I LOVE everything about Stephen Colbert - He got me through COVID and I am an ICU doctor. If I could have dinner with one celebrity it would be him. I am moved by his views on grief, religion, and politics. And I have read these books more times than I can count - so there is that😊

I want an hour-long version of this! Stephen talking about Tolkien is the best!!

I was sick a lot as a kid, so I spent a lot of time in my room. The Lord of the Rings books were my window to the outside world. Thank you, Stephen, for continuing to encourage others to enjoy these works.😊

I need to go camping for two weeks in a cedar forest by the ocean while it rains and rains and re-read The Lord of The Rings again. Thank you Stephen for encouraging more people to read.

Colbert gives me hope in Catholics. I mean, I'll never return to the church or Christianity but it's always nice to see a kind and well-read believer in this day in age.

I'm reading "Lord of the Rings" for the first time now, and I'm smack-dab in the middle of that stretch that Stephen mentions. There is something quite serene and peaceful about those chapters.

Dear Stephen, thanks for the connection to the liturgical calendar. I never thought of that before. Also, in Sweden the day of Annunciation is called Vårfrudagen (Our Lady Day), which sounds almost like Våffeldagen (Waffle Day) so people eat waffles on that day. You're welcome.

If you ever feel like it can you please make this 8 hours long? Asking for a fan.

My wife and I are listening to the audio books now narrated by Andy Serkis. What a treat!!! Can't wait for him to narrate the Silmarillion (my favourite).

Tom Bombadil is consistantly one of my favorite characters. The characters I like best change with each reading, but Tom and Goldberry are always there. And frequently, Faramir is too.

That’s a very strange coincidence… I, just today, finished my own very very long journey, of reading The Hobbit, and then all of The Lord of the Rings books for the first time!!!- And then watching all of the movies for the first time, post-reading the books!!! (It has been quite the amazing experience!!!- and it is a very strange coincidence that it should end on such a day!)

I think I was about 10 years old when I first read the Lord of the Rings books. Early 80s anyway. And I fell in love, I wanted to go and live in their world. I still open the pages, go back, and visit my old friends.

In one of Colbert's audience questions KZfaq videos a couple asks Steven to recommend a LOTR reading for their wedding. He recites a poem from memory with such eloquence it is impossible to doubt his love for Tolkien's life work.

I've read LOTR every year for the last 60 years. It has affected my life immensely and as an artist it speaks to my very core. Thank you Stephen for talking about and encouraging people to read the trilogy. My oldest son feels the same way and is passing the love of Tolkein's work to his children.

Lost my faith years ago but LOTR helped me through my cancer days. I love all things LOTR

I really like The Steward and the King chapter. The ring has been destroyed, or is about to be, but the people of Minas Tirith don't know it yet. And in this moment of uncertainty and fear, suddenly there's a love story. Faramir falls in love with Eowyn and stand with her in the darkness while she watches and waits for either victory or defeat.

I loved this so much, thank you. Was a very, very good day in my life to post this. Not that you knew that, but sometimes the stars align like that.

Nothing better than this. Thank you, Stephen. You've gotten me through some tough times, and you fill our lives with great humor, thoughtfulness, kindness and insight. Love ya!

Beautiful! This Oxford Scholar and super Tolkien freak loves this ...I miss Oxford.... Thank you, Stephen...

His love of Lord of the Rings is just so endearing… I love this about him, among so many other things… ❤️

It's good to hear someone else as passionate about these books (and books in general) talk about them. I read (and reread) the Hobbit and LOTR (and other fantasy books, I'm looking at you Terry Brooks😊) in a cabin in the middle of the woods in northwestern Massachusetts, with massive snowstorms howling nightly, without power and just a candle and the woodstove for light and heat. It was basically long term camping but so immersed in the book world and the woods around me, it felt like I was EXPERIENCING middle earth, not just reading it. I'm telling you, for those of you who are bold enough, reconnect with nature and a good book and life will start to get interesting and better again. LOTR is perfect (in nearly every way) and shows Tolkien's great reverence for the natural world on nearly every page. Stephen, thank you for being so unabashed about your love for these masterful works. I truly believe that the magic within them, as in all great stories, is a transformational one that occurs within the the heart of the reader. ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤ Edit: I agree that those chapters were some of my favorite especially Bombadil, (which was like the ghost of Christmas past, where all troubles are put on pause for respite from the world and fun and childlike wonder) and should have been included or focused on at least as much or more so over the fixation on some violent aspects of the story. And yes, I too, would watch a series of Colbert based on Middle Earth. You guys should totally do it. I'm calling it here and now, it would be a great success! Get on the phone with network exec's or Netflix. It needs a pitch asap. Give me a yell, I'll help! Make this happen!😊

Stephen's love of Tolkien gives me such a sense of cameraderie with him. In junior high, the librarian at my school allowed me to preview the new books she'd ordered over the summer, she know I would love LOTR and she was right, it was the best thing I'd ever read. I've read it many times since then. I would listen if Stephen read the trilogy, or even just those chapters. -A devoted Tolkien fan

I'm by no means a LOTR Geek, like our lovely host, the books did enrich my life and still do, it was because I read all of Tolkien's tomes that i was able to move on to RingWorld, Dune and Heinlein's opus. I found reading was good, it was something I could do, well, and the library had all the books for free. I thank Tolkien for giving me the love of reading.

Stephen's LotR nerdery genuinely makes me happy.

"Go read some." Seriously, kids.. it's like a movie that plays in your head... and you get to cast anyone ya want!

I love this man, and his love for Tolkien.

I avoided both the books and the movies but listening to Stephen speak about it is surprisingly calming

Happy Tolkien Reading day 🧚‍♀️✨✨

YUP! Those six chapters are sooooo important and fun. Someday, someone will make a tv series of the books...

I read the LoTR trilogy every fall. A tradition of mine since 1977

March 25 was also the first day of Spring in the old calendar.

Yes! These are my favorite chapters also. Nothing else makes sense without their foundation in the shire,

Thank you for your positivity, Stephen. You bring light into our lives.

I like this. I will watch more of this. Keep making this! :) 👍🏻👍🏻

Stephen, your character, insight, and happiness represent the best that humanity has within.

Marvelous Mr. Colbert. Thanking You, Dear.😊

Thanks Stephen, that was just the prompt I needed to get my copy off the shelf and to re-read LOTR😊

Oh Stephen, so happy to see you. Hope you are well now.

Samwise: "I can't carry it for you, but I can carry you!" Also, Mary of Nazareth: "I can't carry it for you, but I can carry you!" Happy March 25th! I think I'll have second breakfast.

I like these chapters too, although my favourite part is Lothlorien. This is my go to book whenever I fall on bad times. Thank you, Stephen!

Finally, finally, finally! I have wanted exactly this for the longest time - I used to tell anyone who'd listen that I wished Colbert would just talk about his knowledge of Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings. PLEASE do more, more, more of this!! We/I need it.

One of the funniest things I have ever seen and heard was Stephen reading 'The Three Billy Goats Gruff" and I can't find it on KZfaq anymore. His final comment that he is available for children's parties was as close to dying of laughter as I ever care to come. Bring back the Billy Goats please.

I 💜 Tom Bombadil most of all! Thank you for showing him the respect he deserves.

On my way now to "go read some" as recommended by Steve. Cue up the chamber music quartet. Thanx my Tolkienete brother for the reminder. 🙏

I love how Stephen Colbert is such a Nerd on the LOTR, and you can tell he's not reading from a script or prompter, but citing from memory. Also, is it really True that the Crucifixion happened on the 25th of March? If so, i wasn't aware... Always learning new things!

Happy Tolkien Reading Day, empathy and love to all. 😄👍💙🕊

By chance, i just read those chapters yesterday and they are simply beautiful. Happy Tolkien Reading Day.

I was just rereading those chapters. I love them too.

This is epic. What a man.

I am in awe of your intelligence and passion! Thank you!

Wow. This was wonderful! I had no idea that the whole epic story mirrored the biblical cycle. I read TLOR way back in high-school, but have never re-read it (and no, I have no plans in the foreseeable future to do so). I'd love to see Stephen do more of these Tolkien-related shorts!

OK, must admit that the chapters in LOTR that Stephen cited are among my favorites, too! Thanks!

Hey Mr Colbert. My dad started reading Tolkien to me when I was 6 years old and I've been in love ever since. I am currently fifteen and I still can't get over his works. Personally the Silmarillion is my favorite but the chapters you talked about are all just perfection. Thank you for everything you do on your show. Your biggest fan from Japan

Your enthusiasm is itself magical and alluring, Darrylgorn!!! Enjoy the read, one and all!

