reading my bucket list 🧙🏻‍♀️ a new favourite book

[@hhenze322]

I think the Scouring of the Shire is important because 1) it shows how nothing on earth is safe from destruction. Evil knows no bounds. The hobbits thought they were safe from the goings- on in the world, but even their home was tainted by the shadow they chose to ignore. The future hobbits will be wiser and much more grateful for what they have. 2) It is a chance for Merry & Pippin, who are now both knights, to use what they have learned in reclaiming their homeland. They have seen war, and they use their knowledge and experience to help their people. Frodo acts once more as the voice of mercy, insisting that no one be killed. He has changed forever, but he is still compassionate and merciful, even after seeing so much evil.

[@erissylvain]

I came here to say this. The whole book talks about many of the aspects of war, and one of them is thinking that because "war is somewhere else is not going to affect my home land", and that's a big mistake. If you let darkness expand it will catch you. Merry and Pippin story lines are my favourite because they truely become fighters during their journeys, and coming back to the Shire to save it, is an extra layer to their growing and a chance to embrace who they are now.

[@shilohpeterson5307]

I really feel like the Scouring of the Shire hits home for veterans/soldiers/ victims of war (Important to remember Tolkein was a soldier in the first WWI) The realities of the world and even home being changed/never the same again after war or a journey that changes you etc. Also. The Aragorn bit was HILARIOUS

[@velascoescreve]

Yesss! It just makes it so much more realistic, less fantasy-like. Tolkien is not trying to give us comfort because he knows how wars go. We fell in love with the Shire in the Fellowship of the Ring and it makes it a thousond times more difficult when we reach the Scouring chapter. We needed to have a real loss like that in the book.

[@NeilBruder]

I think this is also an explicit critique of modern industrialization (of which modern warfare is a part), a theme that runs throughout the book.

[@nikkivenable73]

Frodo's endless patience with Gollum showed itself at the end. Without Gollum, perhaps the Ring may not have made it to its destination. Somehow, Frodo knew that Gollum was essential to the journey. And in the end we understand why. So beautiful.

[@nileshupadhyay13]

Its actually Bilbo not taking Gollums life that did it. A small act of kindness that ultimately destroyed the greatest evil.

[@Vanessa-fs7oz]

​@@nileshupadhyay13 Came here to say the same thing. Bilbo is the original hero for taking pity on Gollum and sparing his life. Frodo did this too, but in The Hobbit, there is a very significant moment where Bilbo makes the conscious decision to let him live.

[@Thelaretus]

11:41 Sauron wants to assemble the corruption of Arda and the power to push back the Valar in order to bring back Morgoth from Ava Cúma through the Gates of Night. He's loyal and devotes to his master Melcor/Morgoth. The eye atop Barad-Dûr is mostly a film thing, although the books do mention Sauron seeing from the midst of the flame atop Barad-Dûr; there is also a Palantír there. Sauron is a person who lives inside the tower. He is a very powerful Maia and the famed 'Necromancer'. 13:44 Sauron's servants do his bidding mostly out of fear or deceived by some bargain. He is very powerful and can enthrall and tempt the souls of many; some, such as the Nazgûl, are his slaves and no longer have any free will; the Orcs have no loyalty but are easily manipulated by him who bred them for Morgoth in the First Age; Men and Elves are seduced by his allure. This is well explained in the Silmarillion and the Fall of Númenor. Don't skip the Appendices!

[@CoolAsianGuy]

No. Sauron knew morgoth was done for

[@michaelsommers2356]

"The Scouring of the Shire" is my favorite part of the entire book. My favorite part of that chapter is when they show up at the gate, and the guards try to keep them out. It reminded me of stories of veterans returning from the Second World War who went to college on the GI Bill. The bureaucrats in the colleges tried to impose the petty rules they had always enforced on student, but the vets were not having any part of it. The had been through a war, and were not going to put up with curfews and other nonsense. And they didn't put up with it. Likewise, when Merry and Pippin are told they can't come in, they say, in effect, "Oh, yeah?", and climb over the gate.

[@sarahogborn8024]

Not men getting mad in the comments that you said that Sam and Frodo love each other?! Literally one of the BEST things about Tolkien and LOTR for me is how openly affectionate and loving the male friendships are in this book. It’s so beautiful and actually such a great representation of healthy masculinity and I looooove it. Like truly, no one loves Frodo like Sam loves Frodo 🥲🥲

[@rdw5150]

I tell my male friends I love them........... 'cause its the truth........

[@michaelp1269]

I think most people assume when you say people love each other, that it is meant in a romantic way

[@Thelaretus]

I am a man and I get upset when people confuse true brotherly love with homosexualism... in the case of Frodo and Sam, we have a prime example of the first, written by a man who experienced true comradery in the trenches of two world wars.

[@sarahogborn8024]

@@Thelaretus Tolkien only fought in the First World War! I can understand your point, to be sure. I think there’s a so few healthy depictions of male friendship and real, true philial love and camaraderie in stories. Sam and Frodo definitely have that type of fellow soldier dynamic that I’m sure Tolkien saw all throughout his time in the war, and influenced him greatly in the narrative, but there is no denying that their bond goes far beyond that (not saying in a romantic way necessarily) but I do understand how some readers could see a different take on their relationship and I can respect that, even if that’s not how I would interpret it. Because there’s so few male friendships depicted in literature like the relationships in LOTR, I think lots of people feel protective of them and want to keep them platonic.

