One evening at bedtime, the child pointed to a thick, worn paperback on their father's shelf. With both hands, they pulled it out of its tight squeeze among the other yellowed volumes. The cover of this book had strange letters on it, and the cover picture was beautiful. On a pile of gold and treasure inside a cave, lay a red dragon. Smoke curled from its nostrils.
This was the book the child wanted for their bedtime story tonight. Little did they know that it would change their life forever.
That book was The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien. Of course, if you're a Tolkienite, I hope you would have guessed. That child was me, though I'm sure you understood that, Internet.
Yes, when my dad read The Hobbit to me, I'm totally sincere when I say it changed my life. My dad had a tradition with every grade five class he taught - that he would read them The Hobbit, so they could study the novel, and he could read one of his favourite books. Ever since that tale was brought to life for me, high fantasy consumed my entire imagination. I was five years old at the time, and far too young to endure or understand the Lord of the Rings movies at the time they came out. So, I moved onto reading all of CS Lewis' Narnia books, as the film franchise was new and exciting to me when I was growing up.
When I was in the sixth grade, things had started to get a little less childlike for me when my Nana, and best friend growing up, was diagnosed with lung cancer. I was unequipped with any skills to cope with grief and turned my attention back to Tolkien. I started reading the first novel in December 2008, when we found out my Nana had stage IV cancer. That Christmas, my family and I marathoned the films back to back, and my obsession through coping grew.
By March, when Nana was living in the hospital full-time, I had finished all three books in the Lord of the Rings series and started playing LOTRO - the Lord of the Rings online game. At the end of May, when my Nana passed away, I started rereading the series.
I would wake up, reach over to my nightstand for the novel, and start to read. I would read at any chance I got between classes in middle school, during meals, and I would stay up for hours just reading voraciously until I would pass out. By mid-July, Nana's house was empty and sold. My Papa (her husband) had been successfully moved to my home town so we could visit him without traveling across the province to where my dad grew up. Between December 2008 to mid-July of 2009, I had read the Lord of the Rings series three times from start to finish.
I've seen the movies now more times than I can count, and my high school years were bursting with excitement over The Hobbit films as they came out. I read The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings once a year, or at least I try to. My room decor is inspired by locations in Tolkien's Middle-earth, and my walls have art, quotes, and Tolkien-related symbols galore.
I met Elijah Wood, who plays Frodo Baggins in the films. At a comic book convention. My 18th birthday present was a photo op and meet-and-greet with him, and I was absolutely giddy. I adore the cast of the movies and follow a lot of shows and movies the cast have been in since LOTR.
The themes, characters, locales, and languages that Tolkien created got me through the hardest times of my childhood and teenage years, and I owe a lot to him. Whether it was through books, films, art, and fan communities online, video games... These stories and lessons have truly shaped who I am and my path in life - to create worlds and written works as meaningful to someone else as Tolkien's are to me.
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