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My best friend in high school (Interlake HS, Class of '77) and I used to pass notes to each other in Elven (Tengwar) script. We used the elven lettering taken directly from Appendix E in the back of "The Return of the King" and wrote phonetically. Needless-to-say, no one was ever able to crack our code.

In case anyone is interested, they can download the Tengwar script, Tengwar word processor, and even a Microsoft Word plugin (www.sci.fi/~alboin/tengwartutorial.htm). Use the mirror site for Dan Smith's fonts — the other one doesn't appear to be online at the moment.

Yes, I joined the LOTR Fan Club (www.lotrfanclub.com) and if you're very patient, and squint at just the right time, you can find my name amongst the many others during the end credits of "The Fellowship of the Ring."

And if there was one actor in all the world I would have picked to play Aragorn it would have been Viggo Mortensen. Peter Jackson must have read my mind.

— Mary (Olszewski) Shiflett
Olympia, WA

I'm a 17-year-old Italian girl! I'm a hobby actress and I love everything about theater and movies.

I'm a huge LOTR Fanatic! I love the books and the movies. I've got a LOTR homepage. If you want to visit: mitglied.lycos.de/sarahluisa.

For the premiere I wore a home-made Arwen costume!

Namarie,

— Sarah Luisa Giampà
Switzerland

Over the course of about two years, from 1999 to 2001, I immersed myself in the world of The Lord of the Rings, not only reading Tolkien's epic but studying it, producing detailed summaries of all three parts, including the prologue and appendices. The end result — "The Lord of the Rings File," I dubbed it — would be about 116 pages typed, double-spaced.

In addition to a synopsis of every chapter in The Lord of the Rings, the file features definitions, clarifications, histories, etc. of just about every person, place, and thing that appears in the story — everything with a proper name. I am a teacher, and I have given copies of the file to students and friends as a reading/study guide, so they can hopefully enjoy and learn from Tolkien's writing as much as I have.

It goes without saying that The Lord of the Rings is more than just a book to me. But not because it is fantasy; its charms are not wholly escapist. The Lord of the Rings endures because its themes — wistfulness for a happier past, the re-emergence of old evils — continue to be startlingly relevant to the real world, no matter how much that world changes.

— Nathan Beck
Seattle, WA

In 1970 the Hildebrandt brothers were the first to be commissioned to paint the Tolkien LOTR calendar. On the centerpiece of the first calendar in '72 I am depicted as a Hobbit.

The Hildebrandts photographed the scene then illustrated it. I am also in another drawing that depicts when the Elves came upon the Hobbits. This was in the first movie.

So I know the most because I was the first Hobbit. And I got the book of drawings that prove it.

— Wayne Cesaro

I don't claim to be any kind of expert, but I do have a couple of near-fanatical things going for me:

1) My legal signature is in the Tengwar, in a Sindarin style of script. I've been signing everything this way since 1989.

2) My wedding ring is a replica of the One Ring, complete with Elvish script inside (although what it says is much more benign than the Black Speech inscription and is in Quenya).

3) I once composed a musical setting of the poem "The Ent and the Entwife" from The Two Towers (back in high school, 1988).

Cheers and Namarie,

— Brandon Derfler (Arrandil)

Here's proof I am a big fan of LORD OF THE RINGS, and all things Tolkien — My personal art & animation Web sites!! Home gallery: home.earthlink.net/~gadzookys/nuview.html; Fan page: www.hobbitdance.com. Click "Friend" and enter to see dancing hobbits! (NOT for commercial purposes!)

Sincerely,

— Greg Humess