[@maite.figueroa7291]

Girl please please read The Silmarillion 😭😭😭😭🙏🏻🙏🏻 it is very clear that you are interested in the whole lore of tolkien and The Silmarillion explains it all, like it starts in the creation of the world. It is absolutely gorgeous, one of my absolute favorite books ❤

[@MissLaceyDaisy]

I feel like Sauron/Mairon embodies "the road to Hell is paved with good intentions". He desired everything to be perfect, and he thought dominating the will of others was to their benefit. He ended up allying with Melkor/Morgoth in pursuit of perfecting Middle-Earth. He is a Maiar, which is sort of a lesser angel maybe? Eru would be God, Valar are Archangels, and Maiar are Angels. So he was already quite powerful before he became the Dark Lord. Also, I think someone else mentioned it, but Orcs were created by Sauron. He (and Melkor) kidnapped Elves as they were first awakening, and tortured them into Orcs. Others that allied with Sauron was probably due to a mix of false promises and fear. The Harad had previously been dominated by Numenoreans, so they had no love for Gondor.

[@summoningreaders]

I was trying to write what you wrote but couldn't find the works, I think some of his lore is in the appendices, not sure though.

[@svs03]

Happy birthday, Emma!! And girl, not Careless whisper when Aragorn walks in 😂 (I completely understand and I wholeheartedly agree)

[@Bubblet1177]

theres a video of sam's actor talking about frodo and sam's relationship and he just talks about how their love could mean so many different things and he just really acknowledges the fact that we dont know frodo and sam's relationship beyond sam and frodo's undefined love each other. and i just think its a really beautiful thing to acknowledge that kind of unknown ☺️☺️

[@Missnoemit]

Hmm sorry but I dont think when Tolkien wrote this story had something else in mind than a friendship's kind of love, or brotherly. He was catholic, and no woke thing or something similar is there...

[@Penguinfighter]

"Sauroman has gone to the shire and hes crashing the housing market" 🤣

[@elessar8057]

The Silmarillion focuses on the first age while the appendices are about the second and third age.

[@Avamillette-z7l]

Hi Emma! I’m a big fan of your channel and wanted to try and give an answer the best I can regarding your questions (im quite young and still learning so I’ll try me best!) I think the reason why Sauron and his creations are completely evil can mainly be drawn back to Tolkien’s worldview. Tolkien himself was a Catholic. As a Christian myself, both Christianity/Catholicism accept that there are purely good and evil forces such as God and Satan and angels and devils. What speaks to me about LOTR is that its themes are about men fighting this pure evil with good by their side. Also, I do realize that LOTR is not an allegory, but one cannot separate the author from his or her worldview. Tolkien quotes, “The Lord of the Rings' is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision.” This would also explain why men and creatures follow Sauron because Tolkien would have believed that men in real life would be swayed and tempted by Satan. My main point is that Tolkien would have believed in purely evil forces, so Sauron being just that makes sense in regards to his worldview. I hope that this helps and thank you for inspiring me to think about pursuing English!

[@TamilaSushkova]

The scene with Aragorn has me HOWLING - same honestly. I'm also reading Return of the King and I started the trilogy because of your first video about it :) funny enough, I liked the split in two towers haha but I prefer the way the film was split back and forth

[@dominiquechua3268]

You must read the appendices! It mostly deals with what happens with the fellowship, Sam, Merry, and Pippin’s children, Aragorn and Arwen’s future, and so much more! It features a couple things that would be further explained in the Silmarillion or would be in the Silmarillion, but the appendices are still very important! Also, all the answers to your questions will be in the Silmarillion. I initially felt the same way with Scouring of the Shire, but Tolkien wrote that to depict what it felt like for soldiers, veterans, to come home, knowing it first-hand as he was veteran himself. A lot of themes from LOTR deal with the horrors and wounds of war, therefore, Scouring of the Shire had to be part of it. Although I think it would be ok with or without it, I think Tolkien included it as an extra detail to show how home would never be the same for those who return from wars. How it is changed, different in some ways, and may be unfamiliar to some degree. So, it was the same for the Hobbits, the home they left was not the same as the home they come back to, as how they were not the same hobbits who left the Shire. As much as it is sad, that chapter was needed and I’m glad Tolkien added it in. Another huge theme in LOTR is the concept of home and belonging. The hobbits who have always been at home, never beyond the borders of the Shire, innocent of the outside world, now go away into the unknown with a quest that would change their lives. Understanding the value of home is impossible if you just “stay” at where your home is. It is grasped by going away from it and coming back. You will only know the value of home WHEN you’re away from it. Tolkien understood this concept when he was away in the war and how much home had meant for him in his time there. LOTR, to some degree, was the love letter of Tolkien to his experiences in the battlefield and how wars are not to be taken lightly. It’s not the gist of it, but it is an important ingredient as to why LOTR is spectacular. ❤

[@sarahogborn8024]

Ahh man, I really love the scouring of the shire (even though it is totally jarring and heartbreaking) but I think it’s essential to the story. The whole point is that the evil and the darkness spread so far as to even touch the shire and now all four hobbits returning to their home are all now uniquely prepared and equipped, because of their experiences, to set it back to rights. If none of them had gone, the shire would never have been saved at all! Even though it’s much nicer in the films to have the shire untouched by war, I think it loses the reality and gravity that Tolkien intended of how war truly ravages and how we have to rebuild. They do have to fix things and repair, but “still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.”

[@illinoisan]

When I first read LOTR as a teenager in the 1970s, we didn’t have all the reference material that’s available today. When we got to an unfamiliar name we just had to let it go and imagine we’d get more info later in the book. The appendices were our only resource until The Silmarillion was published.

[@Heothbremel]

The entirety of LOTR has such value when you experience it repeatedly over time, just in terms of what joy or pain you're able to identify with going through it.... Glad you made it all the way through!

[@Kim_Traveling_in_Books]

The eye in the tower is just Peter Jackson's visualization of Sauron's ability to perceive things within and outside Mordor. The 'Eye of Sauron' isn't an actual eye. It's just his ability to perceive. Sauron is, essentially, a fallen angelic-type being who wants mastery over the world and everything in it because he wants power-- power in his own image. As for why various people follow him, well, why do people willingly follow dictators now? Some people think doing so will give them power, and others in those countries don't have a choice but to follow the tyrant.

