Yes, I do have reservations about recommending The LotR films to young ones because of the scenes of violence (hey, I'm not fond of those scenes either!). Having said that, we read the book to our own children when they were young (below ten, then again pre-teen), but the books are not as filled with the amount of war portrayed in the movies. Plus, visual is more intense.

@narnian78 yes, I remember being concerned at parents taking young children to see LOTR in cinemas. I've recently rewatched the films on my TV, and there's a lot of dark scenes and dark characters. Some kids relish the gore and fighting, but on a large screen it would be scarier.

If you are interested in Tolkien's languages, especially Quenya and Sindarin (the main ones, those that he developed most fully), you may also have come across Mr Helge Fauskanger, who has made a Quenya course for those who would like to learn the grammar of that language. The course - and TONS of other resources about Tolkien's languages that Fauskanger has compiled or created - can be found on his Ardalambion website, https://ardalambion.net/  . (He happens to be Norwegian, btw, but he makes his website in English.)

But his newest contribution is even more fun! On his YouTube channel http://www.youtube.com/@Cenindo , he has created a channel called "Speak Elf Yourself" at

where he actually speaks Quenya.

The channel premiered today, about 15-20 hours ago. So far it has got 35 subscribers, and I was #31. He numbers this as Episode 1, and says,

We now begin an exciting series of videos discussing Quenya, the most highly-developed Elvish language made by J.R.R. Tolkien for his Middle-earth mythos!

Yes, he really speaks Quenya, or perhaps rather 'Neo-Quenya', which is what has been further developed after Tolkien passed away in 1973 - but everything has English sub-titles, so it doesn't require any previous knowledge of Quenya  

I haven't had time to watch all of it yet - but I've seen that it has parts that are filmed in Norway, so you get at least some nice pictures of Norwegian nature. I can comment more tomorrow night, when (hopefully) I've had time to watch the whole episode. I'm looking forward to it!

Bilbo’s Last Song was published as a beautiful children’s book in 1990. It was illustrated by Pauline Baynes.  I always loved Pauline Baynes’ artwork. When Tolkien’s poetry is made into a children’s book the illustrations by her really enhance the story and the verse. The book is available in many libraries and I strongly recommend it for any age.

@narnian78 I know that book — I remember seeing it some time in the late 1990s, either in a bookshop or at the library where my dad worked at the time, and I found it so beautiful and moving. Unfortunately I never did get hold of a copy for myself, being in my late teens and very short of disposable income... I must have a look for it online.

Bilbo's Last Song has been set to music at least twice — once for a radio production (the BBC, I think it was) and once by composer Donald Swann, which is the version I'm familiar with. It's in the later editions of his book The Road Goes Ever On, which contains the sheet music he wrote for a whole set of songs from Tolkien's writings, along with Swann's own reflections on how he came to compose these and a section by Tolkien explaining more about the Elvish languages. The author and composer knew each other personally, and Tolkien approved of Swann's music for his words, although he was no longer around when Swann later composed the setting of Bilbo's Last Song, after Tolkien's death.

Regardless of which tune one prefers for it (if any), I just find Tolkien's last words for Bilbo so stirring and unforgettable — I often find these lines in particular coming to me:

But islands lie behind the Sun

That I shall raise ere all is done;

Lands there are to west of West

Where night is quiet and sleep is rest.

................................................

Ship, my ship! I seek the West,

And fields and mountains ever blest.

Farewell to middle-earth at last.

I see the Star above your mast!

@courtenay 

I ordered it through interlibrary loan and did not know that it was a children’s book. I was amazed at the beauty of the illustrations. It looked like it had been checked out many times. It was quite popular in the small rural library that it came from. 🙂

Posted by: @narnian78

I was amazed at the beauty of the illustrations.

Well, it's an interesting fact that one of Pauline Baynes' early commissions, as a young and not-yet-well-known artist, was to illustrate Tolkien's novella Farmer Giles of Ham. And then Tolkien's good friend C.S. Lewis saw those illustrations and decided to invite Baynes to illustrate the children's book he was just finishing writing — The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe — and the rest, as they say, is history...  

@narnian78 I bought some copies in a sale, and still have a spare to give away. They are bigger than the original small books I previously found. Beautifully illustrated with images from The Hobbit and LOTR, if I remember correctly. 

I own two versions of Bilbo's Last Song. I love that book. The combination of Tolkien's poem and Pauline Baynes' pictures is a combination of the best of two worlds.

This book

is a hard-cover version which I haven't got here. It is smaller than the other book - 

- which I've got open right here in front of me   

The main, top, series of pictures, one per page view, show Bilbo's last journey (which is mainly described in the last chapter of LOTR), from Rivendell to the Grey Havens. The first pictures, where he leaves Rivendell together with the Elves that are also going into the West, are from implied events. In the fifth picture Frodo and Sam join the party from Rivendell, and the rest of that series follow the events that are described in the last pages of the last chapter of ROTK.

The bottom series of pictures, one per page, show Bilbo's first journey, his great adventure with the Dwarves to the Lonely Mountain (described in The Hobbit). I like Pauline Baynes' Smaug, btw   

M. Joy Hill has written a final section of Notes on the pictures, where I found the information that I shared above.

@varna 

The second book is the same as the one I borrowed from the library.  It looked like it was read many times and of course Tolkien is very popular. 🙂

I don’t know if anyone here collects old Tolkien calendars. I recently bought two of them from 1978 and 1981. The reason I save a few of them is because of the artwork, which is often more beautiful than most of today’s calendars. I also have three Narnia calendars (one from the movie and the other two from independent artists). I often wish there was more of the Narnia themed merchandise. There are many more Tolkien calendars (they are much easier to find) although the old ones can be quite pricey on eBay at $75 or more!  I wouldn’t pay that much for them, but the beautiful artwork in them may be worth $20 or $30 to me depending on how badly I want it. It’s like out of print books, which may be too expensive for some but not all. I will also buy a Michigan lighthouse calendar every year, and the pictures are about as beautiful as some of the Tolkien artwork and those in many of the lighthouse books that I own.  🙂

Yes, yes! I have been collecting Tolkien calendars since that wonderful Hildebrandt Brothers calendar in 1978—some were gifts. Such a classic. I had gathered far too many over the decades, so diminished my supply recently, but have kept a choice selection that I cannot bear to part with.  

If Lord of the Rings was a TV series (which will probably be a long while until it happens if ever), they might be able to include Tom Bombadil and the scouring of the Shire. The film trilogy didn't include those. So maybe a TV series could do something that the film trilogy weren't able to do.

Has anyone read Understanding the Lord of the Rings: The Best of Tolkien Criticism by Rose Zimbardon and Neil Isaacs?  I just received the book in the mail today and wonder what others here might think of it. It will be a while before I finally get to reading it.  It does look like a very thoughtful book of essays about Tolkien’s writings (mainly The Lord of the Rings) although parts of it may be somewhat difficult reading. It looks like a very scholarly, deep book which has much to offer. 🙂

@narnian78 I would think it would vary a great deal depending on the child. Some children don't seem as effected by scary stuff, some are more prone to nightmares, etc. Maybe if you don't know the child well give a pros and cons list to their parent or guardian? Also how much a kid is likely to enjoy can depend on maturity level to some extent... how much of the film will they get, will they have the attention span for the slow bits? Etc.

(Re: recommending the films to children or not)