Before and after the movie

[Nurumaiel]

I was first introduced to LotR long before the movies came out. I was just a little lassie when I first watched bits and pieces of the Return of the King cartoon. It had been recorded on video tape and then was recorded over and lost, save the very end, which I watched numerous times, puzzled and intrigued by it. When I was five and going on six my elder brothers received for Christmas some LotR cards, which instantly sparked our interest. We would play a game we called, 'the Frodo game,' for hours on end. I would be Frodo and my brother would be Beregond... two names we had picked up from the cards. My father was a devout fan of LotR, and my godfather, who lived very close by us and who we saw quite frequently, was equally ardent, and we heard discussions on that fascinating subjects all the time. For my sixth birthday I requested a 'movie about Frodo' and after some searching my parents found a copy of the Return of the King cartoon from which I had seen extracted scenes as a very young child. At the end of the film I was almost in tears, and I was saying, 'Yes, Gandalf, there is Hobbit in me, there is!' From then on the road was laid, and I had only to move along it.

One cold and snowy day, when the fire was briskly blazing and the baby was playing about on the floor, my father left the room to return with a rather old-looking book. It was rather large, and it was hardcover, and it was not in the best condition though it was readable. He sat down upon the hearth, opened it up, and began. We were enthralled from the first, delighted to hear more about our dear Frodo, and the Mr. Bilbo Baggins we knew about a little, and that wise old Gandalf, and of the loyal, endearing Samwise Gamgee. We would not let him stop reading until he was completely exhausted the first night, and afterwards we were miserable if he did not read us at least a chapter. His actings out of different scenes were charming to the heart of a child, and the manner in which he spoke when he read of Boromir's death, or of the bittersweetness of Frodo's passing into the West brought a tear to every eye. The laughter when he sang the song of the Man in the Moon, dancing and capering on the hearth, was full of childish delight and bliss. And, oh! weren't we sorry when we did something that incurred the terrible punishment of staying away from the fireplace until we had made up for our wrong. Foolish and stubborn pride brought this punishment upon me once, and I wept heartily, but still would not give in, until at last even pride had to give way. And how happy I was to be sitting at my father's knee, free from disgrace and, more importantly, delighting that I could hear about dear Frodo once again! Sorrow was bountiful when my father closed the book, looked at each one of us gravely and sorrowfully, and said with a little smile, 'The End.' It seemed impossible, and I for one wept the lonesome nights, reflecting that we would never again hear the tale. And, faith, how I would like to go to that fireplace now and sit at my father's feet and say for myself, 'Well, I'm back.'

It was impossible for it to end there, even though the tale itself was done. There was no end of stories made up and acted out, stories of dear Frodo, and even more enjoyable, stories about the numerous children of Sam. Back then we could each take on the role of three or four children apiece, and though it was eventually narrowed down to only two apiece, the fun never ended. Snails provided valuable playmates for 'Little Frodo' and 'Little Merry,' and oh dear, the stories we made up! If Tolkien had been present our only hope of avoiding his wrath would be that he understood children and that their little games were always ridiculous. Faith, taking on the role of 'Little Frodo,' I never ceased to bring the wrath of Gandalf upon me, from drowning his own pet snails (oh, horror that Gandalf should have pet snails! but children can't help it) to things that don't bear mentioning. As ourselves, we always thought of excuses to get Sam and Rosie out of the way, and then as the Gamgee children we would bring about havoc under the care of Gandalf. Fortunately 'Uncy' Frodo always gently intervened when things looked bleakest for Gandalf, if it was not our own real-life supper calling us away from Gamgee mischief. The Gamgees always were the center of attenion. I remember being about eight years old and patiently explaining to a friend of mine just who Frodo and Sam, along with the latter's wife and children, were, just so the two of us could play together that charming 'Frodo game.'

Time went on, and admittedly we would play other games, but somehow those others games always wound up into LotR. Horror of horrors! Could Narnia be played without our dear Frodo? No, nay, never! There was nothing to do but mysteriously bring Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin into Narnia so they could run about with the Pevensie children, and indeed, yes, be captured by the White Witch! Oh, nothing would stop us, not even the barriers between worlds. It was nothing to bring LotR into Narnia, or the other way around, or even to let Darth Vader run rampage in Middle-Earth even the fancy struck us. We grew older, and LotR was never abandoned. Our love for it was renewed with all vigour, for we came of an age where we were capable of reading the grand books ourselves.

And then the movies came out.

If our fervour for LotR had cooled any, it was brought to a raging blaze at that. The children who hadn't even been born on the wintry night when my father first read to us the story became immensely interested in Frodo, and there was no end of excitement and proclaimations of devotion to the movies. They were wonderful, and increased our already burning devotion for LotR, and made it much easier to read the book, for it was much simpler to go through the lengthy descriptions when the films depicted the landscapes in a marvellous way.

And then, slowly, slowly the first excitement of the movies began to fade and things didn't seem quite right. For the most part, Middle-Earth was our own little world still, because nobody we knew really loved it as much as we did. They were only passingly devoted to LotR, and they'd move on whenever the next big film came out. We owned Middle-Earth, still, but it was being invaded by mysterious forces. People would ask us if we liked LotR, and with a fire in our eyes we would cry fervently, 'Yes!' And then they would start talking about New Zealand, and the charming Orlando Bloom, or the big, charming eyes of Elijah Wood, or the amusement they derived from Merry, Pippin, and Gimli. We didn't like what we heard, and annoyance grew in us.

And, of course, after watching the movies numerous times, we noticed something rather... odd... about the characters. They had the names, to be sure, but something was lacking in each of them. Nobility in some, honour in others, and then others seemed to just be missing themselves. The books were brought out, read, and it seemed an entirely different world than that we had seen on the screen. Slowly we began to fade away from the films. We talked about the books instead of the films, we talked about the characters instead of the actors, and we immersed ourselves in our own darling Middle-Earth again.

Assuredly, I love the films very much and I'll always hold them dear, for they were magical and charming. But they weren't LotR to me, not the LotR I grew up with. Watching the films I find myself in a place that is similiar to Middle-Earth, but is not Middle-Earth. The full magic, the full charm, the full honour and nobility, the full of everything held precious in my childhood and now, I only find when I take up the old, worn, half-torn books that my father read, and creep back to the fireplace, and sit down as if I were at my father's feet again, and read of dear Frodo, and of Mr. Bilbo Baggins, and of loyal Samwise Gamgee. And then I smile and murmur softly, 'Well, I'm back.'

[Snowdog]

You say it quite well Nurumaiel! With few notable exceptions... ok, two actually, the movie characters fell short of what the book characters were to me.

I'm an olde book reader here, having read through Hobbit and the Trilogy in 1975-76. They were quite magical these books and the world they created in my mind. I heard of the movies early in 2000, and I approached them with curiosity.

Now, there are so many uber-experts who have never let their imagination go anywhere who think they know all that everyone is thinking when it comes to Middle Earth.

I break down Middle Earth fans thus:

• Old-School Book Fan:
  They read Tolkien’s books sometime between the release of the Hobbit (1937) & the Silmarillion (1977). They came to know the world of Middle Earth through the released writings of J.R.R. Tolkien, and awaited the release of The Silmarillion to relieve their hunger to know more of Middle Earth. Yet were apprehensive as to whether Christopher Tolkien would do justice to the beloved realm of Middle Earth in print, and were even more reluctant with the Bakshi, Rankin/Bass, & Peter Jackson films.
  
• The New-School Book Fan

Of the New-School Book Fans, there are two sub-groups which I call:

• ~The First-Born ~ This group originally discovered the world of Middle Earth after the books Christopher Tolkien released beginning with The Silmarillion in 1977. They include also Unfinished Tales and any of the HoME series. These are the book readers and would have been Old-School Book fans had they been old enough, or had discovered the Hobbit and/or the Trilogy of Lord of the Rings before the Silmarillion came out.
• ~The Edain~ Also known as The Adopted. They are the ones from the groups below who were motivated to seek out and delve deep into the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien & Christopher Tolkien and learn and love the true history of Middle Earth.

