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Lord of the Rings: Ultimate fans

You want evidence of how much of a Tolkien geek I am? Go to www.google.com. Type in "Tolkien." Guess whose Web page comes up number one?

That would be me.

I put the world's first JRR Tolkien fan page up on the Internet in 1991, when the World Wide Web was in its infancy. I have not actually maintained this Web page since I graduated in 1996, so all the links are long dead.

There are many better Tolkien pages out there. But mine was the first, so I get a lot of e-mail from it still because it is so heavily linked and indexed — mostly from students writing papers, though I occasionally get e-mail from members of the Tolkien family, etc.

When the first movie came out I got a lot of interest in the page from the media both in North America and Europe. I find that to be completely hilarious. I mean, it's a Web page. An old, broken Web page. It's hardly newsworthy. But people seem to like the fact that it was the first one.

— Eric Lippert
Seattle

I don't know how to prove this, but you can check with my three children, ages 32, 29 and 23. My husband Alan read "The Hobbit" and the entire LOTR aloud to each of them before they started kindergarten. When the first movie came out last year, my youngest daughter didn't want to see it until he read it aloud to her again — over the phone (she lives on the East Coast). Unfortunately, he wasn't able to do that.

However, she didn't see it until she came home in the spring and saw it with him. This year he's buying her a plane ticket so she can come home in January to see the second one with him.

He may not be an expert on the content, but he is certainly responsible for another generation of fans.

— Judith Wilensky
 
I made 10 costumes for Halloween and the various premiers this year. They can be seen at www.geocities.com/themasqueradelab/images/LOTR and www.alleycatscratch.com/lotr/scrapbook/JRD/JenGroup.htm.

My friends are as crazy about it as I am, but they don't sew!

— Jen Running Deer
The Masquerade Lab, Woodinville

Bought my yellow lab from Golberry Lab's in Minnesota (www.goldberry.net/goldberry2.html). Who is the owner, Charlie Tolkien ... a relative of J.R.R.

— Greg Headley
Woodinville

I have seen the fellowship of the ring every day since it came out in August. I have read the Lotr and the hobbit since I saw it in theater and am currently writing an encyclopedia-type work in an effort to organize everything from dates and sword lore to the individual genealogy and timelines for each character etc. from both the movie and the books.

— Christopher Surowiec

I have been a LOTR and Tolkien fan since the early 1970's. I have "The Hobbit" and "The Lord Of The Rings" trilogy as published in paperback in or about 1973 and have read them through at least two dozen times. I have the 13 audiotape BBC radio adaption done in 1980 and have listened to it from start to finish at least ten times. I have both the 2-DVD and 4-DVD FOTR sets produced earlier this year. I make it a daily habit to check several LOTR movie fan Web sites for news. I saw my first screening of FOTR at the Cinerama and will be seeing TTT there also (even though I live in Olympia).

I once saw a play based on The Hobbit performed in Decatur, Alabama in 1975. It was wonderfully done including a great Smaug The Dragon prop. I bought a movie guide to FOTR last year and the Visual Companion to the TTT film this year. I often find myself explaining LOTR mythology and what it means to new fans of Tolkien who have never read the books or are doing so for the first time. I bought Clift Notes for LOTR to give to a less "educated" friend prior to FOTR coming out so he could better understand what he saw.

I am LOTR's number one fan for sure!

— Lee Murray
Lives in Olympia but wishes he could move to Bree and hang out at The Prancing Pony