Hello, call me Zigūr, which as I'm sure many of you know is Adūnaic for "the Wizard" and was a Nśmenórean name for Sauron. I've been lurking on these forums for a little while now, especially enjoying the excellent "Microphones in Middle-earth" thread. Professor Tolkien's work is one of the great passions in my life, having been introduced to it by my mother reading "An Unexpected Party" to me when I was ten years old, after which I enthusiastically devoured the rest of The Hobbit on my own, moved onto The Lord of the Rings and even attempted The Silmarillion, although it wasn't until several years later that I was old enough to understand it and read it properly. While many of my friends have read the books and are as familiar as everyone is these days with the films, I find that I don't really have anyone close at hand with which I can discuss the Professor's work in detail. Given this fact and that I have certain ponderances regarding Middle-earth and Arda as a whole I decided I would join the forum.
In addition to this, last year I completed my Honours degree in English with a thesis on The Lord of the Rings and am currently working on a Masters thesis examining the greater breadth of Professor Tolkien's work.
While I am, as I have said, a great enthusiast for the literary material I'm afraid I don't have much patience for the films, which to my mind make too many changes in terms of tone and style to The Lord of the Rings. I also lament their significant loss and questionable rearrangement of Professor Tolkien's language and rich, unique prose, which has always been one of the most attractive elements of the book to me.