Meeting the Fox by baranduin

[baranduin.livejournal.com]

B2MeM Challenge: Wildcard (Athelas)
Format: Non-fiction
Genre: Memoir
Rating: Gen
Warnings: None
Characters: The fox
Pairings: None
Summary: Reading LOTR for the first time



“A fox passing through the wood on business of his own stopped several minutes and sniffed.
'Hobbits!' he thought. 'Well, what next? I have heard of strange doings in this land, but I have seldom heard of a hobbit sleeping out of doors under a tree. Three of them! There's something mighty queer behind this.' He was quite right, but he never found out any more about it.”



I have a confession to make. I am one of those people who found the first couple of chapters rough going the first time. Oh, I don't now, those parts are among my favorite and most reread. But in the beginning I found it a little rough going.

"Here. Read this," my brother said to me and handed me a book with a very strange cover. Were those emus?

But, as he seemed serious plus he was my big brother, I did as he said and never looked back.

As with a lot of people, I first read LOTR during a difficult time in my life. I was 15. My mother was sick. She was to die a little over a year later. I read a large part of the book in hospital waiting rooms. It both took me away and comforted me and always has since that first reading.

So I got through the first couple of chapters and somewhere after Frodo left Bag End, it all became easy, perhaps when the fox stopped by in the Shire wood. It all became fascinating in fact, so engrossing that at one point I looked up from the book and asked my brother, "This is real, isn't it? There are hobbits, aren't there?"

He smiled but said nothing.

And all these decades later I'm still reading but I don't ask those questions any more. I don't need to. I know the answer.

Comments

[shirebound]

Were those emus?

LOL!

Those are special memories. Your brother could have no idea what he was starting. :)

[baranduin.livejournal.com]

Well, since he feels the same way, I think he did -:)

[dreamflower]

Yes, those emus, and that marvelously psychedelic landscape. That was the first set of the trilogy I owned, and I recall my excitement at discovering that you could put them together to make one grand picture. Of course it made no sense to the story within, but I will always loved it.

I was 15 the first time I read it also.

[baranduin.livejournal.com]

I still have a set with those covers. They are my favorite. I can still get lost in looking at them!

[shadowbrides.livejournal.com]

Oh hah! That is exactly the sort of passage I love ( although it wasn't what converted me). Details like those really make the story.

[baranduin.livejournal.com]

They really do. I love that this little scene ends with the narrator telling us the fox never found out any more. It always makes me think of the other little bits that Tolkien drops into the story of the history of Middle-earth but leaves unfinished. Gives the story so much depth and resonance for me.

[mews1945.livejournal.com]

This is wonderful to read. I'm glad your brother gave you that book, for many reasons, not only for your sake, but because it brought you here.

I had a bit of trouble getting through the first chapter too, but then the story grabbed me with both hands and never let go. I can remember weeping when I thought Frodo had died, and Sam went on without him. I'd never cried about a character in a book before. Now, of course, I know Frodo is real and he lives, so it's no surprise that I cried for him.

It's so strange, how Tolkien could add bits like the fox or the line about a freight train, and it never seemed odd or out of place.

[baranduin.livejournal.com]

I always find it odd now that I had trouble with the beginning the first time when it's now such a favorite. I think it was just a matter of being sort of overwhelmed by it all at first, what with the foreword and all ...

It never occurred to me that the freight train was anachronistic until I red it somewhere in a critique lol!

[rlaadmin.livejournal.com]

The 'emu' set was my first set (originally belonged to my sister, but she never got it back from me, lol) and I still have them, tattered and worn. It's wonderful that you share a love of LOTR with your brother.

[baranduin.livejournal.com]

There was a time when we played many rounds of Tolkien 20 Questions -:)

[zdenka]

Yes, that's a charming moment in the story. Sticking strictly to one point-of-view is highly overrated. ;-)

[baranduin.livejournal.com]

Oh definitely!

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

Thank you for sharing.I'm glad LOTR was a comfort to you.

[baranduin.livejournal.com]

You're welcome. I think LOTR has been a great comfort to many.

[ellynn-ithilwen.livejournal.com]

Sorry to hear about your mother. :(

And as you mention the fox, I mean, The Fox, I hope you'll forgive me a little bit of SSP. I hope you will like it. After all, you know the answer, don't you? :)
Mistery of three sleeping hobbits - http://ellynn-ithilwen.livejournal.com/13090.html

[baranduin.livejournal.com]

Very nicely told! I like the idea of Bill telling the tale of his adventures. Thanks for linking to your story?

[ellynn-ithilwen.livejournal.com]

Thanks, I'm glad you like it! :)

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

I had a bit of a hard time with Hobbiton as a teen, and so the first chapters and the Scouring, but I was in denial about it. The gossipiness and pettiness of the other hobbits offended my teen sense of derring-do. Of course I loved our hobbits, and thought I loved all things hobbity then. I hadn't picked up on how Tolkien defines hobbits, and then gives us unhobbity, queer hobbits to identify with--tricksy he is.

I'm so sorry to hear about you losing your mom so young, but I'm glad you had LotR to bring you comfort, and that you share it with your brother.

Heeeee--emus. (-: