A review by nigellicus
The Treason of Isengard: The History of The Lord of the Rings, Part Two by J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien

5.0

And so it came to pass, I now have reached a place where I am rereading The Lord Of The Rings every few years. Impossible though it may be to recapture the aching longing of the first time, I am at least better able to appreciate the writing and the thematic concerns and the evocation of the world and landscape. Or at least I flatter myself that I am. Strangest of all on this reread was finding myself as an outpatient at a clinic in Limerick's Regional Hospital for a few hours - my very first read of the trilogy coincided with a teenage trip to the Regional to have my appendix removed. Roughly the same time of the year as well.

Oh well. Our youthfulness has sailed on into the West, never to return and we stand now in the Middle Age of Man. It's nice that this thing that excited our childish mind now consoles our more wearied adulthood, on occasion. It's not a bad ambition, to want to turn more hobbity, and enjoy the finer things in life, like food and dink and good friends and family. Teeangers can go off and be Aragorn. The rest of us can take our ease in the Green Dragon for awhile.