Its that time of year where the desire to immerse myself in the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy overwhelms me…I started watching the documentaries on Fellowship of the Ring this week, watching bits here and there over lunch or late at night when I get home from work. I’ll no doubt be posting more in depth about this later but I decided that I really had no excuse for not having read the entire trilogy…being an avid reader can I really call myself a true fan without having read the books? I read The Hobbit before Fellowship came out in the theatre and loved it and read most of Fellowship after seeing the movie and really enjoyed it as well. I had to admit to myself that I was a pretty lame geek for not reading these (a fact that Jeff heartily echoed when I conversed with him about this on Wednesday…he agreed with very little hesitation I might add!) I decided that if I was going to do this I was going to do it right and was going to read the origins and some of the history of the time before the Third Age and so I have started with The Silmarillion.
The Simarillion is a work that Tolkein began in the trenches in 1917 during WWI and was still working on at the time of his death in 1973. It embodies the history of the creation of the world and the history of the Elves and Man before the One Ring is lost and eventually found by Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit. I’m a scant ways in but am thoroughly engrossed and am enjoying it immensely. I’ll let you know how I progress.
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I stumbled across an advertisement for this DVD that comes out November 22nd. It is called Ringers-Lord of the Fans and is hosted by Merry himself, Dominic Monaghan. Reading the description on the link above it looks to be a great documentary on the fandom of Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings. This is a must see for me and I am now really excited about it.
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I was going to post these next images back on September 25th to wish Jamie a ‘happy birthday’. I work with Jamie and as you will see she is a devoted geek and is alot of fun to talk science fiction and fantasy with. Jamie is the one, if you will remember, who found my One Ring a few months ago when I “lost” it. Around her birthday Jamie called me and told me she was coming down to my office because she had a “surprise”. The surprise turned out to be a very cool LOTR tattoo on her wrist. I took these pics in my office and have held on to them for this more appropriate Lord of the Rings season.
(she looks a bit dangerous!)
(is that one of the seeing stones?)
(cool, eh?)
Didn’t it turn out great? I love this tattoo, it is really cool. It was fun seeing it right when it was new and the ink looked like it was raised off the skin somewhat. I’m actually jealous of this tat. Happy much belated Birthday Jamie!!!
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I am still so overwhelmed by how amazing this trilogy is. Wow! For cool Lord of the Rings (and Batman Begins, Harry Potter, etc) merchandise for the geeks on your Christmas list make sure to check out The Noble Collection for official…and downright cool…stuff.
I adore the entire LOTR trilogy. I was a fan of the books before the film and I had my doubts before Fellowship came out. It is strange not having any new LOTR experience this Christmas. I suppose we do have jackson-y goodness with King Kong, but it just isn’t the same.
i can confess that i hadn’t read the trilogy all the way through until right before the movies released.
tho my nerdiness used to be restricted to scifi, and very little fantasy..
I’m right there with you Fence. There are potentially great movies like Narnia and Kong coming out this Christmas but I feel somewhat at a loss with nothing LOTR coming out. Last year we at least had the extended edition of Return of the King. I think that fact helped with the prompting to start reading these.
Glad your nerdiness is growing and expanding to other areas Angela! 😉
i’m actually way more excited about Narnia coming out that LOTR. even tho it’s a children’s story, it has a much more powerful message.
and yes, Carl, i have you to thank for my comic obsession.
I am most excited about Narnia, too. I am not a cartoon fan, so I am really looking forward to taking the girls. I am glad they are at the age to begin to enjoy the same movies that I enjoy. I haven’t heard, though, what Narnia is rated. Does anyone know if it’s PG or PG-13? I know nothing about the allegory, but it seems to have strong spiritual parallels. I LOVE the lion.
I know I’m a geek because when all I saw was the photo for Ringers and I immediately smiled knowing I just HAVE to see that. I also miss LOTR this fall. I so hope that Peter Jackson gets to do The Hobbit soon. Please let them untie the legal mess surrounding it and let him get on with making that movie next.
Ahhhh…how happy I was to check your blog this morning and see that picture! I’m actually feeling a pang now for giving up fondofelves. Sigh. That is an AWESOME tattoo Jamie has; my friend Pat (best friend from high school and fellow LOTR geek) and I have talked about getting an LOTR one; we were going to get Tolkien’s intials, like on the spine of his books. Is it the one ring script?
And OMG Nov 22 for Ringers! THANK you for reminding me (dang Carl, you’re becoming invaluable) about that!
I can’t wait to hear you talk about how the elves came into being and your thoughts about the Silmarillion! Sorry for going on and on, but…it’s LOTR, you know!
Amen to that Jeff!
