reading lord of the rings for the first time (+drawing the map!)| READING VLOG

[00:00:15][music] [music] >> Lord of the Rings is one of the most famous fantasy novels ever and it's often touted as the pinnacle of fantasy as well and a book that really has led into modern fantasy. Somehow despite me being a massive fan of fantasy, I have never read The Lord of the Rings and I'm here to change that today. This is definitely one of my most anticipated reads of like the last many years since I decided to put it on my TBR and I just have not got around to it. I also know this is a highly anticipated video for many of you who have been begging me to pick up The Lord of the Rings for many, many years as well and this vlog today is finally the day and I could not be any more excited about it because we are going to be pairing reading The Lord of the Rings with a very exciting project.

[00:01:15]If you don't know, I am a fantasy cartographer and I run my business Oakleaf Arrow Studios and I draw fantasy maps and just like people have been begging me to read The Lord of the Rings, I've also had many of people begging me to draw The Lord of the Rings map and today is going to be that day where I finally start my Lord of the Rings map project. As you can see here, I already have a rough sketch figured out. I've been working on this the past few days and it has been so much fun and I cannot wait to take you along on the journey of creating my map of reading The Lord of the Rings. I think I will only be reading the first book in this vlog, but fear not, I will of course document when I read the rest of the series and I am just so excited. I don't want to dolly too long in this intro because I do want to hop right into reading The Lord of the Rings. However, I do have a couple of adventures that I will be going on in this video as I also read along with Frodo's adventures. The first one being to Knoxville, Tennessee where I will be competing in the AAU National Championship. I am a gymnast and this is my first year back in like 10 years competing just for fun.

[00:02:19]However, while we're in Knoxville, I actually discovered something called Ancient Lore Village and it looks like a Hobbit village. I am so ecstatic to explore this place and I'm also going along with my friend Megan and my mother. So, I cannot wait to just explore the village. I actually bought some pieces that are Elvish inspired.

[00:02:39]So, I'm just so excited to dress up to explore and also to of course compete.

[00:02:44]Okay, now that any further ado, let's go ahead on my first adventure and also start The Lord of the Rings.

[00:02:54]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> The winner.

[00:05:39]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> She's also running in the next show.

[00:06:16]>> [music] [music] >> Very good one.

[00:06:30]Yeah, IT'S SO STUPID.

[00:06:34]>> [screaming] >> I AM BACK FROM MY VERY FIRST adventure to Knoxville and I'm so delighted to let you know that one, I have made progress into The Lord of the Rings, which I'll talk about in a second. Two, I loved getting to explore Ancient Lore Village.

[00:06:51]It was so beautiful. We took so many pretty pictures and I had just a delightful time with my mom and my friend. And then as for the gymnastics, you're looking at the four-times AAU national champion and all-American national champion. So, that was so fun, so exciting. I honestly had no expectations going into this competition because I wasn't actually feeling very well and I hadn't practiced very much at all. And I started on floor and I fell on one of my tumbling passes, the easiest tumbling pass, mind you, and I thought that the rest of the competition was downhill from there. But, I got first on everything except for floor cuz I fell on my butt and I ended up as all-American national champion, which was so I again, just so exciting and what a awesome way to wrap up my first ever competition season back as an adult. So, very fun, but you're not here to hear about gymnastics, are you? You are here to hear my updates on Lord of the Rings. You guys, why did no one tell me that Lord of the Rings was this good?

[00:07:51]Are you kidding me? You're having gatekeeping the series for way too long.

[00:07:56]Okay, obviously I'm joking, but this has blown my expectations out of the water.