[@vickilimbocker2505]

Exactly

[@Thelaretus]

Some excerpts from the book: 《Ever since the middle night the great assault had gone on. The drums rolled. To the north and to the south company upon company of the enemy pressed to the walls. There came great beasts, like moving houses in the red and fitful light, the _mûmakil_ of the Harad dragging through the lanes amid the fires huge towers and engines. Yet their Captain cared not greatly what they did or how many might be slain: their purpose was only to test the strength of the defence and to keep the men of Gondor busy in many places. It was against the Gate that he would throw his heaviest weight. Very strong it might be, wrought of steel and iron, and guarded with towers and bastions of indomitable stone, yet it was the key, the weakest point in all that high and impenetrable wall. The drums rolled louder. Fires leaped up. Great engines crawled across the field; and in the midst was a huge ram, great as a forest-tree a hundred feet in length, swinging on mighty chains. Long had it been forging in the dark smithies of Mordor, and its hideous head, founded of black steel, was shaped in the likeness of a ravening wolf; on it spells of ruin lay. Grond they named it, in memory of the Hammer of the Underworld of old. Great beasts drew it, orcs surrounded it, and behind walked mountain-trolls to wield it. But about the Gate resistance still was stout, and there the knights of Dol Amroth and the hardiest of the garrison stood at bay. Shot and dart fell thick; siege-towers crashed or blazed suddenly like torches. All before the walls on either side of the Gate the ground was choked with wreck and with bodies of the slain; yet still driven as by a madness more and more came up. Grond crawled on. Upon its housing no fire would catch; and though now and again some great beast that hauled it would go mad and spread stamping ruin among the orcs innumerable that guarded it, their bodies were cast aside from its path and others took their place. Grond crawled on. The drums rolled wildly. Over the hills of slain a hideous shape appeared: a horseman, tall, hooded, cloaked in black. Slowly, trampling the fallen, he rode forth, heeding no longer any dart. He halted and held up a long pale sword. And as he did so a great fear fell on all, defender and foe alike; and the hands of men drooped to their sides, and no bow sang. For a moment all was still. The drums rolled and rattled. With a vast rush Grond was hurled forward by huge hands. It reached the Gate. It swung. A deep boom rumbled through the City like thunder running in the clouds. But the doors of iron and posts of steel withstood the stroke. Then the Black Captain rose in his stirrups and cried aloud in a dreadful voice, speaking in some forgotten tongue words of power and terror to rend both heart and stone. Thrice he cried. Thrice the great ram boomed. And suddenly upon the last stroke the Gate of Gondor broke. As if stricken by some blasting spell it burst asunder: there was a flash of searing lightning, and the doors tumbled in riven fragments to the ground. In rode the Lord of the Nazgûl. A great black shape against the fires beyond he loomed up, grown to a vast menace of despair. In rode the Lord of the Nazgûl, under the archway that no enemy ever yet had passed, and all fled before his face. All save one. There waiting, silent and still in the space before the Gate, sat Gandalf upon Shadowfax: Shadowfax who alone among the free horses of the earth endured the terror, unmoving, steadfast as a graven image in Rath Dínen. ‘You cannot enter here,’ said Gandalf, and the huge shadow halted. ‘Go back to the abyss prepared for you! Go back! Fall into the nothingness that awaits you and your Master. Go!’ The Black Rider flung back his hood, and behold! he had a kingly crown; and yet upon no head visible was it set. The red fires shone between it and the mantled shoulders vast and dark. From a mouth unseen there came a deadly laughter. ‘Old fool!’ he said. ‘Old fool! This is my hour. Do you not know Death when you see it? Die now and curse in vain!’ And with that he lifted high his sword and flames ran down the blade. Gandalf did not move. And in that very moment, away behind in some courtyard of the City, a cock crowed. Shrill and clear he crowed, recking nothing of wizardry or war, welcoming only the morning that in the sky far above the shadows of death was coming with the dawn. And as if in answer there came from far away another note. Horns, horns, horns. In dark Mindolluin’s sides they dimly echoed. Great horns of the North wildly blowing. Rohan had come at last. [...] Now silently the host of Rohan moved forward into the field of Gondor, pouring in slowly but steadily, like the rising tide through breaches in a dike that men have thought secure. But the mind and will of the Black Captain were bent wholly on the falling city, and as yet no tidings came to him warning that his designs held any flaw. After a while the king led his men away somewhat eastward, to come between the fires of the siege and the outer fields. Still they were unchallenged, and still Théoden gave no signal. At last he halted once again. The City was now nearer. A smell of burning was in the air and a very shadow of death. The horses were uneasy. But the king sat upon Snowmane, motionless, gazing upon the agony of Minas Tirith, as if stricken suddenly by anguish, or by dread. He seemed to shrink down, cowed by age. Merry himself felt as if a great weight of horror and doubt had settled on him. His heart beat slowly. Time seemed poised in uncertainty. They were too late! Too late was worse than never! Perhaps Théoden would quail, bow his old head, turn, slink away to hide in the hills. Then suddenly Merry felt it at last, beyond doubt: a change. Wind was in his face! Light was glimmering. Far, far away, in the South the clouds could be dimly seen as remote grey shapes, rolling up, drifting: morning lay beyond them. But at that same moment there was a flash, as if lightning had sprung from the earth beneath the City. For a searing second it stood dazzling far off in black and white, its topmost tower like a glittering needle; and then as the darkness closed again there came rolling over the fields a great _boom._ At that sound the bent shape of the king sprang suddenly erect. Tall and proud he seemed again; and rising in his stirrups he cried in a loud voice, more clear than any there had ever heard a mortal man achieve before: _Arise, arise, Riders of Théoden!_ _Fell deeds awake: fire and slaughter!_ _spear shall be shaken, shield be splintered,_ _a sword-day, a red day, ere the sun rises!_ _Ride now, ride now! Ride to Gondor!_ With that he seized a great horn from Guthláf his banner-bearer, and he blew such a blast upon it that it burst asunder. And straightway all the horns in the host were lifted up in music, and the blowing of the horns of Rohan in that hour was like a storm upon the plain and a thunder in the mountains. _Ride now, ride now! Ride to Gondor!_ Suddenly the king cried to Snowmane and the horse sprang away. Behind him his banner blew in the wind, white horse upon a field of green, but he outpaced it. After him thundered the knights of his house, but he was ever before them. Éomer rode there, the white horsetail on his helm floating in his speed, and the front of the first _éored_ roared like a breaker foaming to the shore, but Théoden could not be overtaken. Fey he seemed, or the battle-fury of his fathers ran like new fire in his veins, and he was borne up on Snowmane like a god of old, even as Oromë the Great in the battle of the Valar when the world was young. His golden shield was uncovered, and lo! it shone like an image of the Sun, and the grass flamed into green about the white feet of his steed. For morning came, morning and a wind from the sea; and darkness was removed, and the hosts of Mordor wailed, and terror took them, and they fled, and died, and the hoofs of wrath rode over them. And then all the host of Rohan burst into song, and they sang as they slew, for the joy of battle was on them, and the sound of their singing that was fair and terrible came even to the City. [...] Over the field rang his clear voice calling: ‘Death! Ride, ride to ruin and the world’s ending!’ [...] _Death_ they cried with one voice loud and terrible.》 - The Return of the King, by J.R.R. Tolkien.

