How is it to have watched the movies first?

[Elrowen Tinúviel]

I had read The Hobbit long before the movies came out... and when they came out was when I first started reading the Fellowship... I wanted to read the books before I saw the movies. Didn't happen. After seeing the movie though, I promptly devoured the rest of the books.

How significant or important are the movies for you today?

I love them... granted there are things that I don't like, but I can understand a bit of why they made some of the changes that they made.

In how far has your reading been influenced by it?

Not much... it helped with the Elvish pronounciation to hear it... (I'm extremely auditory - therefore hearing it spoken (albeit perhaps with errors, I'm not sure) helped a great deal).

Did you have difficulties making your own picture of Middle-earth because of having Jackson's picture in the back of your head?

Not really... some things though, inevidably were influenced, like some of the character's appearances, and the land, but not much.... Faramir still has black hair in my mind, for instance.

How do you like the movies now?

I love them! Except like I said, stuff irritates me. The Elves were not supposed to show up at Helm's Deep, Haldir wasn't supposed to die there. Faramir never was going to take the ring, Frodo never sent Sam away... oh, and Elladan and Elrohir were supposed to show up with the Rangers!
Other than stuff like that... I love them.

But what it all boils down to is... Peter Jackson has his view of Middle Earth, I have mine, and probably everybody else has their own version of the tales.

~Elrowen