LOTR...Yes or no?

So I'm thinking of reading the 3 over the next month or so...

Good idea? I've never seen the movies or anything and the references to LOTR are getting annoying. ONE DOES NOT SIMPLY WALK INTO MORDOR HURR and I have no idea what that shit is about.

Do I read them? Is it worth it? Also going to college next month, any books I MUST read before I leave?

Also, I'm gonna read Flowers for Algernon because I remember a loonnnng time ago (like at least 8-10 years ago)I read an excerpt/short story and I was really interested in it. I want to read the whole thing.

>>36

Tolkien is drawing on different medieval traditions;  and another thing worth remembering is that the "knights and castles" view of the middle ages as a whole is largely a much more modern construction (as late as Victorian or after), or at the very least a conflation of the military, political and other features of different periods and regions.  Tolkien's academic interests and influences were more Germanic and northern European (incl. Scandinavian);  the legends in which knights are prominent tend to come from the Romance languages (i. e., mainly southern European).