'Seeing' the book

[Marileangorifurnimaluim]

Ha! - Birdland.<P>I find it remarkable how close the images of Middle Earth I had were to the movie, and I haven't really seen any fan art. Only Lorien was radically different. I appreciated the artistic vision of Lorien, and it left my own untouched. Likewise my vision of the world of ME. There were slight differences (Bree for one, Bag End from the outside was slightly different than imagined) but my own vision predominates.<P>Not so with my imagined picture of the characters. Especially Frodo has morphed into Elijah Wood. I've struggled to bring back my own, albeit vague, image of Frodo, with brown eyes and a softer less elfin look than Elijah, more warmth and depth, quietude, dignity perhaps. Much less innocence.<P>My image of Gandalf and Sam remain, but Aragorn has stubbornly become Viggo, if only because Viggo is only slightly leaner and shorter and more angular than the Aragorn I imagined, but otherwise very close.