[00:08:00]Obviously, I knew it was going to be a very good book. Okay, that's that's very obvious. However, I am obsessed, you guys. I am on chapter six, which is 110 pages in, and I've actually been listening to the audiobook by Andy Serkis, which all of you recommended. I don't think there's a single person that I've interacted with that has read Lord of the Rings that did not tell me to read the Andy Serkis audiobook. And once again, you guys are onto [clears throat] something. I need to start listening to you guys more because oh my gosh, Andy Serkis is a phenomenal narrator to no one's surprise. And so, I'm about a quarter of the way in, and I cannot believe that the hours are just passing by, and I'm just flying through this book. It has been such a delightful experience to kind of grow upon the knowledge that I have of Lord of the Rings. Obviously, I've seen the movies many a times throughout my childhood and obviously adulthood as well. And just seeing that develop and the pieces that they cut out of the movie or seeing the pieces they condensed in the movie just is so cool, and I feel like I'm able to envision this world. Obviously, not in detail cuz I have aphantasia, but I just feel so enveloped into the world of Lord of the Rings, and I love J.R.R. Tolkien's writing so much. I was a little worried that it would read too heavy or too like classicky, I would say, but I think with Andy Serkis' narration, it has just the right amount of denseness to it, but also like charm and whimsy. Frodo has left Hobbiton and is slowly making his way out of the Shire, which is another really fun thing because I already had sketched the locations. and as I was like envisioning them traveling and kind of like mapping out their route, it was just a nice added touch of having that knowledge of just drawing the map to then listening to their adventures and the path that they traveled. Granted, not every single location is going to end up on my map. I really struggled to pare down which locations I wanted to add. I'm actually going to do one final check before I start inking the titles to make sure every location that I feel is necessary is on the map, but I cannot include every location because um I don't know if you've seen the Lord of the Rings map, but J.R.R. Tolkien's got a lot of locations and a lot of details.

[00:10:13]So, I had to kind of parse it out because I don't draw digitally, I draw traditionally and I can only write so tiny, you know? All that to say, I am of course loving Frodo's adventures thus far and all of the characters. We have our core four, of course, Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin and seeing the differences between the book characters and then the adaptation in the movies has been so delightful because I feel like all the actors in Lord of the Rings just brought them to life so well and they really understood the core of their characters and I am just so grateful that Lord of the Rings was made when it was because if it was made nowadays, I just know they would butcher it to all ends. So, having that piece of media made many years ago at that point just makes me so thankful, you guys, so thankful. And I definitely will have to do a little rewatch of the movies as well as I make my way through the series because like I said, I am just in my Lord of the Rings era and I am living for it and I think it's time to actually start inking my map. If we're being honest, I have already started inking said map, but I did all the boring bits and you would not believe that this is actually over an hour of work. There was so much measuring and math involved in this and quite frankly, too much math for my liking. However, the tricky border outline is done and I'm actually going to start inking the border, which I am very, very nervous about but very excited about. Going into designing the Lord of the Rings map, I was very, very intimidated because there has been so many renditions and I wanted this to be amazing. Obviously, Lord of the Rings is so iconic, so I put a lot of pressure on myself, which is another reason I procrastinated so long on reading and drawing the map cuz I knew I wanted this experience to be like a one-two combo.

[00:11:57]So, I've been procrastinating on drawing the map, therefore in turn procrastinating on reading the novel.

[00:12:01]Before I start inking the border though, I did want to explain what each element is from just as fun little Easter eggs and just knowledge for you guys as well.

[00:12:08]So, the top and the bottom will have a Dwarvish-inspired patterns and the patterns will be inspired by patterns found on Gimli's helmet. The side patterns will be inspired by Sting, Frodo's sword. There's these leaf patterns wrapping around the hilt and then the corners is my personal favorite because I love I love Elvish design so much and I got inspiration from the Evenstar necklace, which I actually have to give a some credit to Katie for because I sent her my original rough draft and the corners do not look like what they'll look like now, but she asked if it was inspired by the Evenstar necklace and I said no, but thought that was a fantastic idea. So, when I was creating this like Elvish design, I really played into the shape of the Evenstar necklace to incorporate into all the corners. I am done talking about that though because obviously I'm not really showing you anything. So, let's go ahead and start inking. I am so excited and also ready to listen to more of The Lord of the Rings.

[00:13:15]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> I have finally made it to the halfway point in The Lord of the Rings, which is book two, which is around page 220.

[00:15:12]So, making good progress. I am exactly 50% through the audiobook and 100% done with the border on my map. So, I'm going to show you that first, and then we'll talk about my updates and my thoughts on Lord of the Rings. Here's how it ended up looking. I am so, so pleased with how it ended up turning out. It took many a hours though, if we're being honest, about 14 hours in total of inking, 11 in which were done yesterday. I honestly could have actually finished the entirety of the audiobook yesterday.

