How old were you when you first read The Lord Of The Rings

[Vorondil]

How old were you when you first read The Lord Of The Rings, and what made you want to read it?

I was 11, we had gone on holiday to Ireland and even though the only LOTR stuff I had seen before was the Lego sets, Ireland still made me think of Middle-Earth, and that was that.

 

[Radaghast]

I was 15 when I read both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

 

[Jimbo Baggins]

I was four when I read Lord of the Kids.

 

[Starbrow]

I first read the Hobbit when I was 12 and The Lord of the Rings when I was 15.

 

[Olorgando]

27 when I first read the German translation, 29 when I first read the original - and became a Middle-earth junkie ... 🤓

 

[Vorondil]

27 when I first read the German translation, 29 when I first read the original - and became a Middle-earth junkie ... 🤓

You certainly took your time!

 

[Olorgando]

You certainly took your time!

JRRT's writings (and the "writings about his writings") are huge anomaly in our private library. The vast majority of books I've bought over the decades are non-fiction (in my wife's case, it's a bit different, including book she's bought for herself since we'be been together).
For that matter, in the JRRT section of our library, the books about him and his writings outnumber those he published in his lifetime by about 15 to 1.
Here a picture from not quite three years ago. I think I've added at least ten books to that since then.

https://thetolkien.forum/threads/tolkien-book-covers.28961/post-533450

 

[d4rk3lf]

I was 10 -11, when I read Hobbit.
I was actually amazed... for kid of that age, I think I've read a lot of literature by that point... you know.. the classics.. Oliver Twist, White Fang, 20,000 miles under the sea... and stuff like that...
I was thinking something like: "Man.. many books would just have one big moment, like Bilbo's encounter with 3 trolls, and finish there.. and this guy (Tolkien) just keeps going with more and more awesome events".
Immediately fell in love.
Few years later (at 13-14) I've read LOTR, but was nor really focused on passages like Elrond Counsel (that later becomes my favorites), and was, again, fascinated by similar like Hobbit story, but even much more bigger, and everything felt way more serious and awesome.

At the age of 19-20-21, I got a Silmarillion as a birthday present .. I was worried I wouldn't like it very much. because many people told me it's pretty much unreadable... after a few pages - Instant love!
Who wouldn't like to read about creation of the world, in such an epic manner? Sure, it was a bit hard to follow all the names on the first read, but I knew instantly I will re-read it many times (like I did Hobbit and LOTR), so I didn't worried much, and just kept reading.

I can't even imagine how my life, and feel, would be without professors writings.

I was four when I read Lord of the Kids.

You are four, now.

 

[Eljorahir]

I do believe I was about a century less than eleventy-one plus a decade.



(Let's see: 111-100+10=21. Yep. Sounds about right.)

 

[Lósendir Elsurion]

I was introduced to the Hobbit at 6 and read The Lord of the Rings at about 10 or 11 I think.

 

[Iminye]

I first read the Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings when I was 19.

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

For many more answers, see here! 😁

https://thetolkien.forum/threads/how-old-were-you.12899/

 

[Tyelkormo the Fair]

13

 

[Halasían]

I remember answering this before. The TLDR summary is 17 for The Hobbit, Fellowship, Two Towers. and starting of Return of the King. Turned 18 sometime in the middle of Return of the King.

 

[Aldarion]

Probably eleven, as I believe I read the books after Return of the King was released. But then I could have done it post-FotR, so I will have been nine... eh, my memory is really crap.