How were you introduced to Tolkien?

[Thinlómien]

What a cute story, Agan. Shall I tell another one?

Once upon a time there was a man called Nogrod. He had two daughters, Thinlómien and A Little Green. The older was foul and ugly, the younger was gentle and beautiful... Oops, wrong story. Ahem, yes, he had two daughters, called Thinlómien and A Little Green, but we shall call them Lommy and Greenie. The girls were young but both wise beyond their years and they had always loved great stories. One year, when they were five and three, or possibly six and four, Nogrod showed them a movie, Bakshi's Lord of the Rings. It left a lasting impression on the girls.

Not much later, Nogrod and his daughters started a great project. Nogrod took four books from the shelf and every night he sat with his daughters and read them stories; The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion and The Unfinished Tales. The girls listened avidly, spellbound.

From that on, Tolkien's magical world could be seen everywhere - in their drawings, in their plays, in their talk. Especially the older one, Lommy, was totally enchanted by this mysterious but real world. She told about it to her friends and made them play Elves or Orcs with her. When she was seven or eight, she read The Lord of the Rings herself and the other books soon after. Then, if not before, she had entered Arda so deeply that there was no return.

[Groin Redbeard]

Great day in the morning, I didn't know Nogrod was your dad, Thinlomien! All I can say is that he's certainly done a wonderful job with two certain Tolkien scholars, I couldn't imagine reading the Lord of the Rings at age seven. You're what I call a Tolkien missionary, Thinlomien. My hat is off to both of you!

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

Samwise Gamgee, friend of Warg, introduced me to Tolkien in 2001. I was curious about these tales, hearing the excited discussions of Samwise and little-known Barrow-Downer Gaunt in study class. With the films coming out later that year, I knew I had to read the books before.

[Lush]

How were you introduced to Tolkien?

The first Peter Jackson film - in 2001. I got out of school early and drove down to the cinema and bought tickets for all of my friends, everyone was really excited, and although I hadn't read Tolkien at that point, I'd heard that the story was amazing, and the movies looked really cool.

I was hooked immediately - I had to find out more about Middle Earth.

Funnily, looking back on it, those were probably the happiest days of my life. I'm glad they coincided with my discovery of Tolkien.

[MatthewM]

Originally Posted by Thinlómien

Once upon a time there was a man called Nogrod. He had two daughters, Thinlómien and A Little Green..

That explains how you both look alike!

[Olórin the White]

hooboy, so this is somewhat of an ironic tale. My dad has always appreciated Tolkien, and we had a copy of TH in the house for as long as I remember, but I had no idea what it was about nor did I really care to find out. Oddly enough, I loved reading as a kid, especially some of the great classics of our times (my mom always complained when I insisted on walking through the mall with my nose in my book...one eye on the page and one eye on passing traffic to ensure that I didn't hit anything. I also had a tendency to read past my bedtime by the light of my nightlight, probably to the detriment of my vision today ). Not only that, but I live in a part of the world that looks JUST like Middle Earth, and is as beautiful as any of the scenery that is witnessed in the Jackson films, and as a result I had a curious love affair with the outdoors (trees, forests, mountains, and streams in particular). My eventually love affair with Tolkien's world seems inevitable, yet it nearly wasn't so.
When FOTR came out, my dad took me and a friend to see it. I'll never forget that experience...it was New Years Eve and the rather old and dingy theater was nearly empty. I will also never forget the ache in my back after sitting the full three hours in the same position, arms linked with my friend out of fear. For us, the orcs and other terrible creatures were terrifying, especially when we had not been exposed to that world before. It quite overwhelmed me! I had always loved the fantastical, but have never really been exposed to 'fantasy' like that of Tolkien's world.
What a travesty. For a year I thought little of Lord of the Rings, and then the Two Towers came out. One of my cousins, who is also a close friend, had been talking about it for a while and I thought, why not? So I gave it another chance. This time my eyes were opened. I loved it and needed to know more! Shortly thereafter my family went to hawaii for a week and I brought along TTT. I read it on the beach and was done in a couple days...and was in complete shock at the ending! I had to know what happened to Frodo and Sam! My mom on the other hand refused to buy me ROTK while we were on vacation because it would be cheaper at home. It was awful. I promptly read FOTR when we got home and then finally got my hands on a library copy of ROTK. Then I read the Sil, Unfinished Tales, countless biographies and essays on Tolkien, and I never looked back.
I had always been an elf at heart but had just never known it. I shudder to think what would have happened if I hadn't given LOTR another chance when TTT came out.

[The Might]

Ah, a nice thread indeed!

So guess I could give you my story...
I read The Hobbit first as a Romanian translation when I was about 8 and found the story quite interesting. However it was only until about the movies that I discovered LotR, The Sil and the UT.

[Diane C]

From the "LOTR" CD of the BBC radio play back in the 90s when I was about 12 and living in my home town of Bloemfontein, South Africa.

Listening to the play made it easier for me to pick up the LOTR books and begin my journey into all things Tolkien.

[Faramir Jones]

Like Mithalwen, I became interested in Tolkien when, as a child, I saw the televised Jackanory adaptation of The Hobbit. I agree that the voices were done really well, particularly that of Bilbo done by Bernard Cribbins.

Interestingly enough, though I liked the story, it was not until later, when I was 12, that I actually read The Hobbit. My family was moving house, and when we were packing up things, a copy my parents had turned up, which they let me read. The same was true of a copy of The Lord of the Rings, though it took me far longer to read that!

[skip spence]

I dunno, to be honest I can't remember exactly how it happened. When I was young, around 10 I suppose, I was briefly into RPGs like Dungeons And Dragons and also read LotR for the first time. I can't remember if I was into RPGs because I read LotR or if it was the other way around but I did like the books, especially FotR. There was much I didn't understand at the time though and it wasn't until I watched the Bakshi cartoon a few years later I realised Saruman and Sauron were different people for example. I'm not entirely sure if I made in through the whole thing although I believe I did. I also owned the LotR RPG and for a good many years I even thought that Balrogs had wings - god forbid! - due to a picture in that game.

Then came puberty and my attention shifted to other fields of study.

It was to be many years before Tolkien came into my life again. In my early 20's - a year or two before the movies came out - I lived in Spain for a while. During a lazy and stoned Sunday afternoon I decided to pick up that copy of the Fellowship of the Ring I had noticed on my mate's bookshelf and was immediately hooked. I finished it within a week then went cold turkey as I wasn't able to get hold of the other two books in English or Swedish - my Spanish wasn't good enough. I had to tell my parents at home to go and buy them for me and then send them by mail. After a what seemed an eternity they finally arrived and I haven't looked back since. The Silmarillion was a revelation when I first read it and Unfinished Tales was a wonderful fix as well. Now I'm digging into the HoME while wishing there were more works by the Tolkien out there. I'm not really a fantasy fan though and can't really bring myself to pick up non-Tolkien works (the few times I did in my teens was a disappointment). Should I?