The Edain are the cream from many of the groups below.

• The Bakshi Recruit: They first discovered Middle Earth by seeing the Bakshi and/or the Rankin/Bass cartoons. Many went on to read the books and delve ever deeper into Tolkiens writings, and essentially become one of the Edain.
  
• The “Pre-Movie” Book Fan: They heard there was a Lord of the Rings movie in the making, and after looking into it, decided they wanted to read the books before the first movie came out in Dec 2001. Many go on to become Edain New-School Book Fans.
  
• The Movie Recruit: They went to the theatre and saw Fellowship of the Ring, and loved it so much they were inspired to go and read the books, finishing the Two Towers and Return of the King before the release of the movie of the same name. Many go on to become Edain New-School Book Fans.
  
• The Peter Jackson Recruit: Different from the Movie Recruit in that they did not start to read the books until after they saw all three movies. Their viewpoint of Middle Earth is seen through the eyes of Peter Jackson, and they note the differences in the books. Some may go on to become Edain New-School Book Fans, but to most their reading of the books are more an afterthought and of a desire to fill in some of the gaps in the movie, leaving the movie as the cannonized definitive word on their concept of Middle Earth.
  
• The Hardcore Movie Fan: They went to the movies and loved them! They have no desire to read the books or inclined not to do so anytime soon. The movie is Middle Earth, and they like it as presented. Books are boring. They take too much imagination. Who needs to imagine what Middle Earth is like when Peter Jackson already did it for me? Who reads books anyway?

[Alchisiel]

Originally Posted by Snowdog

[*]The Movie Recruit: They went to the theatre and saw Fellowship of the Ring, and loved it so much they were inspired to go and read the books, finishing the Two Towers and Return of the King before the release of the movie of the same name. Many go on to become Edain New-School Book Fans.

I would fall into this category. I watched the Fellowship and got to talking with some coworkers and learned that there were books the movie was based on. So I went to my local Barnes and Noble, bought the Hobbit, and was hooked. After finishing the Hobbit I read the Lord of the Rings books and the Silm-twice. I love the story, but consider the movies as one man's interpretation. I don't get angry about certain parts being left out, that Liv Tyler played Arwen (after all it is just a book folks) or all that hoop-la about Orlando Bloom, Elijah Wood, and Viggo Mortensen. I like both the movies and the books and treat them as separate things, if you get my meaning.

[Neferchoirwen]

Nurumaiel , that was so elegant! I wish that I had parents who were as read as yours and who would have given me the opportunity to be introduced to this world that can only be entered by turning its pages. I remember feeling that feeling of childhood intrigue about a part of an animation that exists in an obscure video tape (in my case, it was a snippet of Puff the Magic Dragon---although, it is a curious thing how as toddlers, we enjoy seeing things like animation without understanding the entire plot---like the way I love the Smurfs movie...oh well).

I do feel annoyed when Lord of the Rings discussions among friends fall into behind the scenes stories, or EE features, and New Zealand. I love the films, but I learned to treat the books as a separate entity from the films.

Snowdog , I was always wondering how to categorize fans, and you've hit the nail right there! I am a movie recruit, and proud of it (but I do regret nursing my book reading bag log to something as ridiculous as not reading LOtR...quite ridiculous for a Lit major such as myself), and am looking forward to giving the gift of middle earth to my kids...and somehow make adopted first born fans out of them (introduce the books to them before I make them watch the films...I'll try, I promise!).

Although, there are people I know (strange as it seems) that haven't seen the movies or read the books (and these are lit majors---less than a handful, as far as I know them). What kind of fans will they be if they choose to read them before they see the films? Just curious...

