Why Are ‘The Hobbit’ And ‘The Lord Of The Rings’ So Easy To Read Again?
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I just finished rereading The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings for probably the twelfth or thirteenth time. On the face of it, these don’t really seem like rereadable books, at least not rereadable a dozen or more times. My set totals almost 1,500 pages. The prose is dense and exacting. The themes are anything but light and breezy. Yet I continually come back to Tolkien’s world. Why is that?
The most important reason (for me at least) is that these are my comfort books. I think that’s true for a lot of people. We return to Middle-earth time and again for the same reason we eat ice cream or use a weighted blanket. The books bring us comfort. Part of that is familiarity, of course, but familiarity doesn’t tell the whole story. Most Tolkien fans are familiar with The Silmarillion, too; however, we don’t reread that book the same way we reread The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
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The characters and their relationships certainly bring comfort. All of the hobbits we meet are positively friendly. Rereading the books feels like reconnecting with long lost friends. I want to know everything that’s happened with Bilbo, Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin since the last time we talked. Legolas and Gimli give friendship goals we can all aspire to. Who hasn’t joined Faramir in having a crush on Eowyn? They all feel so real, so relatable.
World building may be the thing that Tolkien is most famous for, and it is definitely a huge part of what makes The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings so rereadable. Like the characters, Middle-earth feels real. It is so vast and detailed that you can’t take it all in in one reading. Even after a dozen readings, I still discover new things every time I go back to it.
Nothing entered Tolkien’s Middle-earth by accident. In The Hobbit, Beorn is a shapeshifter. He can turn from a man into a large bear. Bilbo and the dwarves seek refuge at his house after their escape from the goblins. He is only a minor character, a bit of calm before the journey through Mirkwood, and Tolkien could have left him there. But he didn’t. Beorn shows up at the Battle of Five Armies and his people, the Beornings are mentioned throughout Lord of the Rings. There are always new details to discover about Beorn and the Beornings.
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The same is true of the Ents. Every time I read The Two Towers, I learn more about them. There are so many little hints dropped. I want to know the fate of the Entwives almost as much as Treebeard does. I want to hear the real Ent language, even if it takes a day and a half just to say “hello”.
Another way the books keep bringing readers back again and again is by making those readers part of a community. Often reading is a solitary experience, but that’s just not the case with Tolkien. There are official organizations like The Tolkien Society (www.tolkiensociety.org) where readers come together to discuss the works and learn from each other. And there are countless informal communities on Reddit, Facebook, and all the other social media platforms. They give readers of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings the opportunity to join in something bigger than themselves. For some it’s almost like an extended family. Of course they’re going to continue rereading the works.
Every reader has their own reasons for revisiting a favorite piece of literature, but these three, comfort, immersion, and community, are the three most common. Few works have sparked the passion of so many readers like The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. I’m already looking forward to my next reread.
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