[00:15:46]However, I decided to switch and start listening to a different audiobook because I wanted to [clears throat] give my midway thoughts, but I wanted to update you when I finished the border.

[00:15:55]I did not expect that to take 11 hours though. So, I finished up the last bit of stippling this morning. Literally, all I had to do was this outer edge of stippling, and that took an hour and a half. So, very slow progress, but I think it'll be all worth it because it's really coming together. So now, the goal is to not muck up the actual map portion. But, that is the goal for later me, as in later today's me problem. But, in the meantime, let's go ahead and give you my updated thoughts on Lord of the Rings. Now that we're halfway through, I'm really getting excited. Obviously, the adventures that Frodo and the others have been having have been really fun, but we're slowly adding to our party.

[00:16:39]Strider has been introduced, and honestly, it was everything I wanted and more. I love him being so shrouded in mystery and just how the events played out because, again, I know I keep comparing them book to movie, but that is my only other reference point for the Lord of the Rings. So, seeing the differences is really fun, especially with like certain events that they play out on the whole similar, but there's just like little, little tidbits that are different, and Frodo's encounter with Strider being one of those things. But, like I said, we finally made it to Rivendell. Another character I was actually delighted to meet at first because I loved getting to see new characters that were cut from the film, was Tom Bombadil. Now, if you've read the books, you may know a thing or two about Tom Bombadil.

[00:17:27]And let me tell you something about me, okay? I do not care, nor read, anything that involves stanzas of poem.

[00:17:38]Basically, anything that is a poem or music or anything like that, I do not read. I don't care what book it is. I do not read stanzas. It goes against my inherent hatred of poems. So, when Tom Bombadil comes to the fray, singing nothing but the same damn song over and over and over again, I was just about fed up, you guys. There has been incessant amount of singing, and honestly, Andy Serkis, who I have been unfortunately calling Andy Serkin, cuz apparently I can't read his name, has done, I think, the best job that a man could really do with all of the singing.

[00:18:20]You know, he's done his best. Does not mean I want to hear it, okay? So, when I sat down to start working on this project yesterday, I knew that it was going to be a long road ahead of me. Did I expect 11 hours? No. However, with the repeating designs, I knew I'd do the same thing like over and over and over and over again. So, when Tom freaking Bombadil was doing nothing >> [laughter] >> but singing over and over again the same Oh my god. Guys, I just about fast-forwarded that entire chapter, or at least of the chapters that Tom Bombadil was involved, cuz I was about fed up. And I don't care what any of you guys say, he was annoying. He was fun for a minute, but man, that dragged on a little too long, okay? My hatred of Tom Bombadil aside, I've just realized that so much of this book is just like right up my alley, which obviously it being fantasy and it being Lord of the Rings, like I'm not that surprised. But I love a good adventure novel. My favorite series is Ranger's Apprentice, and there's so many things that remind me of Ranger's Apprentice while I'm reading The Lord of the Rings. And obviously Ranger's Apprentice came after Lord of the Rings, so I'm sure John Flanagan drew inspiration from this novel.

[00:19:34]Adventure novels are just right up my alley because I love the group dynamics and getting to see all the characters interact as they travel along. And that's something that is heavily focused on in this book that is also really reminiscent of Ranger's Apprentice is just the friendship and the bonds that form between party members. And I love I love the characters so much in Ranger's Apprentice. I've loved the core four hobbits, and I just cannot wait to see them add to their party, obviously with Gimli and Legolas and Aragorn, of course. Guys, I'm having the best time ever, unsurprising to everyone, but I really do love just like the power of friendship and like the party dynamics.

[00:20:14]And I I'm so so excited to get to the second half of this book. And I am also very excited to continue work on my map.

[00:20:21]However, I do need to put up some string lights cuz I actually had one go out yesterday on my bookshelf. And I've had one on the top that have been out for I don't even know how long, but I've been lazy cuz it's on the top and I was like, oh, I'll get to it later. So I'm going to go ahead and actually replace the string lights on my bookshelf and then start work on inking the titles on my Lord of the Rings map, which I'm very excited for, but also sort of dreading just because it's once again a very monotonous task. And I just want to get to the fun stuff, which is like the mountains and the trees and the land itself. The border and the words do have to come first though, unfortunately, so I have to do the tedious things before I get to the fun tedious things. But in the meantime, let's go ahead and fix my string lights because I think I've had enough.

[00:21:32]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> I bring you all a very exciting updates.

[00:25:10]The first update being I finished my Lord of the Rings map. I am so proud of how this map has turned out and I'm just really thankful that I even made it to the end just because I over thought every single step of this map you guys from the lettering, from the border, from the compass. Every single step I was stressing out about because guys, it's the Lord of the Rings. Like I wanted it to be perfect and I think I've made it as perfect as I possibly could. I love the compass design so much. I was a little back and forth about whether or not I liked it, but seeing it all come together and all completed, I'm really really proud and I hope that you like it as well. If you want it for yourself, it will be in my shop August 8th. I will have a shop update then adding a couple other maps as well, but I always recommend joining my email list though if you really want to keep up with me because I do not post very often on socials and even the email list guys, I do not spam y'all. I think I've sent like one email in the past 6 months. So only during shop updates will I typically be emailing. So very very sparingly. Trust, I hate my inbox being flooded with things. So I would not do the same to you all. I did order samples. Those should be here very very soon and the map is actually stained to look like parchment. I just do that digitally as I really don't like to touch my originals. So yay for the map update. Then as for my reading update, I'm not quite finished. However, I'm getting very very close. I now have under 100 pages left. I'm on page 326.

[00:26:43]We are currently in the mines of Moria and Gandalf is about to make his stand.

[00:26:49]Let's just say like that. We're being attacked by orcs. It's stressing me out.

[00:26:54]However, I am still having the absolute best experience reading this book and I cannot wait to continue on the series and continue listening to the rest of the audiobooks as well. I know I've talked on that a bunch and like talked about how much I love the audiobooks and all of that, but it just has made the experience so pleasant. And last night actually, I did a little bit of immersive reading. So, I was reading the book and listening to the audiobook kind of to wind down for bed. There's only been one point in this book where I've been a little bored and that was actually in Rivendell when they were actually meeting with the elves and the dwarves and the hobbits to all decide what they were going to do with the one ring. And with that, I just found their explanations and like their backtracking of their adventures to be a little boring. I think it was mostly Gimli. Was it Gimli talking or the other dwarf?

[00:27:40]There was a dwarf there and he was talking and I was just like zoning out.

[00:27:44]I was like, "Wait, what did he say?" And I was like, "Wait, do I really care?"

[00:27:46]I'm not quite sure. But, during that experience, all the different people were kind of recounting their tales of adventure and their perils before coming to Rivendell between Aragorn and Gandalf and all of them. One thing that was really, really exciting was I had already finished all the lettering on the map at that point. So, all of these locations, I knew where they were. And having digitally mocked it up to then sketching all the titles to then inking all the titles, like they were kind of burned in my brain as where certain things were. So, when they were talking about the areas in Mordor, I was like, "Oh, yeah, like I know exactly where that is." Or like Gondor and all the different areas, I was like, "Wait, this is so fun that I don't have to like reference the map to know where these locations are." But, I continue just to love their adventures and to constantly be impressed with the film adaptation.

[00:28:31]The more I read, the more impressive the film becomes. Already, the film is amazing and an incredible work of art like I've talked about many a times, but just seeing how closely they stuck to the original has been so, so refreshing.

[00:28:44]And also, I've been consuming a lot of Lord of the Rings content lately and I've been learning so much. Like I did not know that all three Lord of the Rings films were filmed consecutively within like a year and a half, I think it was.

[00:28:56]That's insane work. Are you kidding me?

[00:28:59]And the fact that no one actually wanted to produce The Lord of the Rings either, insane. They were actually pitching it as a two-movie deal, and the people who bought the film were like, "Why would we do two movies when we could do three?"

[00:29:11]And even that was really stretching the budget, and they were taking a huge gamble and a huge risk, but clearly it has paid off. But just it's amazing.

[00:29:19]Like it's so incredible that so much passion and dedication was put into this project, and I understand so much more honestly I did before, but like so much more after reading this novel about how much passion and love was put into the project, and why people are so passionate about Lord of the Rings as well. I also continue to be impressed by J.R.R. Tolkien's writing style. The way he describes things are just so good.

[00:29:44]Right before they were in the mines, there was a lake, and they were like passing over like a shallow part of the lake, and it just how they were describing like the slimy seaweed like clutching their ankles and stuff. I was like, "Ooh, like that's so disgusting."

