[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by The Might

Guess good old Romanian fairy stories might have pre-baptised me for Tolkien's work, and perhaps other myths and legends from other cultures.
But The Hobbit probably was the first book of its kind that I read.

Seconded (only remove the word "Romanian"). But actually, I was pre-baptised the most very closely before reading the Hobbit, it was about year and a half before it, if I remember correctly. These were not books, however, but roleplaying games. Funny enough, I was about 7 or 8 years old at that point. I didn't encounter fantasy literature in any form before that, and on summer holiday, my cousin persuaded us (me, his younger brother and his sister - about 11-15 years old they were at that time, I think - and our parents ) to play a roleplaying game called "Dračí doupě"*. I was fascinated by the elves, orcs and all that stuff... and also, in the game there were hobbits. Not just "halflings" as they are in all other fantasy books and games, but "hobbits". (it would interest me if Tolkien has a trademark on this word, possibly this is why the word "hobbit" does not actually appear anywhere? Also, the out-of-ME halflings appear often quite different from the "true" hobbits. Bleagh. But anyway, in Czech the word is spelled only with one "B", so probably no trademarks applied? ) Uh... what was I saying? Yes, hobbits. You must agree that it is not such a normal word, is it? And so, do you think that I'd overlook a book named "The Hobbit"? Of course not. But it was still a long time after that when I first read the Hobbit, and also I didn't know yet about any "Lord of the Rings" at that moment.

This happened one year later. Next summer after the event described above, I got a Polish board game "Bitwa na Polach Pelennoru" (not necessary to translate, I think). Merely an A3-size hex paper, with seven walls, one field labelled "Citadel", and on the corners of the map three arrows labeled "to Rohan", "to Mines Morgul" and "to Pelangir" (the authors were nuts). But my cousins, when seeing it, swarmed (there were two of them, but the word describes pretty well what they did) around the board and with cries "Pelargir! Mines Morgul!" (well, they had better in spelling than the authors) started to talk about some "Lord of the Rings" I never heard of. It was later then I learned it was some sort of a book (my grandmother, who was working in a library, had the opinion that it's a three-volume book, where the first was named "Lord of the Rings" and the second "Lord of the Tower". How would she name the last one, I don't know. Possibly "Lord of the King"). I didn't do anything about it, though. Until later that year, in autumn, my older cousin (the very same one who forced us to play that RPG) got Iron Crown Enterprises' "Lord of the Rings roleplaying game" as birthday pressent... uh, present. It was in a lovely red box with Angus McBride's picture of Éowyn and the Lord of the Nazgul. I had to have it. So I murdered Deal... oh, no, no, that was another story. My parents just came with that wonderful idea of giving me the LotR roleplaying game as a Christmas present. (Warning: plot details follow) There was a story of some folks from Bree going after a dangerous troll who wandered too close to Bree. But the authors did a wonderful job of describing Tolkien's world and I totally fell in love with it.

So here you go. I think this is what you might call "pre-baptised" in the very sense of the word. I was pre-baptised by the same water, by Tolkien, though it was actually a "fake water" not written by Tolkien. My first reading about ME was not written by Tolkien. Quite unusual, uh? Hope this does not make me a heretic. Well, I think the point is that I read the Hobbit and LotR after that, even if it was not the first.

*A cheaper, less sophisticated Czech version of "Dungeons and Dragons" (even the name means more or less the same). It was shortly after Velvet revolution when some guys learned about D&D in the West and then they came back with an idea of providing our country with something like that - the market wasn't so connected still at that time, so D&D didn't appear here. They made quite a good job with it, and it became No.1 in the Czech RPGing world. Well, not that any RPGing world existed here before. Possibly, if there wasn't a delay with them making 3rd edition of the rules, Dungeons&Dragons would stand no chance on Czech market. Dračí doupě was not a mere clone, actually it was pretty inventive, though less sophisticated (and maybe this was actually why it was so popular), it contained some ideas the D&D makers didn't think of.