Reading The Return of the King, you always feel like you have way more reading left than you actually do. Once the ring is destroyed, there is still a hefty chunk of pages in your right hand (assuming you're reading a hard copy). Even after the scouring of the Shire, there are well over 100 pages remaining in the text. This is because of the appendix. Tolkien added it in general Tolkien fashion, and filled it with so much information that no one could possible remember it all, no matter how many times you read it. You could devote years to any particular section and still find things left to study probably.
The way I used to read books, I would skip the introductions and the appendices in the rare book that had one. I was primarily interested in the actual text of the story and that was about it. That has changed somewhat, but I still find myself reading about half of the introduction to a book and then just skipping it. That being said, it took a lot of me to start that appendix. I knew that the story was over, and I was not particularly interested on reading 100 pages on Tolkien's development of his language, which is kind of what I was expecting. Fortunately, there was much more information than that, and a lot of it was very interesting and definitely added to my understanding and enjoyment of LOTR as a whole. There were definitely some sections that I read the first paragraphs and then kind of skimmed the rest, and I did not devote too much of my life to staring at the family trees in the appendix either. If anything, I liked the maps the most.
I'm glad the appendix is there though. Other books that I read or shows that I watch, I feel sad when they are over, because I am not ready to say goodbye to the characters yet. I felt this way after watching Game of Thrones (I haven't read the books yet, but they are next on my reading list once this class is over and Tolkien loosens his clutch on my spare time). But with Lord of the Rings, you're never done. There is always more information that you could learn. And that is cool. Most authors could only dream of that.
I typically have avoided the appendices as well, but not until this class have I actually cracked them open to see what was inside. I was surprised to find the account of Aragorn and Arwen's relationship, the histories of Rohan and other kingdoms, and just generally interesting information. I certainly haven't read all the material in them, but I agree with you. The maps are perhaps my favorite element also.
ReplyDeleteI was also someone who would skip the appendices and the introduction. I think in these books you have to read all of it in order to understand what is going on. These books are way too in depth for us to not read them. I think the maps were a really helpful important component of the Appendix. It really showed me the path, which really helped me visualize where they went, where everyone is in retrospect to where they are meeting and going, and how they are going to potentially get home.
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