OMG! I love this! Can Stephen have Tolkien reading day every week? Please....

Colbert lord of the late night shows

Yes, Stephen. I will read.

My husband & I always watch your show on KZfaq right before we go to sleep. Now we can’t see you here anymore 😮we LOVE your opening monologue (sheer genius writing & presentation) and , of course, MEANWHILE. We enjoy your banter, the music, the talks….we actually don’t know HOW you do it! You can NOT BE REPLACED! That said, you deserve a true break…so we’re both hoping you’re just “on a needed well deserved breather”.

I need to go read the books again. It’s been so long since I’ve read one of his but I do read every day because I enjoy learning about different times and countries. I hope children are learning to read and appreciate books 📚 be a shame if that art is lost.

I love Colbert's love for LOTR. I can't relate because I never found the same love myself. But I admire his passion for this mythology and it's lovely to hear him and see his face as he relishes in this beautiful landscape of legends.

I used to re-read them, beginning with The Hobbit, about every 5 years. At 75 years of youth I just finished painting the interior of my newly purchased down sized condo. After all the pictures are up and the books put away, I'm going to start at "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit," and go all the way to the end of LOTR. Every reading reveals something new. Just as you can never cross a stream in the same place twice (you and the stream have both changed), so you can never return to Tolkien the same way twice. Thank you Steven for sharing the calendar symbolism.

I so love watching someone geek out over their passions.

You're the best, Stephen. Thanks for promoting JRRT's masterworks.

Love this man. I only wish our politicians had this much wisdom, sensitivity, creatively and foresight.

What a coincidence, this guy making such a fuss about a ring when I myself found a wonderful ring yesterday ! We were hiking with my best friend through some ancient Bulgarian volcanoes. He, sadly, died the same day by falling three times on a pointy rock headfirst (RIP), but when he found it he gave it to me right away. It is absolutely marvellous, so shiny and round. Very precious. Very precious to me at least. I feel so much better in my life now that I have my ring. I feel like I could do anything. I'm actually working on a project, a start-up that would deliver good and happiness on Earth, on family at a time, right on your doorstep. Don't try to take my ring. It's mine.

I read Hobbit and LoTR at least twice before it ever became an 'in' thing to do, and decided that when I had children one, at least, would have the name of the two most inspiring people: Aragorn and Arwen. With the birth of my second child, Aragorn became his middle name. Your knowledge of Tolkien is stupendous, Stephen. Thank you for being you.

The fact that Colbert appreciates Nienna makes him my favorite

Who else is waiting for Colbert to go full Mr. Rogers?

March 25 is also Elanor's birthday, one year later. She's Sam's first kid.

I not only love reading Lord of the Rings, I love reading it aloud. I read a portion every evening before I go to sleep, and at the moment I’m up to Pippin and Gandalf in Minas Tirith. Tolkien’s command of the language is so incredible that it just rolls off your tongue like liquid gold (from Smaug, of course 🐉). A wonderful way of ending the day.💖

Stephen, you'll be young forever because of the wonder you still hold for the entire MiddleEarth Lore! May you and your lady, commune with Tom Bombadil and dwell in *_his_* wondrous extension of this Magical land!🧙🏻‍♂️🪄🪄

Though I enjoy Tom Bombadil's parts in The Fellowship of the Ring, Fog on the Barrow-Downs has such an atmosphere to it. I know that the film had to be whittled down for length, but that chapter and The Old Forest would've added much to the early film. Oh, well.

I'll listen to Colbert nerd out about Tolkien any day of the week. If I ever got to meet and just sit down and chat with a celebrity, I'd love it to be him (and Evie too!)

I love learning from Stephen about what we loves. My husband and I love LOTR and I love getting more information

This nailed it for me... I have read LotR annually since discovering it in 8th grade (45 years ago) - always in Autumn - but the first half of Fellowship far more often for the same reasons Steven gives. The first black rider encounter on September 24th; waking beneath the standing stone from 'a sleep they never meant to take' - these moments thrill me more than any battle or wizard's spell. Finding my favorite part of the entire story omitted from the movie entirely was a fell blow, alas. Now I know I did not bear it alone. Thank you for this, Steven Colbert.

I love Stephen Colbert! If I could have any celebrity at my dinner table, he would be my first choice ❤️

The books burned with the house, but my granddaughter and I salvaged The Fellowship video after watching this. Thanks, Stephen!

