The real question is if he’s singing all the songs.
What melodies can the songs be sung well to?
I listened to the audiobook read by Rob Inglis and he sang all the songs. They made melodies for all of them.
I have epubs of the whole series, there are audio attachments titled “jrr Tolkien sings <poem / song>”, but sadly I’ve never been able to get them to play… :(
Have you tried VLC?
…no? its an epub, its embedded in the text of the book… I have tried MPV though, and it just spits out garbage.
Andy Serkis also narrated some audiobooks, but I have not listened to them. I hope he also sings.
Mambo No 5
The House of Bamboo.
Ok now I totally want to see a lounge / cocktail version of LOTR. Bilbo would be like an Austin Powers style 1970s spy swinger. Ya baby.
Legolas’ song about Nimrodel is in the common meter, and thus can be sung to the tune of Gilligan’s Island.
Edit: Or House of the Rising Sun, if you prefer.
Not knowing this always annoys me
Pachelbel?
I’m literally doing this for my boys at the moment (l finished tonight’s installment a few minutes ago) and can honestly say I’m definitely trying! Sometimes I pick a meter or melody (?) and just hope it’s going to roughly work!
It’s like the coolest scene in the movie, too. Bernard Hill crushed it.
He puts on an acting master class throughout.
The scene where he weeps over his son’s grave is straight up heartbreaking.
“Alas, that these evil days should be mine. The young perish and the old linger. That I should live to see that last days of my house.”
😥
So he shows them the movies…because that’s not at all how it’s phrased in the books…
Or she didn’t read the books and that’s the quote she could come up with.
Or the whole thing is made up because it’s the internet.
It should be read no other way.
You can’t read it that way though, because that’s from the movie.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s awesome.
Clearly I mean the intensity and commitment, not the words.
What age would you all suggest for reading LOTR to your kids?
I remember watching the movies when I was around 7 or 8 and the scene with the Urak-Hai hatching freaked me out so bad I didn’t watch the rest of the movies until I was 18.
I read it to my kids when they were each around 7-8 years old. They still have not yet watched the movies.
There are scary parts, but it makes the resolution that much sweeter. But they were also prepared for it because we were reading at that level. I didn’t go from Dr Seuss to Tolkien.
(Also, as a casual book nerd, if you’re at the point of reading LOTR to your kids, I’d also highly recommend reading them Moby Dick.)
I wish my kid could sit still for that kind of thing. We have been at the Hobbit for over two months and we just now got to the trolls.
Every child is different and reading is different than watching. The movies were pg-13, the books probably fit that determination as well. But when a particular child is actually “ready” has to be determined by parent and to some degree the child.
There’s no uruk-hai hatch scene in the books at least. I read them starting at 7 or 8ish myself and don’t recall any related nightmares.
Father of the year!
Sing a goddamn LOTR song, lose your American citizen ship immediately, and forced to work in the cartel tunnels. You have been warned.
