One Ring To Rule Them All

I think it's time to show my obsession with the Lord of the Rings. It all started in late 2001 or very early 2002 - I can't be sure because I've lost that ticket - when my friend insisted I come watch the Fellowship of the Ring with her. I went, I watched it and fell in love. I read the Hobbit and then, for my birthday, I got a LotR of my own. I was done with it before the Two Towers was out. It took me about four months to complete, if my memory serves.

From then on I've been a fan. Sometimes I don't even think about this magnificent book for a long while, but something always brings it back to my attention. At the moment I'm participating a LotR One Shot Contest in Quizilla, so some research is in place.

Anyway. The amount of money I've put into LotR merchandise is ridiculous, but we have to remember I was only 12-13 at the time, and I regret none of it. So here goes, with pictures.

There are the books I've got in Finnish. Unfortunately I haven't got the illustrated guide to the Fellowship of the Ring, but I saw that in a second-hand bookshop and am contemplating of buying it... It's in English, though. But maybe I could trade my Finnish books for the English versions? Anyway. There's also The Book itself. The back almost came off about a year ago, but I taped it back together. The three books at the bottom of the picture are:
- Brian Sibley: the Lord of the Rings Official Movie Guide
- Chris Smith: the Lord of the Rings: Weapons and Warfare
- Brian Sibley: the Lord of the Rings: Making of the Movie Trilogy
The middle one is quite possibly my favourite, with awesome pics of swords, armour, bows, spears... There's lots I didn't know, about the LotR-verse as well as the weapons themselves. Very enlightening, I can recommend it.

Oh, what is that the books are lying on? Why, it's my LotR sheets! :D My clever cousin gave me them for Christmas around 2002, and I've loved them ever since. And what's more, they go well with the other colours in my room - green, white, brown.

Sorry about that - stupid computer refuses to let me rotate the picture. But yeah. There's Frodo, Aragorn, Gandalf and Saruman on it, even though you can only see the first one here. And the Ring-pillow case. Pure love.

We were in New Zealand 2008 with a friend of mine, on a language course. As luck would have it, there was a trip to Hobbiton, and we signed as soon as we got the chance. The weather was merciful and it didn't rain, the guide was great and we had cameras - it was perfect. It was also my 18th birthday, and I got to spend it under the Party Tree!
So that means I have some random LotR merchandise as well. There are postcards, magnets, a T-shirt... I even brought my brother a cap. I didn't take pics of all this, though, because I'm a little lazy. ^^;

My mission in NZ was to buy LotR in English. I found these beauties - well, FotR and RotK, at least. The bookstore didn't have TTT with this cover, but I'm determined to find it somewhere, some day. I don't even know what it looks like, but it will be very easy to recognise if I stumble on it.

Of course I have all the music from the movies. I also have all the films on VHS, but only FotR and TTT on DVD - extended versions but no extras. I really want to buy that special deluxe extended edition (or whatever it is called) box, with all the extra material possible. This is the trilogy that got me into movies, after all.

Favourite character? Éomer. All my friends know this painfully well. I have posters, cards, quotes, and even a Karl Urban shirt my friends made for me. It's a little faded now, but I still use it from time to time.

Only slightly obsessed. ^^; I used to be into horses, which is probably part of the reason I first took to liking Éomer, but after reading TTT and RotK for countless times I'm certain that he's the best.
...Though I've lately taken a liking to Faramir as well. The ultimate quote from RotK has to be:
"Do not scorn pity that is the gift of a gentle heart, Éowyn!"
*sighs*
They should've cut Arwen from the films and replaced her with Glorfindel and some proper Faramir/Éowyn. Arwen is very unnecessary.

I think that's about it. Before I go, a picture of some random stuff:

There's the Éomer bookmark I got from a German pen pal (though we only ever exchanged two letters), playing cards (well used), the Evenstar necklace I bought from Greece, the bag to keep it in, the box it came in (currently filled with my collection of LotR trading cards) and a badge I bought from the Finnish Tolkien Society's table at Finncon. It says "Not all those who wander are lost". It's not attached to my bag, because I realised after buying that people will think I'm a fan of Lost the tv-series. I've never watched one episode. Oh well.

Elen síla lúmenn' omentielvo.

Lol, I can still do that. xD
Professor Tolkien was a genious. My prep course teacher saw me reading his biography and told me a friend of his studied under Tolkien. I looked like this: O.O
What can you say when someone tells you something awesome like that? Nothing.
Speechless.
What did Sheldon say about 'being rendered speechless'? There was some scientific ground for it.
I forget what that was.

I'll stop here.

Namárië.

~Wilzo