Tolkein Reading Day: Australian authors reveal why JRR Tolkein is still captivating to read
This Wednesday is the annual Tolkein Reading Day, which encourages new and existing fans to read his works. Australian authors reveal why they think he’s still relevant today.
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He’s inspired writers from George RR Martin to Orson Scott Card and celebrities from Prince William to Barack Obama — and this week is the perfect time for you to get excited about JRR Tolkein.
The Peter Jackson films of Lord Of The Rings and The Hobbit brought millions of new fans to the legendary English author’s work but there is far more in the books than can be squeezed into even the extended versions.
This Wednesday is the annual Tolkein Reading Day, an event launched in 2003 that encourages new and existing fans to read one or more of his works.
And it’s not hard to find examples of people inspired by Tolkein.
Game Of Thrones author George RR Martin has famously said LOTR inspired his work.
He told the New York Observer: “It’s no secret that Tolkien has been a huge influence on me, and I love the way he ended Lord Of The Rings. It ends with victory, but it’s a bittersweet victory. Frodo is never whole again, and he goes away to the Undying Lands, and the other people live their lives. And the Scouring Of The Shire — brilliant piece of work, which I didn’t understand when I was 13 years old: ‘Why is this here? The story’s over?’ But every time I read it I understand the brilliance of that segment more and more”.
Former US President Barack Obama also revealed his love of Tolkein in an interview: “They weren’t just kind of adventure stories but they were stories that taught me about social problems. Taught me about how people interact with each other … about how some people are kind and some people are cruel”.
Sci-fi author Orson Scott Card — best known for Ender’s Game — has also previously said his favourite fiction book is Lord Of The Rings.
So what is about Tolkein that inspired authors? We spoke to three Australian writers currently making waves to find out.
Gabriel Bergmoser
I don’t know if anyone before Tolkien devoted their whole life to the creation of a fictional world and accompanying mythos but nobody ever did it better. The power of his invention was enough, when I was 11 years old and begrudgingly went to see some weird fantasy film, to make me wish with pained desperation that three hours in a cinema could last forever.
It was enough to make me go and see The Fellowship Of The Ring three more times at the movies, to beg my parents to buy me every Tolkien encyclopaedia around and of course, to send me diving into The Hobbit and the three Lord Of The Rings books.
From there obsession grew. I was haunted by the myths of Morgoth and Ungoliant. I lay awake thinking about the bravery and sacrifices of Frodo and Aragorn.
The Lord of the Rings was the first time I truly fell in love with a story, and consequently the first time I think I realised that telling them was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.
Gabriel Bergmoser is the author of The Hunted, published by HarperCollins Australia on May 18.
Adam Courtney
There’s something about JRR Tolkien that keeps you reading.
Fantastical as his stories are, they are grounded in the everyday. No other author understands the dichotomy between safety and danger, home and journey, calm and adventure. It’s as if he’s telling you that you will always have both – but you can’t have one without the other. Every journey ends, but so too, must all complacency. A new journey will start and you might face great dangers, but there will also be peace at the end of it. He understood this rhythm of life better than anyone.
Adam Courtenay is the author of The Ghost and the Bounty Hunter, published by ABC Books on March 23.
Sonya Bates
I read Tolkein first when I was a child – demolishing The Hobbit in my early teens.
This was followed by The Lord of the Rings while I was at university. At that time of my life, I had little time for reading for pleasure. But when classes broke for the semester, Tolkien and Middle-Earth were the perfect escape. It was adventure of the highest order, a world so fantastical and so removed from real life, I could become lost for hours at a time.
Looking purely for entertainment, I took it on face value, read for the enjoyment of the experience, the pleasure of the prose, and the immersion in the world he had created so vividly.
Sonya Bates is the author of Inheritance Of Secrets, published by HarperCollins and available for pre-order from Booktopia and Apple Books now.
MIDDLE EARTH TO LATE MIDDLE AGES
If epic writing is your thing, try Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall trilogy set in the reign of Henry VIII. Its final part, the extraordinary The Mirror and the Light, is our Book of the Month: your code for a 30 per cent discount at Booktopia is MIRROR10.
And please tell us if you love or loathe Tolkein — and why — at the Sunday Book Club Facebook group.
Originally published as Tolkein Reading Day: Australian authors reveal why JRR Tolkein is still captivating to read