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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.
There are lots of ships, havens, ports and landing places in his books. 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 or the use of boats. Choose your favourite bits, if you have them and talk to each other about why they are your favourites. Of course, you can't have landing places without water of various kinds, rivers or seas.
How are the elven boats used at Parth Galen? If you read these bits of the story together you could each read a character. Don't forget to give your character a special voice if that is needed.
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 in the story you are looking at?
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.
The town of Warwick had a sentimental place in Tolkien's heart. It also provided the inspiration of one of his longer poems, for the passing of the elves from Middle-earth, and for the creation of Tirion in The Silmarillion.
In his poem, which he called 'Kortirion Among the Trees', Tolkien wrote of a town on a hill with lots of trees, and a river flowing at the foot of the hill. It is a town from which the elves are leaving. He stated that the inspiration for this town on a hill was actually Warwick. You can find the various full versions of the poem in The Book of Lost Tales volume 1, edited by Christopher Tolkien. An article on the importance of Warwick as an influence in Tolkien's writing is available on the Tolkien Society website.
Tolkien often uses the idea of towns or dwellings set on hills, or the shoulders of mountains, with rivers running past, in all his books. If you have read The Lord of the Rings see how many places like this you can name together. You may need to decide whether towers on hills count! Do you have a favourite place like this? If you do, why not draw or paint a picture of it.
Tell one another why you like the place you have chosen. Are there other places you prefer in the book? Talk about why.
If you have read The Hobbit you will know that elves don't live on hills in this book but in valleys and in caves. Can you find and name them? What happens in them? Do you like the story of the elves in Mirkwood? Are there any scary bits? Is Rivendell a nicer place to live than Mirkwood? Why do you think this? Are there any hills or rivers that are important to the story? Can you name them and say what happens there, or read the story to one another. You could read different characters! Don't forget to make the voices different too! You might discuss whether mountains count as very large hills!
If you have read The Silmarillion, you could read though all the references to Tirion and see how it has changed from a simple town on a hill from which the elves are departing. It is interesting to see how Tolkien's ideas develop. Talk about the differences.
You could also read the story of the first time elves left one place for another and decide how you feel about the story. Is it a story you enjoy reading?
The passing of the elves into the west happens in The Lord of the Rings in several places, do you remember them? Can you find them and read them together? Do you have a favourite passage that talks about this? Can you find a word to express how other characters feel about the elves going? How does it make you feel?
Tolkien's charming short story that he called Roverandom was written for younger children. Why not share the enjoyment of this endearing story of the little lost dog who visits the Man in the Moon by reading it together. Roverandom is fun too for older people as it has clever jokes and quirky descriptions.
Tolkien took his children to Filey for their summer holidays. They enjoyed playing on the beach.
Read the description of the beach in Roverandom and find out what strange thing happens there.
If you know the beach yourself, do you think Tolkien's description is right?
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?
Why not draw or paint your version of the Man in the Moon, or Roverandom.
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 on the Tolkien Society Forum, or via the contact page for the Education section.
If you have read The Lord of the Rings, you could talk about the way Tolkien describes industry and things that are manufactured.
Sam doesn't like the Sandymans' mill in Hobbiton when it has a smoking chimney, but what other ways are there of grinding grain? Can you name some? What could have powered the Hobbiton Mill? And can mills be used for anything except grinding grain? The grownups might want to investigate this for you.
Saruman has furnaces and forges in Isengard. If you can go to your local library you might try to find out what a furnace does and what it produces, if you don't already know. What do you think Saruman is making?
If Saruman's forges are a bad thing, the elvish smiths who reforge Aragorn's sword, and the dwarf smiths who make other swords use forges too. What is different about them? You might need to talk about this.
In the story Roverandom the Man in the Moon is always busy in his workshop. You could read this part of the story together and find out why, and what he is doing.
If you have read The Silmarillion, you might try to find the black sword, and find out who made it. This is a bit tricky so look up Eöl in the Index. What happens to the sword? Is this story you enjoy reading? How do you feel about it? Do you both/all feel the same way? Can you say how it is different from the stories of swords in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings?
There are lots of swords in Tolkien's books, and most have names.
How many can you find?
If you have a copy of the short story Farmer Giles of Ham, don't forget the sword in that.
Can you find out what the names of the swords mean (Tolkien tells you this), and how many languages are used to name each one? Only one is in Latin!
Why not draw or paint your favourite sword from any of the stories? You can send your pictures to the address from which you ordered this pack.
If you don't like swords, why not paint or draw your idea of an ent or an entwife.
Don't forget to give them a name.
Or you could paint of draw some of the creatures that live on the Moon in Roverandom.
This is not a competition, but if you send us a copy of the picture, the best pictures will receive a commendation from the Tolkien Society and be mentioned in Amon Hen, the Society's newsletter.
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.
When Tolkien was growing up in and around Birmingham he said he thought of himself as Mercian. Do you know what he meant? You could look it up.
He also said he wanted to speak nothing but Old Mercian. This is a very old kind of English (Anglo-Saxon) dialect and Tolkien's Riders of Rohan use it for their own language, and for their names!
Apart from the names it is written down only twice, but if you can find it, you will be able to wish each other 'good health' in the language of Rohan, and Anglo-Saxon! Look for Éomer's and Éowyn's greetings.
There is also a study pack written for the Tolkien Society that will introduce you to more of the Anglo-Saxon that Tolkien uses. Follow this link for the Anglo Saxon study pack.
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.
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.
Try reading your favourite bits of any of Tolkien's books or poems out loud to one another.
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.
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:
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?
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?
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:
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:
