Finishing The Lord of the Rings

Finally got round to finishing The Lord of the Rings about a month ago.

Lost my first copy of Part 3, The Return of the King, through leaving it on a coach while travelling round Donegal during the summer, so I had to buy it again.

While reading Tolkien's masterpiece over about 8-9 months, mainly while travelling on public transport between places in Warsaw, I was constantly scribbling comments in the margins about possible Catholic symbolism in the work. Some of my ideas, I was convinced of, for example, Aragorn being a Christ the King figure, while with other ideas, I was not sure if I was just engaging in speculation (e.g. interpreting a red fire in an elf hall as the tabernacle/real presence in a Catholic church).

Moreover, a friend from Bolton has introduced me to Joseph Pearce's work on Tolkien which has positively added to my interpretation of Catholic symbolism in The Lord of the Rings:

Think that Joseph Pearce is a really engaging speaker and inspiring Catholic convert.