[@SirSpuddington]

Also, a note about the relationship between Sam and Frodo. What they have is definitely not romantic love - Tolkien was a devout Catholic and nothing like that would have ever made it into his work. I think a much better and more accurate understanding of that relationship is that it is a bond of fealty, a form of love that seems more or less completely forgotten and unknown to most modern people. Fealty is more than just loyalty; it is a deep, deep dedication and commitment to service and attachment that elevates it above friendship. Just like friendship, brotherhood, and romantic love, fealty is a two-way phenomenon of reciprocal commitment and connection. The old Anglo-Saxon poem The Wanderer, one of Tolkien's favorites and the work from which he took the name "Middle-earth", is a beautiful and stirring example of what fealty and the loss of it can mean for a person. Frodo and Sam absolutely do love each other with a love that is real and true and untouchable, but it's just not the same thing as romantic love even though it may have the same magnitude. There are some people who have earnestly tried to argue in favor of Frodo and Sam's relationship being "queer-coded," but based on Tolkien's own worldviews and the evidence and historical context of his work, I don't think there's any basis for that interpretation.

[@robdgaming]

I've read that the relationship between Frodo and Sam is an idealized version of one between a British officer in WWI and the soldier assigned as his personal servant, called a "batman". Tolkien experienced this during the war.

[@mollycadieux5916]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMMA💜💜 You are my forever favourite youtuber and I relate to you in so many ways. As a avid reader living in Ontario heading off to University next year to pursue my love for literature, you never fail to inspire me and make my passions feel valuable. I see myself in you in so many ways and always appreciate how open you are, you’re such a role model, inspiration and shining light

[@chloethow7894]

You need to read the Silmarillion! It’s basically the bible of Middle Earth and will explain Sauron and his downfall a bit better. There’s so much information in that book and it’s super interesting and complex but it’s an amazing read.

[@steveo5138]

This is one of your best videos. I love seeing how you are overwhelmed by Tolkien's story. In a way it encapsulates why this book is so good. Because it maybe fantasy, but its written with the heart, and it captures the battle that resides in all of us, the decision between action and indolence. And not sugar coating the choices we make, not concluding with a typical ending to our decision to act, but how, in truth, things do turn out. Nothing stays the same, even if we try to do all we can to keep it that way. Tolkien knew that, knew that no true tale could end any other way. I read this book for the first time in 1978, and every inch of it still remains.

[@harrietfreeman5304]

These LOTR vlogs are my everything ❤ so amazing to have gone on this journey with the book club and to hear all your thoughts, it really felt like reading it again for the first time. Nothing will ever hit as much as the end of ROTK does :((

[@penultimateh766]

I wouldn't skip the appendices. They cover a LITTLE of the same territory as the Silmarillion but only a little and not nearly in the depth. Those books are a life-changing read certainly. Several generations have found them so now. Thanks for posting Emma you're quite a sweetie.

[@nemo5288]

Context for LOTR: Tolkien fought in the trenches of WW1 so this is why we have an unseen/unknowable entity behind everything (who is evil). This accounts for the political leaders and generals who pulled the strings of the soldiers but weren’t present themselves for the fighting. Those who fight for Sauron “just because” account for those on the other side of the war who were conscripted and were fighting Tolkien and co “just because”. The representation of trauma/PTSD is what Tolkien witnessed in those around him during and after. Society really loved a straight “good vs evil” story at this time for justifications on why they were losing loved ones to the war etc etc etc There’s so much more layers to LOTR and the decisions made by characters/Tolkien when knowing this tidbit. Even the love and camaraderie they have with each other is based on the bonds forged under duress during war. I wholeheartedly recommend looking up even a small amount of what he went through or would have seen in the trenches (if you don’t have much WW1 knowledge) because it makes LOTR that much richer and makes it even more incredible 🤍

[@annasbooks]

I finally finished the lotr and kept this vlog for when im done. I loved it sooo much! And just like you the parts with the ents have won my heart!!! Also think the scouring of hobbington in the end was so important for merry and pippin especially (am curious though hoe much taller they are now)

[@LilTaina]

Happy birthday Emma! ❤ just finished watching your bucket list books video from 3 years ago so this video title threw me off for a second! Thank you for reminding me about the magic of books with every upload