Its interesting that both Tolkien and Lewis had strong spiritual beliefs…heck Lewis was an athiest before being influenced by his friendship with Tolkien…but then they had somewhat of a falling out because Lewis was way more open and prosletyzing with beliefs. Tolkien also hated allegories and Lewis was very forthright about this being an allegorical work. Tolkien and Lewis appeared to make peace after awhile and I find it interesting that he mentions in a letter that a well written allegory often ends up being a very good story that people don’t realize is an allegory…he also mentioned that the opposite is often true, making reference to the fact that people often want to say that his work is allegorical when he flatly denies it…it was meant to be a mythology for England and wasn’t meant to represent political or religious beliefs.
Despite how great Narnia will most likely be…and I have high hopes…I don’t see it having the same impact for me that the trilogy of LOTR is. The journey with the ring and the impact that it has on Frodo alone…his ultimate failure to destroy the ring on his own and the lasting effects of that is so powerful.
I really hope Narnia does well financially and that they will do the other books as it would be nice to have this series become a December tradition like LOTR has.
Cool, thanks for the heads up on that nifty doc, Carl. Added to my list.
I literally just stumbled across it looking for LOTR pics last night. I found it on a site where they are advertising tickets for Pasedena, CA I believe where they are actually having an event and showing Ringers in a theatre. Wish they’d do something like that here!
I do look a little scary in those pictures! ACK! Thank you for the heads up and info on Ringers, more money to add to my loan for watching something. I will be inundated with some sort of screenplay all winter! Tolkien has been my inspiration for years. I first stumbled upon his works when I was a teenager. My brother had The Hobbit sitting in the basement for years. I would look at that book almost every day and think what a silly book. One day I had absolutely nothing to read so I took the decrepit and dusty book in my hands and read the back. Let’s just say the rest is history. It opened my eyes to an entirely different world/genre of reading. Needless to say I still read many different kinds of books. Pretty much anything I can get my hands on but Sci-Fi/Fantasy are my absolute favorites. No other series has had an impact on my life like LOTR. Thank you for the pics. Carl.
You’re welcome…and I didn’t mean that you look scary per se…just that you look like you were ready to smack me with that stone because I was subjecting you to pix taking at work (you know, the whole ‘one ring to rule them all’ thing)! I thought the pix turned out great. I can send you copies if I haven’t already.
Aww, LOTR, how I love that series! I like the tatoo, Jamie, very cool. What does it say?
Have you guys seen the LOTR capes that some people are wearing? There are some students here at Northwestern that walk around wearing them. They’ve proven their loyalty much more than I!
Sounds like you need a cape for Christmas!!!
funny, i just finished watching the trilogy, & much Silmarillion discussion followed.
a friend of mine has tolkein’s anagram tattooed on his chest. it’s pretty nifty, albeit farther in fandom than i’d ever go. he’s a linguist if that explains it at all.
A linguist with a Tolkien tattoo? That’s perfect!
I’m about 50 pages into The Silmarillion and I’m loving it!
yeah, um, I don’t think I’m dedicated enough for a cape like that.
capes = NERD!
The problem is…if you want to call it a problem…is that at least 90% of us who participate in this site are admittedly nerds and are proud of the fact…our nerd-i-tude flows out behind us like the capes of our imaginations. In otherwords we are all only a few sci-fi or comic conventions away from being cape wearing uber dorks anyway!
See, I can call them nerds because, as you proved, I am a nerd of a different degree.
Yes, anyone who dresses in complete Darth Maul gear is definitely a “nerd of a different degree”… 🙂
I’m not sure if I’ve made it to nerd-dom yet, but it’s a goal. And bless you, Carl. I was doing so well in not adding to books and cds right now, but I will be “needing” this cd and book.
Just doing my part to add to the book piles and the debts of all I come in contact with! 🙂
P.S. I’m 100 pages in and am loving The Silmarillion. Fascinating stuff!!!
Carl, you did not send me the pictures but yes I would love to have them. Thank you Melissa, I like my tattoo also. Some people think I am cheesy for getting something from a trilogy but I do not, apparently they do not know the impact of these nerdie things! Te he
I expect I won’t be complaining when I go get it. I have the dvd on Tolkein to bring tomorrow.
I added it to my Netflix list tonight and then moved it to the top so it’ll come right away when its out.
it looks like Ringers will contain the vintage clip of Nemoy do the bilbo baggins song (and dancing i might add) – i’ve seen it, it was from the 60’s and it will make milk come out of your nose with laughter
I look forward to seeing that as well as the other LOTR fanatics footage Mysfit!!! I don’t drink milk, however, so I’m at least safe from that unpleasantness.
Thought you might like this bit of tantalizing info, Carl: http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/forums/thread.jspa?threadID=92&tstar%3Cbr%3Et=0
That’s cool..if you click on the link above to go back to the Alan Lee thread you can see him answer many questions about LOTR and his latest sketchbook from LOTR. I’ve seen it and it is an amazing book! Thanks for the link!