[Child of the 7th Age]

First, I have already thanked Nurumaiel personally for her wonderful post, but I want to add my thanks here. Not many of our families have been so intimately involved with introducing us to LotR. You have some great memories there!

Snowdog - Those categories are fantastic. I fall into the "Old-School Book Fan". But you might want to have at least one "sub-category" in that group: the "Frodo Lives" generation, the U.S. college students from the late sixties whom Tolkien felt had good inclinations but were also a little nuts and who came at the book from a different angle than his own. (He was undoubtedly correct about this!) Everyone had the books in college and many had posters plastered on their dorm or apartment walls -- usually the psychedelic one done by Barbara Remington that JRRT couldn't stand! We even had pins that said "Gandalf for President".

A number of this group were "tree huggers" and thumbed their nose at the establishment, instead specilizing in baking bread and toting protest signs! Certainly not what Tolkien had anticipated, but we saw LotR as a way to break out of the "bourgeois" constraints left over from the late Fifties and early Sixties.

Looking back, I have to smile but it was a time of excitement. The general reader in the U.S. did not yet know about the books (totally unlike today), and we felt we'd stumbled onto a secret world that was all our own....

Just curious....but is there anyone else out there who had a similar experience in college?

[piosenniel]

Great categorizing, Snowdog!

Another old school fan here . . . the battered old paperbacks from my college days lean haphazardly together on my bookshelf, touching covers with Diet for a Small Planet, another book from back then. I'm sorry to have lost the old buttons of that era in my many moves - but here are a few of them for your perusal:

Frodo lives!

I would concur with the need for a sixties subsection as proposed by Child.

~*~ Pio

[mark12_30]

Snowdog:

Old-school here, too.

I had no Frodo-Lives buttons (or Gandalf for President, either). But I did have several psychedelic posters.

My fellowship was not in college, but in Junior-high. Eomer, Faramir, and Gimli (as we called ourselves) sat cross-legged in the hall during lunch break and swapped fanfics, written and spoken. Mary-Sues, every last one, and all long since burned or shredded. But I wonder if I still have any of those old charcoal drawings...

Soooo... Old-School. Ah....... **cough** if we're neither Edain nor Eldar, What does that make us?

Ents?

Maia?

Valar???



Nuru-- wow.

[drigel]

Excellent catorization! I would be remiss though to say that if you are going to subgroup a sixties college students group out of the oldtimers, please give us GenX'rs a place! hehe .. I was in the 5th grade in 1975 when i picked up The Hobbit (what a wonderful age to start reading Tolkien!), and Immediately/ permanently became a fan. I may be an unusual throwback, however. My LOTR paperbacks were smashed between Asimov and Robert E Howard. I have gone through the cycles already succintfully described on this thread. My journey came after the sixties "I have discovered my own little world", but I had the advantage of being able to soak up all the wonderfull, more refined art that was being done during the seventies. Of course it all came to a crashing end with Bakashi lol. Sigh... so many hopes for that flick that were dashed....

I was completely ignorant of the excellent Tolkien internet presense though, until the movies came out and I started researching. So - thank or curse the movies for my involvement here! As a newbie (kinda) to this site - i can definately discern diparate groups here. Some make me think, others dont. I still read on. For me, I get just as irratated by a high faluted philosophical academic as i do a Legolas is so hot popcorn eater ... no offense intended.

As an oldtimer (cough), my view of PJ's endeavour was one of interpretation, which is of course what it was. TTT was where it was very evident to me. My thoughts at the end of that movie was how hard it would be to interpret LOTR to film. ROTK (for me) showed even more evidence of the glaring interpretation decisions made by PJ. And showed me even more insersions of his movie making style which, to me, detracted from the Tolkien experience. Too many Goonies influences. Might work for King Kong - didnt work for LOTR. I will enjoy PJ's interpretation of The Hobbit or Silm as well. But, as I enjoy the different opinions here, I would also appreciate any other filmmakers interpretation as well, as long as the intention and the budget were as honorable as PJ's....