[@oak_leaf]

I love the Fangorn part so much I literally cried. This is where I am now in the book. "Very fair she was still in my eyes, when I had last seen her, though little like the Entmaiden of old. For the Entwives were bent and browned by their labour; their hair parched by the sun to the hue of ripe corn and their cheeks like red apples. Yet their eyes were still the eyes of our own people." "'Lie down to sleep!' said Treebeard. 'Why of course you do! Hm, hoom: I was forgetting: singing that song put me in mind of old times; almost thought that I was talking to young Entings, I did." "Yet there are no trees of all that race, the people of the Rose, that are so beautiful to me. And these trees grew and grew, till the shadow of each was like a green hall, and their red berries in the autumn were a burden, and a beauty and a wonder. (...) Then the Orcs came with axes and cut down my trees. I came and called them by their long names, but they did not quiver, they did not hear or answer: they lay dead."

[@jansmitsvanoyen4832]

There's a bit in the tower of Cirith Ungol where we get the Orcs' perspective on why they fight - basically, while they hate and fear Sauron, they hate and feat the good guys more. There's actually a pretty detailed philosophy/theology of evil behind LOTR, if you want details I can recommend Jess of the Shire's youtube videos on the topic

[@johnsailorsgoat]

So glad to see you enjoyed them. The part where the ring fell into Mount Doom in ROTK was so powerful for me I had to put the book down for 30 minutes to breathe again.

[@williamkelly2368]

I loved the Treebeard chapter, you really feel their history and age more than you do in the books

[@SirSpuddington]

ALSO also, I have to shout out the passage in RotK that describes the charge of the Rohirrim at the Battle of Pelennor Fields. I think it's my favorite piece of writing in the whole story - it's just breathtaking. It's also my favorite scene in the movies. I even found a video on KZbin that put an audio recording of Tolkien himself reading that passage aloud over that scene from the Peter Jackson movie. Heart-pounding and goosebumps every single time, both in book and film haha!

[@Shannonigens23]

I was so happy to see this vlog, LOTR is so special. I actually took a course during college that was Tolkien Mythology, which was learning about the religion and mythology of Middle Earth. We read The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, TLOTR, parts of Unfinish Tales of Numenor and Middle Earth, and some essays by Tolkien. I would not consider myself an expert but I can talk about a few things I got from the course. First, I would just do the Silmarillion and then parts of the Appendix. They were originally added to the end of the LOTR because Tolkien did not think that he would ever be able to have the Sil.. published, so I believe there will be a bit of overlap. Your question of the concept of evil stuck out because I also find "well they're evil' to be an unsatisfying answer. The OG baddy Morgoth (Sauron was Morgoth's lieutenant) was -- as I interpret it -- less outright evil and more unnatural and therefore against what we would consider good. Middle Earths religious beginning is literally 'music in harmony.' There is not light, and it is all the sound of the Ainur/ Valar being harmonized. Morgoth choses isolation and darkness and separates from the other gods. It's not evil to be evil, it's more 'goodness in this world is harmony, community, and nature' so evil is what destroys that or is the opposite (Gollum/ Smeagol is a good example of this concept) (also Uruk-hai are desecrations of elves, so the destruction of something to make it unnatural is 'evil'). I am on the same boat as you when it comes to the Shire -- I understand it as a concept that things must change to bring about this new age (our sadness over this change is an amazing creation of empathy through our love of a place because of the characters love of it)) but I also didn't really enjoy the chapter. I was actually very surprised when I cried at the end. I knew the ending having seen the movie many times, but actually the part of Gandolf with Mary and Pippin is what got me. Going back to the concept of good in this world being "fellowship' and community, Gandolf at the end says several times that his work on Middle Earth is finished and will not help with the shire etc. But he can't help himself. He has lived among the people of middle earth for so long and cared so much, that his literal last act among them was the simple, kind choice to go get Mary and Pippin so that Sam did not have to make the journey home alone, which makes me cry with joy over the concept that of all the great battles fought and enemies over come, Gandolf knew the importance of support and community and friendship was the last lesson he had to give when welcoming in this new age of man. I could RANT for days (my love of Theoden actually knows no bounds) but loved how much you enjoyed the books.

[@juliavozar731]

rewinding aragorn opening the doors at helms deep is so real

[@haerhawk]

Happy birthday Emma You deserve all the 5 star reads this year ❤🎉❤

[@Astilbethehobbit]

Sam and Frodos love for each other is like everything 🥺🩶

[@insyirah7675]

I finally finished the entire trilogy a few days ago so this came at the perfect timing! Hoping to watch the movies soon but it was definitely a journey. The writing felt meandering to me at times and the lore is so much that it’s confusing sometimes but the moments between frodo and sam were my favorites, I’ve come to love them the most :) it’s not my favorite thing ever (cue gasp) BUT reading a trilogy all at once builds a bond like no other..plus your love for the trilogy is so bright that I couldn’t not finish it 🥹

[@sofiafernandes3029]

Happy birthday, Emma! I hope you have a lovely day ❤ thank u so much for being such a comforting and cozy company. Wishing you all the best

[@Cubehead27]

Happy birthday Emma!! 🎉 So thrilled you loved LotR this much... excited to maybe see your Tolkien collection grow in the future because I just LOVE hearing people with an eye for theme and a respect for Tolkien's ideas talk about him 😊 I feel like he's kind of the ultimate 20th-century Romantic and I absolutely adore him for it (Also a note on Sauron - yeah he does have backstory about how he was corrupted, some of it's in the Silmarillion and some of it's elsewhere - Tim Hickson from Hello Future Me has some good videos talking about this stuff as well - but personally my take is that in LotR specifically, Tolkien wanted a clear-cut, supremely evil villain because having that makes it easier to write a story that deals abstractly with the nature of evil itself instead of only focusing on character's motivations in a supposedly realistic way. His conclusion about what evil is/how it works has a lot to do with why Sauron's able to control the orcs and the Nazgul unilaterally while the Free Peoples can only defeat him through collaboration and friendship. The motivation stuff is also in LotR of course, but not so much in Sauron himself. Anyways I have lots of opinions on this lol but explaining them all would take longer than is probably reasonable)