[00:29:56]But it was just so perfect with his descriptions to like set the atmosphere.

[00:30:00]And same when they entered Moria, the atmosphere was so like pressing down upon you even while like I was reading it. Also, I love Gandalf's sass in the book. Like he is on Pippin's ass all the time. When they were trying to get into Moria, they were trying to figure out like what needed to be said to open the gates.

[00:30:18]>> [laughter] >> And Pippin's like, like what do we do?

[00:30:21]And Gandalf's sitting there trying to figure it out. He's like, "I'm just going to bash your head in if you keep asking stupid questions, [laughter] basically." And even like in the mines, when he threw like a pebble down the well, when they're trying to be sneaky and he's over here making noise. He's like, "Fool of a Took." It's just so funny. Like he is on Pippin's ass.

[00:30:40][laughter] I cannot wait to finish this book and start the next one and just finish experiencing the Lord of the Rings. I cannot understate how much of an incredible experience this has been from immersive reading to listen to the audio book while I draw the map to visiting like the Shire essentially. All of it has just been so amazing and we're actually going to end off on one more adventure because I am actually going to New York to see my favorite band The Warning. But while I was there I thought why not meet up with Blair. She is also a map artist. She actually draws relationship maps so it's like a map of us and we can go on a little art date and just walk around the city as well cuz I haven't really explored New York.

[00:31:19]I'm very excited to be ending this Lord of the Rings vlog with one more adventure and then I will come back and share my final thoughts with you about The Lord of the Rings.

[00:31:39]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> The moment has arrived where I have finally finished the first book of The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring. I have had the best experience and that again cannot be understated with how incredible this book is and I once again, with all the books that I put off reading for many, many years, regret putting off reading this book for so many years. But on the same token, I'm also very glad of it because I finally drew my Lord of the Rings map, which has been something that has been on my to-do list pretty much since I started drawing maps and selling them in my shop. I knew that I wanted to one day do The Lord of the Rings map, but I'm so happy that I waited until my skills were at the point that they are where I could create an art piece that I'm so proud of and I can see myself selling for years into the future and I won't feel the immediate urge to want to redraw it and try to do it better. I'm really, really proud of the map. And so I think pairing that with this experience of reading the novel for the first time was literal perfection and as is this book. My one critique of the book, I have to say, is there's too many songs. I know I mentioned that earlier on, but I I skipped them all, you guys. I do not like songs in novels, no matter how much I love the novels themselves. I don't want to hear it. That didn't really take away my enjoyment other than just needing to skip forward in the audiobook cuz I did not care. And y'all can drag me all you want, but I'm not going to listen to Andy Serkis sing. I'm sorry, his voice is also not built for that.

[00:35:00]Maybe give me your rendition with some some music or someone who actually has a good singing voice. Maybe maybe I could live with that, but no disrespect to Mr. Andy, he could not sing very well. The last note I want to say is Sam is such a gem of a friend and I think everyone deserves a Sam in their life. Sam not only really understands Frodo, but is literally willing to go to the fires of Mordor with him to destroy the ring. And these are folks who have never left the Shire before and they're on this grand adventure and it's just uh the ending really got me, you guys.

[00:35:33]Boromir was pissing me off though and I know the ring is to blame. Obviously, it is a very evil, powerful ring. We get that. But Boromir, this entire trip was just annoying me so much. But it is very, very interesting because the movie did include something that wasn't included in this book and I'm wondering if we kind of get that scene in the beginning of the two towers. I only have to assume because it was kind of a massive scene that led into the second movie. So, I'm assuming that's where the second book will start off and I'm really, really excited to jump into it.

[00:36:06]But for this vlog, this is the end.

[00:36:09]Thank you so much for coming along to experience me reading The Lord of the Rings for the very first time and also seeing me draw the map. Again, if you do want the map, August 8th is the release date and you can of course join my email list below. You have to click on my website and it'll have a little pop-up box for you. Let me know if you've read The Lord of the Rings, if it's your favorite series, if I shouldn't have skipped the songs. I'd love to hear and thank you all so, so much for watching and I do really, really hope to see you in my next one. Toodles.

[00:36:38]>> [music] [music]