by Tim Delamatter

Created on: March 16, 2009   Last Updated: March 17, 2009

Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, captured my imagination when I was seven. I was in a library, I think the first time ever, and on the shelf calling out to me was this book. On its cover was a most curious figure, he had a beard, was short like me, chubby, with a floppy red hat, and friendly looking face.

The book was The Hobbit. It captured my soul as I read. I had only learned how to read when I was six, this was 1977, Jimmy Carter, oil shortages, parents mad all the time. I took the book to the counter, and the librarian, an intimidating matriarchal lady, who always wore a starched blue collared dress, put her bi-focals down her nose then looked at me and my shining face, and smiled. She said, are you sure you want this one young man?

I tried to stand taller, and said yes ma'am. Her smile grew and then she stamped the book, and asked me if I wanted to see the other books about Hobbits. I nodded my head enthusiastically, and she came around the counter, and strolled over to the fifth grader wing of the library, I was nervous, but followed obediently. She then went immediately to the bottom shelf, and lifted out three soft cover books, which had amazing pictures on them. She then led me, with my heart soaring I might add, back to the counter. She stamped each one, and then put them in a plastic bag, and handed them to me.

She told me the wisdom I would need to get through this amazing series of books. She said, if you do not understand some of the words, just skip over it and try to understand the story. This advice led me on my first journey through Middle Earth.

The first time I read it, I couldn't understand anything. The only thing I did understand was it was an amazing story. The Hobbit was OK, but what thrilled me was The Lord of the Rings. It captivated my imagination, and even though I skipped through whole sections of chapters, I learned enough to realize it was the best written book ever. Since that first reading, I have devoured every nook and cranny of JRR Tolkien's masterpiece, and have a favorite character.

The movie was very good, although it left out some key components to understand certain nuances of what Mr. Tolkien was presenting. Mr. Tolkien was not in favor of Allegory, this is why he made a whole Elfin Language, to show this Middle Earth was reality not allegory. He wanted people to realize that G-d the Creator, was the same everywhere, not with respect to how the people worshipped, but who G-d is. His basic truths are the same throughout the

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