[@Cubehead27]

Dammit I have so many thoughts about so many of your reactions just I feel like there's kinda too much for one comment 😭 anyway I'm going to non-intrusively put some of them down here just because 1. The Theoden-Denethor foil situation is maybe my favourite part of the whole book! 2. The Scouring of the Shire hurts a lot but I think it's such an important window into Tolkien's worldview/philosophy/historical outlook, both relating to industrialization and his sense of loss/decline (if you know anything about his work on Beowulf you know he thought a lot professionally about elegy in literature) 3. Embarrassingly I haven't read the Appendices all the way through myself, but having read the Silmarillion, the Unfinished Tales, and bits and pieces of other things, yeah there's a lot of repetition in the lore but also stories get told in different ways/with multiple versions of events/etc. so I don't think the Appendices are entirely compulsory, but they're still an important work with their own special value independent of Tolkien's other writings, and they do also have lots of stuff not found anywhere else (in fact if you mostly want answers to questions you had while reading LotR, then the Appendices are your best bet because the Silmarillion and other works have their own separate narratives/priorities/etc. that often don't have much to do with LotR). Ok phew that's more or less everything important

[@mercury5136]

Happy Birthday Emma! I've never read the LOTR series but these vlogs are definitely encouraging me to.

[@jinuelzymon]

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMMA!

[@bookswithcoffees_]

Happy birthday Emma! I actually finished return of the king today, so I can watch this without getting spoiled :) I must confess I rewatched the Aragorn scenes a little too often as well lol - Hope you have a great birthday

[@ohtiny]

hahaha relatable

[@danielcast98]

happy birthday emma! I adore hearing you talk about LOTR it's my absolute favourite thing, usually watch the movies yearly lol

[@__rishikasingh]

happy birthday emma! youve been life altering!! love you💜💕I wish nothing less than peace and happiness for you

[@pendragon2012]

Happy birthday, young lady! :-) Lord of the Rings is one of the greatest English epics of all time! As regards Sauron, in the The Silmarillion it explains he seeks order and the power to order things according to his own mind. And the eyeball thing is purely for the movies. In the books Sauron has a physical form, he just doesn't leave Mordor. And orcs were created by the original Dark Lord to serve him. When you finish Return of the King, read the appendices, and then maybe try The Silmarillion. More of a history of Middle Earth with lots of background info.

[@MileyLoverIv19]

Happiest birthday, dear Emma! Thank you for existing ⭐❣

[@stevenklinden]

Great to see you enjoying this. LotR has been my favorite book ever since my mom read it to me when I was a kid. I'm sure others have already said this, but Sauron is NOT supposed to just be a giant eye in a tower in the book. He still has a physical, humanoid form, even though he never actually appears in the story. As for his motivations - there is actually an essay by Tolkien that touches directly on this. In origin, Sauron wanted to order the world for the good of all beings, and sought to control people and things for that purpose. But over time, the control itself became the goal, until that was all he cared about, and his original purpose was forgotten.

[@Kim-poet]

Hi Emma! I hope your birthday has been wonderful, full of things that make you smile. You've been making me smile and think, read and hope for brighter days, for four and a half years. I'm so grateful for you and your artful, thoughtful videos. Give your pets a gentle squeeze from all of us out here. 😊

[@chenillereads]

Happy Birthday, Emma!! 🎂

[@nadiaflowers8879]

I love Treebeard! I literally cried when they said goodbye to him. Also Happy Birthday Emma, I hope it's a great one!

[@starryxblue]

Ah, Aragorn. That scene was dreamy. Such a fun vlog and happy birthday!!

[@grace.youngblood]

Happy birthday Emma!! Hope you're having a great day :)

[@AllyEmReads]

Since today is your birthdayyyy HAPPY BIRTHDAYYYY!!!! Also I have been WAITING for this vlog I am sooo happy that it's here!! Also in response to your questions, I HIGHLY recommend the channel Jess of the Shire, she does so many videos on Tolkien and LOTR, and she has definitely made videos about your questions!

[@elisabethprice4697]

This video is so much fun! I’ve been dying to reread the series and this is making me want to even more!

[@itsjustamy1876]

Happy birthday Emma! Wish you well and thank you for being you. So very grateful to have you on here. Hope you had a lovely day :)💕🎉✨

[@lewisfishr]

happy birthday emma!

[@michael_arcturus]

Definitely go ahead and read the Appendices - they enrich all that went before in LOTR, and will whet your appetite for the Silmarillion - every word is worth reading : )

[@mckmeown]

I'm also reading LOTR for the first time, and I'm also on The Two Towers! I love them so much. It takes me so long to read though because I'm always just like HOW DO YOU WORD THINGS SO BEAUTIFULLY TOLKIEN (throughout) and then GOD I LOVE LOVE (when Sam and Frodo are being cute).

