main story.) Short attention spans or other similar issues with very long movies are another barrier to accessibility.
I’m going to start by saying that if you’re interested in reading the books, I highly recommend them. Tolkien’s prose is dense, but no denser than someone like Victor Hugo, or Alexandre Dumas, or even Anne Rice to an extent. If you’ve read Laurie J. Marks, or (sigh) George RR Martin, you’ll probably be okay. Unlike the Silmarillion, The Lord of the Rings has dialogue and acts and isn’t structured like a history book, and you won’t need to familiarize yourself with roughly two hundred characters who are all named variations on “Hair”; it’s much more accessible even though it’s longer.
But, if the books are too long or too intimidating, don’t despair! There are a couple of options - if you like audio books, there’s a lovely unabridged soundscaped fanmade audio book recording available here that features music and foley (this is about 6 GB of audio), and there’s also a BBC audio drama with a full cast and sound effects that can be found on CD or perhaps on streaming services like Apple Music. This last one is fun because Ian Holm, who played Bilbo in the Jackson fllms, voiced Frodo. (And if you’re interested and you can’t find it anywhere, I’m happy to get you audio files.) An American radio theater company called Mind’s Eye also did an adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, this time for National Public Radio in 1979. I have a lot of nostalgia for this version even as I know it’s not particularly good.
There are also other movie adaptations, though I can safely say none of them are that good - Ralph Bakshi ambitiously adapted most of The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers into his animated The Lord of the Rings, but its problem is that it’s too short and also that it’s goofy in all the wrong places. Rankin-Bass also did adaptations of The Hobbit and The Return of the King that bookend the Bakshi version; neither of these are that spectacular, though the animated Hobbit is better than the recent trilogy of films. There’s also a stage musical, though I’ve not been able to find a full-length video bootleg of it anywhere (audio recordings, however, can be found).
Honestly, though? If you’re interested in figuring out whether or not this universe is something you can be invested in and you’re not keen on revisiting the movies, fanfiction is probably a good starting point. I’m happy to assemble a list of good canon-compliant recs, ones that do a good job of introducing the characters and don’t assume too much familiarity with the source material - fanfic is usually a bit more contemporary in its dialogue and its plot structure, and it’s shorter than the books, and Tolkien genfic (fanfiction where the point is a story rather than romance/sex) can be extremely high quality.
