Tolkien Reading Day
A chance to celebrate the place of Bournemouth and Poole in J.R.R. Tolkien's life.

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If you are a dad, mum, grandparent, uncle, aunt with an interest in J.R.R. Tolkien's stories; if you are a young person with and interest in Tolkien, then Tolkien Reading Day is designed for YOU.

It provides a chance for grownups and children to read together and share their thoughts about the stories by Tolkien that they may have already read, and encourages them to discover new ones.

Did you know that J.R.R. Tolkien and his wife spent their retirement in Bournemouth and Poole after his long and illustrious career at Oxford University? Bournemouth is famous for its beach, and Poole is famous as an historic port. Beaches, the seaside, and ports, or Havens, are important in lots of Tolkien's stories.

The Sea in Tolkien's books:

Tolkien took his children to the seaside for their summer holidays. They enjoyed playing on the beach. He wrote a story for younger children about an adventure that starts on a beach..

Roverandom:

Roverandom is fun too for older people as it has clever jokes and quirky descriptions.

Read the description of the beach in Roverandom and find out what strange thing happens there.

Grownups and children can read together the trip to the moon. How does the little dog travel?

You might each read a different character. Can you make up voices to suit your characters?

What is strange about the Isle of Dogs? You could ask a grownup to explain the joke Tolkien is making if you don't know about this.

Read the chapters about the little dog's visit to the Moon. Can you name all the different animals that live there?

And what is strange about them?

What is strange about the Man in the Moon's little dog?

Who lives on the dark side of the moon?

The Sea in other Tolkien books:

If you don't have a copy of Roverandom, or your prefer something else, you might read any part of The Lord of the Rings, or The Silmarillion, or any of Tolkien's other books and stories in which Tolkien describes the sea and the seashore, or the use of boats. Choose your favourite bits, if you have them and talk to each other about why they are your favourites.

How does Tolkien describe the sea, seashore, or havens?

Do they seem like happy places for a holiday?

Are there lots of havens or ports?

How does he describe ships and boats?

Are they special in any way?

Are they dangerous?

What about the ships of the Corsairs?

How does Sam feel about boats?

What is Galadriel's boat like?

Do you like the same things, or feel the same way as each other?
Do the grownups like different things to the young people?
Talk about why.

Some characters are associated with the sea in special ways: what is Legolas's response to the sea?
How does the sea affect Nimrodel?

In The Silmarillion almost at the end of chapter 5 there are some lovely descriptions of the sea, the seaside, and ships. Do you think you could find beaches like the ones described?

Or ships drawn along in this way?

Why not draw or paint your version of these.

You can send your pictures to the address from which you ordered this pack. This is not a competition, but the best pictures will receive a commendation from the Tolkien Society and be mentioned in Amon Hen, the Society's newsletter.

Tell us what you read, and how much you enjoyed reading together via the contact page for the Education section.

Some Reading Day Activity Suggestions

For smaller children:

Grownups could read the arrival of the dwarves from The Hobbit, or help them to read it.

A good game can then be played:

You can easily discover the answers with the child/ children by re-reading.

If there are any words the child/children don't understand, help them to look these up in a dictionary and find out what they mean.

Next:

You could ask the child/children to create their own dwarf. If you are good at drawing you could create an outline, or maybe find one on a free website. Dwarves can be either male or female. All Tolkien's dwarves are male, but there is not much difference in shape between male and female dwarves! All are short, but not so small as hobbits, and stocky.

If your child/children draw a picture of a dwarf that they would like to share with everyone, please send it to The Tolkien Society. The very nicest ones could be sent to the Tolkien Society to be published in the journal Amon Hen during the year, or put on the society's website.

For slightly older children:

Look at the start of The Hobbit and create your own dwarf:

If you look at Tolkien's dwarves you will see that each one likes different kinds of food and drink. So you will need to decide what your dwarf likes to eat and drink.

Whatever you decide on this should show in the way they greet Bilbo when they arrive at his door.

Here are two examples:

Mynni a footsore and grumpy dwarf arrives at Bilbo's front door with the grey dust of the road all over his new scarlet hood and shiny black boots. He puts down the sack his is carrying and knocks on the door with his rough red knuckles, and when Bilbo opens it he says, "About time too. I've walked miles today and my feet are killing me. I wouldn't have come if I'd known it was such a long way to walk. Well, aren't you going to ask me in for a cup of tea?"

And:

A cheerful dwarf in a pale mauve hood and yellow boots, with blue bows in his bear, rapped on the door with his trowel and shouted merrily, "Hey Bilbo! It's me Mungo son of Kringo. Are you there? Open the door, I'm starving."

This format can be used in schools to encourage comprehension and creativity in writing.

If you draw a picture of a dwarf and make a sentence or two that describes him or her and you would like to share it with everyone, please send it to us. The very nicest ones could be sent to the Tolkien Society to be published in the journal Amon Hen during the year, or put on the society's website.

RUNES

The story of The Hobbit uses Anglo-Saxon runes for secret messages. Tolkien uses runes to create the message that is the clue to opening a stone door. If you read the runes in The Hobbit you will be able to send messages to one another using the ones Tolkien uses.

There is a Study pack on Runes with more information and ideas for playing games with runes. The pack is free.

There is a chart that shows all the rune shapes so children can make up their own messages for the grownups to read. This is a suitable game for slightly older children.

Other things grownups and children can do together

Discuss the story

Try reading your favourite bits of any of Tolkien's books or poems out loud to one another.

Short sections:

Such as half a page at a time (or a poem, or song).

Take it in turns to say what you like about the bit you have chosen. Let the person listening say what they like or don't like about your choice.

No one is allowed to just say I don't like it, or I like it.

Everyone must say why, even if it is only e.g. I like it because it has an elf in it, or I don't like it because it has spiders in it. You may agree to disagree, but you must be as polite and courteous as Aragorn is to Elrond.

Using longer bits from the books:

If you like the same longer bit (a page or two, maybe more) and read it aloud with you each taking turns for each character; it will be like a play as you speak the words of the characters. If it does not have any characters in it, take turns to read paragraphs, or alternate verses if it is a poem.

If you are having difficulty deciding what to read:

Favourite scary bits:

Talk to each other about why these bits are scary?
What sort of language does Tolkien use to make us scared?
Is it just the words he uses, or are we scared by other things in the bit you have read?

Favourite beautiful bits:

Talk to each other about why these bits are beautiful?
What sort of language does Tolkien use to make us think places or events are beautiful?

Favourite comic (funny) bits:

More Reading Day Fun

For Tolkien fans:

Challenge the grown-ups (this quiz gets harder, so you will need to use The Silmarillion as well as The Lord of the Rings), or you can try using one from one of the quiz books available on Tolkien's works, there's even a couple of Tolkien or The Lord of the Rings trivia games:

  1. Who is Bilbo's father?
  2. Who is Aragorn's father?
  3. Who was Denethor's father?
  4. Who was Théodred's father
  5. Who was Éomer's father?
  6. Who was Lord of Balrogs?
  7. Who was Galadriel's brother?
  8. What did he want from her?
  9. To whom did she eventually give it?
  10. Who was the Dark Elf?
  11. Who married this elf?

Tolkien consequences

Ideally you should be using names and places from the books but you can make them up if you like.

Here are some suggestions for how to frame the consquences: