#Do I have Thoughts about ol’ Jirt’s books

[moltengoldveins]

Look perhaps crying actual tears over Durin’s song is a bit much but I have a Reason ok, let me Explain-

“No harp is wrung, no hammer falls: The darkness dwells in Durin's halls. The shadow lies upon his tomb In Moria, in Khazad-dûm. But still the sunken stars appear In dark and windless Mirrormere.”

It’s about the Hope, right? The resurrection of a long-dead and rotting world, the way the line of Isildur and the line of Durin have held the last embers of a once-great flame so that when the time is right they might once again light the beacon. It’s about the elves having no redemptive story, no myths for the future, no joy in knowing they are not the last and greatest thing their race will ever make. It’s about how they have nothing to look onward for, and so cannot help but pass into the West and away. It’s about how absurd the thought of sailing on is for the men, the dwarves, heck, even the ents, who have woken from their long sleep and found themselves strong again, because they hold so much faith in the coming glory of a world rebuilt. It’s about how the new king of men does not have a mind of metal, and the new champion of the dwarves does not have a mind of gold. It’s about how they have both found friendship and love in the elves, but instead of loosing themselves to the grief of what is lost, they’ve pulled the elves into the hope of what is to come. It’s about how the Entwives cannot be found, but the things Treebeard says and sings of them are so eerily familiar, to those of us with even a passing knowledge of Merry and Pippin and the Hobbits and the Shire. Whether they Are the Entwives, found at last, or just the kind of creatures the ents can pass their knowledge onto, it doesn’t matter. The hope stays the same. The Middle Earth during the LotR trilogy is so horribly dark. And more than that: it’s quiet. Cold. “The world is grey, the mountains old, The forge's fire is ashen-cold.” The only cities left are those built from enough stone to stave of the rot. It’s inconceivable, any race of that time carving the giant statues we see of Aragorn’s forefathers. It hurts to think how much has been lost, enough to understand, for a moment, the call Westward. But we are not dead yet. We are faded, but not fading. The old things are still there, waiting to be seen by new eyes, breathed upon again by new lungs. “There lies his crown in water deep, Till Durin wakes again from sleep.”

The Lord of the Rings is a story set in the cold, bleary morning of a bright new era. The world, like the ents who represent it, is waking up and finding itself strong. Durin’s line is still alive and sees the fall of Sauron’s eye. The king of men has beaten death. There is one dwarf in Moria who yet draws breath.

[crackinthecup]

@mossquitoman cheers for the tag <3

An estimate of how many physical books I own:

Around 200, give or take.

Favorite author:

Good ol’ Jirt.

A popular book I've never read and never intend to read:

A series rather than one book but I’ve never read A Song of Ice and Fire.

A popular book I thought was just meh:

Not sure how popular it is but I read the Starborn series by Lucy Hounsom not too long ago and I enjoyed many things about it but some things also rubbed me up the wrong way.

Longest book I own:

I’ve got the three-book edition of The Histories of Middle-earth, and I’m assuming one of them is probably the longest book I own. Either that or maybe Perdido Street Station by China Miéville.

Longest series I own all the books to:

Definitely the Histories!

Prettiest book I own:

My LotR books! I’ve got a clothbound hardback edition of the trilogy with the spines slotting together into the White Tree of Gondor.

A book or series I wish more people knew about:

The Ketty Jay series by Chris Wooding is about space pirates and it’s very well written and very fun with an incredible cast of characters and not many people seem to have read it, sadly.

Book I'm reading now:

More like three books I’m reading now haha. Lirael by Garth Nix, The Raven and the Reindeer by T. Kingfisher, and Phantom by Susan Kay (technically a re-read as I’ve had a resurgence of my teenage love for Phantom of the Opera).

Book that's been on my TBR list for a while but I still haven't got around to it:

My partner has been telling me I should read the Bartimaeus series for literal years now oops. I’ll get round to it eventually!

Do you have any books in a language other than English:

Not where I currently live, I don’t think.

And lastly, paperback, hardcover or ebook?

Ebooks, for the convenience. I like to read in bed at night and on the tube/train, and I find it a lot easier if I don’t have to wrangle a physical book.

Tagging @antares0606 @alackofghosts @andtheirlovewasrenewed @mirkwood-hr-department @elevenelvenswords (if you fancy!)