I haven’t finished reading LOTR. I stopped somewhere in the appendices. I keep meaning to get back to it. I have a copy of The Simarillion I keep meaning to read. But let’s start at the beginning.
I am six. One day one of the hippy teachers at my preschool begins reading a book called The Hobbit. It becomes my favorite book. Mom and Dad read it to me countless times. I watch Rankin Bass animated version countless times. I get a poster based on the cartoon. I often wear a cloak and dress as a hobbit. I watch Bakshi’s LOTR countless times. I watch RB ROTK countless times. I get the records of both RB movies. I get the Hobbit boardgame at a garage sale.
ADHD keeps me from reading the LOTR. But Dad has copies, the ones with the cool triptych covers, and I will read them someday.
Visiting friends in Baltimore, I find a man at the Johns Hopkins festival selling drawings of wizards and dragons and Tolkien’s characters. I buy one each year we go and take exquisite care of them.
At a county fair, I find a man selling jewelry he makes. His name is Badaji. Mom shows me a ring he made. First I think it’s a monkey. Then I realize it’s Gollum. http://www.badalijewelry.com/gollum.htm * The ring becomes one of my most treasured possessions.
In seventh grade, the teacher announces we will be reading FOTR. Sadly my medications are failing and I can’t keep up. The bad experience keeps me from returning to the books until the film comes out.
I buy the Hobbit comic book adaption. I buy a Hobbit pop up book. I buy another Hobbit poster (the classic greyscale one with Gandalf, Bilbo, and Frodo in the center with characters inset all around). My sister gives me a hardback Tolkien Bestiary. My mother gives me a book about Tolkien, Master Of Middle Earth.
We hear that Peter Jackson (I’d already seen his Meet The Feebles, Bad Taste, and Dead Alive) is making the movies. I go back to the trilogy and begin to read. I make it through to the appendices at the back of ROTK.
I buy a set of tapes of Tolkien reading his work. I buy video tapes of Bakshi’s LOTR, and RB ROTK. I buy what is almost certainly a bootleg video of RB Hobbit.
- I have no connection to Badaji whatsoever. I just love the man and his work. Note that he has been making Tolkien jewelry for twenty odd years rather than just cashing in on the film’s popularity like some others. Note also that his FOTR, TT, and ROTK pins were worn by the nominees at the Oscars.
A finally footnote, I lost my Gollum ring in a Chinese restaurant. I have since had it replaced. Other than that and the copies of the Hobbit that literally fell apart from repeated readings, I still have all the Tolkien items I’ve mentioned.
So I ask you, the Fen, am I one of you or no?
