# 3Jan03: JRR Tolkien's eleventy-first birthday **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 3, 2003, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3jan03-jrr-tolkiens-eleventy-first-birthday/146446 "2003-01-03T17:27:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ruralrage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df788c/32.png) [@ruralrage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruralrage)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2003, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3jan03-jrr-tolkiens-eleventy-first-birthday/146446/21 "2003-01-04T04:51:28Z")
Here’s to a thoughtful and a creative mind, one who has fought his own battles and come out victorious. May the blessing of all free folk carry you on your way as we sit down and read your wonderful masterpiece yet again. Thank you, Professor Tolkien, for giving me a new place to live: Middle Earth! ---
**Author:** ![BlackKnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eb8c5e/32.png) [@BlackKnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlackKnight)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2003, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3jan03-jrr-tolkiens-eleventy-first-birthday/146446/22 "2003-01-04T05:14:48Z")
I never thought I shared a birthday with anyone famous, but now I know that I do. (Er, well, the January 3rd part, not the year. I’m only 22.) Happy birthday professor. ---
**Author:** ![Narile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@Narile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Narile)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2003, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3jan03-jrr-tolkiens-eleventy-first-birthday/146446/23 "2003-01-04T05:32:56Z")
A slightly belated toast to one whom illuminated much that was fair in the world. \>_\_\< **Blackknight** Mel Gibson was also born on the 3rd of January. ---
**Author:** ![Epigramcracker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5e9695/32.png) [@Epigramcracker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Epigramcracker)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2003, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3jan03-jrr-tolkiens-eleventy-first-birthday/146446/24 "2003-01-04T05:37:16Z")
Here’s to JRRT! We probably don’t know him half as well as we would like, but we LOVE more than half of him just as well as he deserves! _I wore my homemade Lorien leaf pin today in celebration… wee!_ ---
**Author:** ![LoN](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/cab0a1/32.png) [@LoN](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LoN)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2003, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3jan03-jrr-tolkiens-eleventy-first-birthday/146446/25 "2003-01-04T09:07:49Z")
(A bit belated. I did do the toast at 9 pm-- i with coffee and my little sister with water. I read my little bro some of the poems out of the _Reader_, hoping to spread his workds to another generation). To the Professor, who reminded us of the quiet places in the world, and what we have lost by their passing! _drains his glasses and throws it into the fire_ I like to think that he’s having a drink at Callahan’s tonight, toasted by all the regulars. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2003, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3jan03-jrr-tolkiens-eleventy-first-birthday/146446/26 "2003-01-04T12:56:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Qadgop the Mercotan \* > \*\*Alas, JRRT! If The Hobbit had taken off the way Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone did, you could have retired in 1938 and spent _all_ your time fleshing out Middle-Earth. > > Ilu JRRT carnë Eldain ar Fírimain > Ilu ná vanya, fanya, ëari, > i cemen, ar ilya i ëa tessen. > > JRRT made the World for Elves and Mortals > The World is fair, the sky, the seas, > the earth, and all that is in them. \*\* Ah, but if he did that, I wouldn’t have this nice translation of _Sir Gawain, The Pearl, and Sir Orfeo_ that he wrote. Oh well, must take some good with the bad I suppose. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2003, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3jan03-jrr-tolkiens-eleventy-first-birthday/146446/27 "2003-01-04T16:49:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Narile \* > \*\ ***Blackknight** Mel Gibson was also born on the 3rd of January. \*\* So was Victoria Principal, Stephen Stills, Dabney Coleman, Robert Loggia, Sergio Leone, Victor Borge, and Ray Milland! ;j ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2003, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3jan03-jrr-tolkiens-eleventy-first-birthday/146446/28 "2003-01-04T16:57:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tim R. Mortiss \* > \*\*So was Victoria Principal, Stephen Stills, Dabney Coleman, Robert Loggia, Sergio Leone, Victor Borge, and Ray Milland! ;j \*\* And GrandpaSpazCat! ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2003, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3jan03-jrr-tolkiens-eleventy-first-birthday/146446/29 "2003-01-04T20:04:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Peregrine \* > \*\*I checked MPSIMS and The Cafe Society for word on this event, and found none. Just in case it really isn’t on the board yet, here’s what’s going on: > > The [Tolkien Society](http://www.tolkiensociety.org/toast/) is proposing a toast for 9 pm local time. > > :: _raises glass_ :: The Professor! \*\* Oh damn, I couldn’t do it. I was away from home, watching (for the 5th time) a young afficianado retelling some Tolkien stories visually, passing down awareness and enthusiasm for the professor’s rich and fascinating world to a new generation. :: _raises glass_ :: The Professor! Ditto! ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2003, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3jan03-jrr-tolkiens-eleventy-first-birthday/146446/30 "2003-01-04T21:54:14Z")
> [@](#): > > Ah, but if he did that, I wouldn’t have this nice translation of Sir Gawain, The Pearl, and Sir Orfeo that he wrote. Oh well, must take some good with the bad I suppose. To the contrary, he was completing his editing and writing the foreword to the works of _the Pearl poet_ (the anonymous writer of those three poems and a fourth one I don’t recall) simultaneously with his page-proof work on _The Return of the King_, so there would have been no interference with that aspect of his academic work. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2003, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3jan03-jrr-tolkiens-eleventy-first-birthday/146446/31 "2003-01-04T22:54:12Z")
> [@](#): > > Ah, but if he did that, I wouldn’t have this nice translation of Sir Gawain, The Pearl, and Sir Orfeo that he wrote. Oh well, must take some good with the bad I suppose. To the contrary, he was completing his editing and writing the foreword to the works of _the Pearl poet_ (the anonymous writer of those three poems and a fourth one I don’t recall) simultaneously with his page-proof work on _The Return of the King_, so there would have been no interference with that aspect of his academic work. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3jan03-jrr-tolkiens-eleventy-first-birthday/146446.md?page=1)