LotR-related objects in everyday life.

[Lyta_Underhill]

Also, are any of you Babylon 5 fans? I used to watch it several years ago, and now I'm realizing there are a lot of things in there that came from LotR, or at least are pretty similar.

Well, if there ARE Babylon 5 fans around here, they surely know where I got my first name! [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

I do remember lots of stuff that mirrors or suggests the storyline and even names of LOTR: Z'ha'Dum being the most prominent of them, with the First One Lorien being deep inside the great chasm into which Sheridan leaps (Gandalf and the Balrog, anyone? He dove just before a nuclear device...). Other parallels, such as the migration "to the Rim" of the older beings and Technomages, etc. etc. and the use of the old evil by the newer minions of the "Shadows" (Sauron picking up where Morgoth left off, anyone?). The theme of the survival and slow resurgence of evil, even after great victory, would seem to be a main theme for both realms--Arda and the galactic realm in the "Third Age of Mankind" of Babylon 5.

Despite all the parallels, B5 draws from all sorts of fantasy and sci-fi works and concepts, although at times I like to refer to it as "Lord of the Rings in Space," just to be ornery!

Anyway, as for Middle Earth around here: my entire backyard (120 acres) looks like different places in Middle Earth. In fact, a large hill (small mountain? not quite!) rises behind my home and looks like an overgrown version (sans doors and windows) of Tolkien's illustration of Hobbiton on the 1973(?) version of the LOTR set (the authorized American version) Fellowship of the Ring cover. Another hill would resemble Weathertop if the stones rose above the trees and not vice versa, and there is a hidden dell I call Rivendell (abutted by Arwen's Rock and Tinuviel's Glade). Also a small creek with a bridge; I call it the Brandywine. Oh, and most of the guys driving pickup trucks in the closest town resemble Gimli...that's all I can think of right now!

Cheers,
Lyta