Tolkien Reading Day

A chance to celebrate reading J.R.R. Tolkien's books

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Whether you are a teacher or a young person, this Tolkien Reading Day Pack has ideas and suggestions designed for YOU. Pick and choose which ones suit you.

Tolkien Reading Day 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.

The purpose of Tolkien Reading Day is to enjoy and discover the books written by J.R.R. Tolkien through talking about them and through activities associated with them.

See the accompanying Packs 'Playing in Middle-earth' and 'Runes' for ideas for younger children. See also the accompanying ''Old English', for ideas for older children.

The books we will use here are The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, Roverandom, Farmer Giles of Ham.

Reading together for children who have not yet read The Hobbit. Read and talk about what hobbits are like, and what their homes are like. Move on to the arrival of the dwarves.

Tests for comprehension:
Q. would you like to live in a hobbit hole? Would it be nice, would it be damp?
Q. would you like to have dwarves to tea? Why or why not?
See 'Playing in Middle-earth' for activities.

Reading Roverandom
Read together the chapter on Roverandom's arrival on the Moon.
Q. how does he get there?
Q. what kinds of creatures live there?
Q. what colour are the spiders?
Q. what must the dogs not chase?
The children may be invited to draw any of the creatures. Black paper and white pens/chalks would be useful!

Reading and 'walking through' is an especially enjoyable way of involving children in literature. It requires an understanding of the language used, and often Tolkien introduces interesting and archaic words as well as various levels of language. These may also be discussed. Suitable extracts from The Hobbit would be the arrival of the dwarves (Chapter 1). A shortened version of the encounter with trolls avoiding the need to put anyone in a bag! But discuss this.(Chapter 2) The arrival at Beorn's house (Chapter 7). The encounters in Mirkwood (Chapter 8). Each of these chapters has plenty of characters and activity. The children may be asked to read the words of the characters and move about relative to one another. They may be asked to describe what they look like as their character. One or more children may act as narrator. There is no need for excitable activity!

For older children:

Walking through important moments in The Lord of the Rings, avoiding incidents where there is sword fighting and violent activity - this offers the opportunity for children to discuss the actions of characters, make decisions about how they read, move and interact. Requires comprehension.

The Fellowship of the Ring

The Two Towers

The Return of the King

After this the action of the book becomes rather difficult to handle as 'read and walk through', but the children could be asked to nominate episodes to discuss and try out. Swords etc. are NOT necessary as adult actors simply hold their hands together as if holding a sword.

Children averse to scenes of violent action may be encouraged to discuss the poetry found in these books and consider its form, and appropriateness to the character who speaks it.

Good examples would be

Creative ideas

All these may be accompanied by pictures, and even filmed if a camcorder is available. This requires 1 or more reporters and 1 camera-person. Children should be encouraged to watch TV news reports to work out how they are done. Or to read newspaper reports from various newspapers to understand differences in presentation and vocabulary. Making up headlines should be fun.

Discussions (may be done in small groups and reported back to the class:

(1)

There are lots of ships, havens, ports and landing places in Tolkien's 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.

Things to think about to get you started: How does Tolkien describe the sea, and rivers, and havens? Are there lots of havens or ports in the story you are looking at? How does Tolkien 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? 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.

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.

(2)

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 vol 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? Explain 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?

(3)

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 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 Eol 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 the best pictures on any of these subjects will receive a commendation from the Tolkien Society and be mentioned in Amon Hen, the Society's newsletter.

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 the seaside 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.

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 dog in Tolkien's short story Farmer Giles of Ham is very brave. If you have the book, find out what he does. Do you think Farmer Giles treats him well?

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 f you can find it, you will be able to wish each other 'good health' in the language of Rohan, and Anglo-Saxon! Look for Eomer's and Eowyn'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. The Anglo-Saxon pack is available here.

Have you liked the same things, do you feel the same way as each other? Do the grownups like different things to the young people? You must say why!

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.