[@aliceguimaraes8359]

Reading the Silmarillion before heading to LOTR helped me to understand a lot of the history and culture and origins :)

[@emmadumais2337]

Yahoo!!! I love you and Caryoln's love for the books

[@agirlhasnoname8279]

This is such a beautiful reading vlog, thank you Emma!! ♥️ I so wanna read these books now

[@dwylaw]

It's just great to see you loving these books so much! It's almost like I'm reading them for the first time a second time. If you take my meaning ^^

[@caitlinshortslef4740]

I first read the LOTR as a young teenager and, like you, didn’t care for the Scouring of the Shire and basically how Tolkien did that part. Even when I read it a second time as an older teenager I felt the same way. Since then I have reread it twice as an adult in my 30s and I can honestly say that I probably appreciate that part now more than any other aspect of the book. I think Tolkien was reacting to what his own experiences fighting in a war (WWI) had been, and then witnessing his son and many others fighting in yet another one (WWII) and what they experienced. The understanding that he shows that there are “walking wounded” who are physically fine but emotionally and mentally not okay after a war is I think one of the most beautiful things about the book. I also think Tolkien was reacting to how his own nation changed so much after the end of the war. So while I completely understand how you feel (I was very curious actually to see how you would react to the end), here’s to hoping that with future rereads maybe you’ll make your peace with it! 😊

[@JaroslavP]

That language! I saw the movies, but the language and writing are so awesome in the books!

[@snowhitepp3339]

Also Scouring of the Shire is an incredibly important chapter for many reasons, some already mentioned in comments, one of them being to show how much the four characters grew during their quest. They were not the same hobbits that set out for an adventure at the beginning of the books. They would not be able to free the Shire otherwise. Even Saruman acknowledged that. Also the population of hobbits in Shire needed this lesson, they grew too comfortable (and therefore weak) for their own good. Also it was satisfying to watch how Shire rised from ashes, more beautiful & glorious than before. I hope that over the years you will also "grow" to appreciate this chapter more 😉

[@PatrikOrjes]

Yes! More Lord of the Rings! You can never have too much LotR. Listening to your LotR journey has been a joy, and I need to get back into that world again so I'm rewatching Fellowship tonight. Oh and happy birthday Emma! 🥳

[@user-qg9ed3lo4g]

Happy birthday! Two Towers is my favorite film. Eomer tied with Sam as my favorite. Sam is the better character, but Karl Urban is SO pretty.

[@georgianatrutescu]

Ah, I was just thinking of you! 😍 And really needed this! 🫶🏽

[@alexandre47142]

Emma! Since you loved the books so much, you should definitely watch the extended versions of the movies. There are so many scenes from the books which were deleted in the theatrical release and added back in the extended cuts!

[@margaux105]

*bumping the Lord of the Rings series to the top of my summer reads list* happy birthday Emma!

[@mythrandirhong8630]

Happy birthday, Emma! Talking about friendship, I think Gus and Call from Lonesome Dove are also lifetime friends supporting and caring each other under any circumstance. Lonesome Dove is also an adventurous journey story. It's so good and beautifully written.

[@rondoflicflac]

I wanna reread it soooo bad ❤ I love these books so much

[@JrrrNikolaus]

Glad you enjoyed, I like 'the Scouring Of The Shire' but understand your frustration. I believe you should read the appendices first as they are mostly about the second and third ages while 'The Silmarillion' is mostly about the first age. 'The Silmarillion' can be a hard read if you aren't prepared as it reads very differently from LOTR. If you enjoy 'The Silmarillion', I feel 'The Children Of Hurin' is the next best one to read as it is a complete story expanding on a part of 'The Silmarillion'.

[@red.carnation]

maybe I'm just pathetically emotional but seeing the booktuber who, to me, emanates all the calming and love-filled vibes of lotr (which is one of my favourite books) and makes me feel safe reading that same book and loving it, well just makes me so happy. P.S. you should really read The Silmarillion as it is a mythological recounting of the creation of Middle Earth (like the Edda if you will) and many questions get answered there ❤

[@MegHanSolo1138]

I *loved* the ending of The Return of the King. When I got to the last like ("Well, I'm back.") It made me just want to curl up and cry-- in a good way. Lowkey mad that it didn't make it into the movie.

[@Crazy_Diamond_75]

huh? That's the last line of the movie, too.

[@-Anouck-]

Also read the Silmarillion!!! It shows kind of the creation myth of middle earth and more about Sauron etc :)

[@judith_9006]

I feel you with rewatching the Aragorn bit. 😻

[@ronciego9249]

Emmie Extended versions are the only way to watch Emmie videos

[@eddyerrol]

I just discovered your two Lord of the Rings videos, and very much enjoyed watching them; I almost teared up myself as you discussed some of the most moving parts of the book. I have read the Lord of the Rings around 16 times, and I just finished re-reading it a few days ago, for the first time in about 25 years (I'm 50). I would definitely recommend reading the appendices (at least Appendix A and B), since they contain information not found elsewhere. The Silmarillion is absolutely wonderful, but just go into it knowing that it is a VERY different book than The Lord of the Rings. For me, the gateway to The Silmarillion was reading Unfinished Tales, which contains material pertaining to the Silmarillion, as well as much material related to The Lord of the Rings. One of the tales from that book, the Narn i Hin Hurin, was later published in a fuller form as The Children of Hurin, and I highly recommend that book; I think it contains some of Tolkien's finest writing (it was mostly written in the 1950's, shortly after he'd finished writing The Lord of the Rings, although he'd worked on earlier versions of the story as far back as 1918 or so). The writing style is somewhat in between that of The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings. Just be forewarned: it is a heartbreakingly tragic story. In addition to Tolkien's Middle-earth works, you may enjoy some of his short fiction not related to Middle-earth: I highly recommend Smith of Wootton Major, Leaf by Niggle, and Farmer Giles of Ham. The first two are relatively serious, but Farmer Giles is a light-hearted comedic tale, and highly entertaining. Smith of Wootton Major is a fairy tale and the last piece of fiction published in Tolkien's lifetime. Leaf by Niggle is a short allegory about a painter that Tolkien wrote in the 1940's (during the period he was writing The Lord of the Rings), and contains Tolkien's musings on life and the works of an artist.

[@ErikaLM10]

That Careless Whisper song caught me off guard 😂 Happy Birthday Emma! Same week as Oscar’s first F1 win 🧡

[@lllivivien56]

Perfect timing. I literally just watched all 3 movies last weekend. Shall I start the books too 😅

[@ParadoxKismet]

I loved you sharing your experience with reading The Lord of the Rings. I feel that so much! On Saturday I saw a dark gray Jeep Wrangler in front of a used bookstore that had the name TOLKIEN on both sides of the hood where it slightly curves. It made me smile and I took a photo of it. LOL. I love The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings so much. The old mass market set I have from the '70s has pride of place on my book shelf with newer special editions. ☺

[@illbegabi]

Can't believe how early I am for this. I've been watching your vlogs non-stop all dayyy!!!

[@Irisadii]

Emma is making me want to read these books even though I'd given up on them ages ago

[@jeffreyrogers1013]

I know that your point about Samwise and Frodo was that you didn't mean they were romantically in love. But, that reminded me a really cool interview that Ian McKellen did around the time that the films came out. When McKellen and Peter Jackson were discussing the project before filming, Jackson said 'there's the old rumors about Samwise and Frodo, but we're going to steer clear of that' and Sir Ian McKellen pointed out that the gay subtext was an important part of gay culture in the middle 20th century. In a time when homosexuality was still an imprisonable offense, or in some places could get you dragged out back and beaten, a gay person could bring up those issues on the pretext of discussing popular literature through these books, and it allowed the person to feel out the general views of the other participants so that a gay person could safely learn who could be an ally and who wasn't safe to come out to.

[@zacharynuetzel9821]

The trumpet interlude with Aragorn got me lmao

[@readiculousreads4164]

Literally came here directly from Carolyn's NY bookstore vlog with Leon, where she talked about liking avocado on a bagel. Opening shot of Emma's video? Avocado bagel! 🤣♥️

[@mattkean1128]

Happy birthday Emma ❤

[@itisiraquel]

Happy Birthday Emma! ⭐Have the best day ☺Lots of love from Portugal!

[@mizuki0328]

Omg Emma, I'm so happy you got to read LOTR like this. I too was a person who read the books way too early in life and got bored and disappointed. Then I picked them up again as an adult and loved them so much, and for so many of the same reasons as you did now! As for the movies, I never liked them, and especially two towers for how much they change the script and the characters in a way that I feel totally disrespects Tolkien's intentions, so it was interesting to see your reaction to this since you only knew the movies You've made me definitely want to reread all of LOTR next year. Actually, idk if I can wait for next year, that's how excited you made me.

[@SirSpuddington]

"'Well, I'm back,' he said." The weight of meaning and story-history behind that tiny sentence is just astonishing. Greatest story-ending words I've ever read.

[@tabiii1810]

One thing that really made me tear up when reading The two towers, was at the end of the chapter ‘the stairs of cirith ungol’ when Frodo and Sam were sleeping and Sméagol found them, and it says if one of them saw him they would have thought him an “old weary hobbit, shrunken by the years that carried him beyond his time, friends and kin, and the fields and streams of youth, an old starved pitiable thing.” It made the way Sam treated him quite harsh. I do understand why he did, but it’s still sad to me :( he was so close to being fully free of Gollum and living the rest of his days free from the ring/sauron

[@SKroeze]

I might be wrong, but I think to have read somewhere that Tolkien considered this scene the most moving moment of the entire story. Gollum has betrayed Frodo and feels remorse.

[@thisisjeff9845]

The first time I read Lord of the Rings was when I was 8, I've read it multiple times since then. Sam and Frodo definitely love each other.

[@Bubblet1177]

the aragorn sax music caught me so of guard 😂😂😂

[@c_r_i_ss_y]

a little note on the ending, since you mention how you were expecting something else: I believe the whole idea Tolkien was trying to lay out there was how, when you've been through deeply traumatic experiences, you're no longer yourself. Your take on things, reactions, expectations....there's not much you react to. Frodo was feeling happiness, no doubt, but also many more things. And that didn't leave space enough in his heart to fully let the all that happiness show, because it would've been a murky happiness. That's why he left Middle-earth. Because there are certain things you can never come back from.

[@luluemma1822]

i literally finished reading return of the king last night. i am still recovering. i cried myself to sleep. thanks for posting this video. it came right in time 😭

[@michaelsommers2356]

The book, especially "The Scouring of the Shire", has to be read in light of Tolkien's experiences in the world wars, especially the first one, in which he served in the trenches.

[@TatianaBoshenka]

Wonderful videos! They bring back for me the feelings when I first read the trilogy, almost 50 years ago. I read them again every few years, and lately I've discovered reading them in Spanish, which I've learned enough of through duolingo to manage (by looking up 10 or 20 words per page and jotting in the margins). It slows me way down so that I can pay attention to many more small details, and it makes it new again for me. I'm on my third rereading in Spanish so soon I'll have to learn a new language (maybe Russian) to have the newness come back. It's a great way to learn languages. I highly recommend it. Thanks so much for sharing your reading experiences with us, and I'm super glad you love the books as much as I do. Sam and Frodo certainly do love one another, and I feel kind of bad for bros who have too much testosterone poisoning to admit that.. As for the scouring of the shire, Tolkien once said that it was a most important part of the book, and was envisioned by him from the very first as he was writing the story. I love it because it shows how much the hobbits had grown over the course of their adventures, and how they were now in themselves strong enough to fight those battles to keep their home as it should be. It seems to bring it on home to us here now, and sort of show us what we need to do to keep the world safe and whole. As for the good and evil thing, there really is a lot more nuance and back story there that you can discover by reading more of the legendarium. Sauron started out good, but just loved order too much, and wanted all things to be the way he would do them and make them himself, so sharing power didn't work for him. Also, most of his servants were slaves, and many were deluded and misled. And at all times there are some people who think letting people decide for themselves is a bad idea. It's kind of our nature to want everyone to do what we think of as the right thing, and be tempted to force them if they won't choose it for themselves. Letting go and letting be is really hard.