My exact same favorite part of the entire LOTR. I adore because it because the action is still in a safe world -- or you feel that it is safe, even though it isn't -- and we get the first big jolt of wonder when Frodo, Pippin, and especially Sam (our emotional point of view character for the entire trilogy, imo) are taken by wandering elves for a night of elvish feasting, singing, and star-gazing. It is also that point when the larger world begins to unfold revealing humorous oddities (Bombadil) and dangers (barrow-wights), both of which expand that sense of wonder in different ways. At the same time, this is when the deep friendship and commitment of Frodo's companions is understood. Even Fatty Bolger, too scared to leave the Shire though he is, commits to helping as best he can, little realizing what it could mean to be a stand-in for Frodo. (Fatty eventually grows too, having led a group of Hobbits to rebel against Sharkey's evil depravations, as revealed in the 'Scouring of the Shire' when Fatty, who had been captured and imprisoned in the Lockholes, is freed by Frodo & friends; Fatty is a much thinner but still devoted friend of them all who did all that he could, too.) I could live in these chapters for all of my days quite happily.

Definitely lot of Christian themes in Tolkein throughout the virtues and arcs of the characters. Done in such a natural way. The comraderie of LOTR will always be epic

STEPHEN, we booked our first trip to NYC, 11 days, a once-in-a-lifetime trip. And guess who took exactly these 11 days off from his show! Stephen, how could you do this to us!

i wish peter jackson would add and extension for those lost chapters and slot it in the fellowship of the rings, there is a great reason for the guys to hitch up again

Those were beautiful chapters that I had no idea about when I saw the movies but LOVED when I read the books.

The black riders fit right in and are necessary. Just as Saruman's passing in Hobbiton is. A love letter to our country, our heart and joys requires embracing our shadow to fully find our divinity. Definitely some of my favorite chapters too.

1. Three is Company 2. A Shortcut to Mushrooms 3. A Conspiracy Unmasked 4. The Old Forest 5. In the House of Tom Bombadil 6. Fog on the Barrow-Downs

Ahh! He feels the same about the Barrow Downs! Everyone knows Bombadil is the man but the Downs was the saddest omission from the movies for me because it was profoundly frightening when I read it as a young kid. My mother used to have the old LotR art calendar and the page with Frodo standing over his friends laid out in white gowns with the sword across their chests gave me chills.

Thank you, for expressing my thoughts, feelings, and love for The Ring Trilogy. It's nice to know someone feels about the book the same way I do.

Those six chapters are my favorite part of the books as well. You are in constant suspense about the location of the riders relative to the trio. In fact the entire journey to Rivendell is very gripping. I am going to read it again!

I would love to see a longer form podcast with Colbert talking about LOTR stuff.

As I get older the healing of Theoden sings to my soul.

My sixth grade teacher read to us every day. The Lord of The Rings and Illustrated Man. We all fell asleep but ...the power of that. I love books .

😃 Oh this is cool! He sounds almost as nerdy as me! 😂

Thank you Coal’ Bare’ Its always nice to hear from lights’ of Writings i have yet to read. eternally grateful to have others help me

I really enjoyed this, Stephen. I read all those books while in high school back in the ‘70s. It’s about time I read them again. Whenever I read a book for the second time, I always get more out of it.

*LOVE* this - so happy every time Stephen gets to 'geek out' over Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit. Stephen, from one kiwi to another (being a kiwi is a state of mind, not a piece of paper...) arohanui (an abundance of love) from Aotearoa/New Zealand. ❤💖❤

I loved reading the lord of the rings. I read it in Dutch, a long time ago. I think I am going to try to read it in English. But I will reread it for sure.

Agreed! Go read them! Happy Tolkien Reading Day!

Listening to Andy Serkis’s narration of the Fellowship (amazing btw) for the first time. Just finished the chapters you mentioned and they really are wonderful. Setting the scene for how beautiful and mostly peaceful the world was.

I love this piece, Stephen! Love the correlations with the Liturgical calendar!!

After COVID and everything that my home country (Brazil) went through, the part that resonates with me the most at the moment is Sam's most famous quote, specially the part about not wanting to know the end, because how could it be happy, and how could the world be normal again after all that has happened. I guess we will find out as time goes by, but I really hope that Brazil (and the world) can recover from the past 3 years. "It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.”

Thank you so much!