Somebody had told me about the coming movie - get this, as of last October I didn't know anything about it! - so I started searching for info. Wound up at 25 Hobbits eventually, bored with the Tolkien-superficiality of theonering.net. When you've read the LotR 30 times, it's not very illuminating to read that 'hobbits have furry feet.'

Barrow-downs was number three at 25 Hobbits, and the first site I picked. Didn't even look at the other sites. *shrug* Did all the tests (couldn't believe I knew all those Elven words after all these years). Howled at "Dude, Where's My Ring?"

Then I spotted the Forum...

There was a great discussion on Denethor going on, with Mithadan, Sharku and Mr. Underhill. Brilliant. I was at the office until 10pm responding, seriously hooked.

I discovered the Barrow-Downs in January 2002 through Yahoo Internet Life, which had a list of various types of websites after the movie came out. (And I found the YIL site in a magazine story about the movie.) I paged through the various ones, not looking at the community sites till the end. But when I found this one, I was delighted to find discussions on the books - the forum fascinated me immediately! I was so happy to finally discover others who shared my passion and were as anxious to talk about it as I! And here I still am, captured in this barrow...

Well, let me see. Galadrie1 told my brother about it and then he made me find out what my orc name was or something. Later I saw him doing some of the quizes. Then I did the quizes, I did them all and was still bored so I tried the forum. Been hooked ever since. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

I'm a member on several discussion boards, both Tolkien and non-Tolkien. On one of these (ghosts) I found a link to ANOTHER discussion board (cryptozoo) where I found a link for The Barrow Downs. And I must say I've been addicted to this site ever since.

Funny how ghost discussions can end up in Tolkien discussions instead. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

I found it by searching on Excite[?] it was before I knew about Google, and it took me to 25 hobbits and I then perused the top sites for something that did NOT focus on the movie[s], someone within a day or so asked what books were canonical and...my wife has been threatening to divorce and or destroy the computer ever since [well the first year anyway] [img]smilies/rolleyes.gif[/img]


btw I noticed that The Wight has a 4**** rating - shameful!!!

Hmmm... how did I find this site? Well, like a lot of you out there, I really don't know the answer to that. But it would have probly been through some search engine of some sort. All I remember is going through the main site first and checking out the various generators and fan fics. Sadly though, I did not get this nick from your name generator Barrow-Wight.
After a couple of days of searching through the main sight, the forum link caught my attention, and well, ever since then Iv been posting away, kind of.
Heh... Iv been a Wight for too long now, I think I need to post more.

I remember exactly how I found it...

It was back in my In-love-with-Legolas-but-I-like-LotR-too days, waaay back in February. I went to the Legolas fanlisting site, and then I found a link to the BD name generator. After finding my names, I explored about a little bit. It then became a favorite site, but I didn't join the forum until haunting around for a couple of months. There ya go.

Can't believe I haven't seen this thread before...

I found the Downs thru my daughter. We had been all excited about the movie since first word came of the green-light 2 years or more before it actually came out. I saw that she was in the chat after apparantly discovering the main site from a web search. I began dropping in while at work to see what kinds of topics and whatnot were being discussed and branched off to the main site and forum from there.

Thenamir,

I am not exactly sure how I came here, but it was after the movie. After seeing the movie, I became interested in LoTR, and soon read The Two Towers and Return of the King. I suppose from there I just searched around for LoTR websites and then, that fateful day, I found the link to the Barrow-Downs and clicked on it.

I found the site about a year and a half ago while looking for a nice picture of a balrog. I checked out the forums becaus I was bored. When I saw the great conversation I knew I had to stay.

I was doing the play The Hobbit this past summer and the guy who played Gandalf said that this was a good Tolkien website so when I got home from rehearsal I checked it out. Very glad I did too 'cause I love it!!!

It was actually Ithaeliel who brought me here. One day in about early May at lunch, she started talking about a cool site with a name generator. Since I was completely obsessed with LOTR at the time and was getting desperate looking for a good fan site that was updated often, I asked Ith for the site name and checked it out. I tried the name generator and read the fanfiction section every week for about a month.

At the end of May, Ith came up to me and said that I just had to join the forum because it is so awesome. Well, since it was finals week, I had to wait until school was over to join. Finally, June 7 came, and I happily joined this lovely forum that I love so much.

So, it is all thanks to Ith that I'm here today. Three cheers for Ithaeliel!

I think I was searching for a really good website, and I kept finding my self at the 'Downs. Once I registered, I just kept coming back. I'm so glad I did, because now I can annoy people and they can't walk away from me while I talk (well, not literally, anyways) [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img].

Blame it on Losthuniel. She told me about it [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

I had been haunting several message boards looking for a home. None were adequate. One was too small, one was too big, one was too hot, one was too cold...wait, wrong fairie story. Anyway, I came across a webring that this site was listed on. There were less than 20 members then, if I recall. I started a thread and Gwaihir kind of flamed me (its still there, look it up) and I almost left (showing the importance of first impressions people!) but gave it a second chance....

[ September 12, 2002: Message edited by: Mithadan ]

[ September 12, 2002: Message edited by: Mithadan ]

The Downs was one of the sites I checked often when I was hunting for interesting movie news. I started at the forum at ThereAndBackAgain, and eventually joined this forum too, and this one kept me.

My professor in literature posted a link to the name generator before summer began. I never noticed the forum link until a month later, and like many of you, I just kept coming back.

There's such a homey feel to this place, and it's great to be here with you all [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

I found the Downs back in March, 2002.

I think I was looking for a name generator, found yours, and then stumbled into the forums.

At first I went all wide-eyed and merely read every thing in every forum on every topic. I longed to sign up and start posting, but for some odd reason, my computer kept shutting down whenever I tried to register.

Finally, after a handful of scowling weeks, I managed to register my username, DarkRose.

I have been here ever since, besides a month-long absence due to heavy school work.

I have been here for quite an amount of months now, although no one really knows who I am. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

I'm so glad to be here.

Brinn- I remeber nagging you on and on and on about that. Heh. Thank you for my three cheers. Glad you're here *clinks glasses with Brinn*

I can’t remember 100% but I believe it was in early 01

I was looking for games, story’s on LOTR when the site I was in (I think it was 25 hobbits) mentioned The Barrow Downs. I first looked at other sites but I liked the look and sound of the Barrow-Downs the most. I then joined up but I changed my email account and forgot my password. Later in early January02 I checked the site out again and rejoined. And the rest is history.
[img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

[ September 12, 2002: Message edited by: Alkanoonion ]

I was putting random Tolkien words (like Mirkwood and Lothlorien)into a search engine to see what it pulled up.

I played with the Mad-libs for months and read other people's posts before I got brave enough to join in the forum myself.

I just happened upon it one day...never left [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

My brother followed a direct link to the forum provided by Bruce McCullough in the Lotr chatroom at yahoo and told me about it. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

Well, I found LOTR fanatics site (through evreka), checked things around there, and somehow found a link to The 'Downs (I think, my memory isn´t too great), and other sites. I spent a few months searching them through, to see which one was the best. Obviously this one was (IT IS!) I joined here (in January that was), and have been here since. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]
Long die the Downs! [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

Back in January, a friend of mine found it (I don't know how. Maybe she'll see this thread and tell us [img]smilies/tongue.gif[/img]) We looked at the quizzes and marvelled at the obscurity of some of their content. She became a member, but I was busy with other things and forgot about it until April, when she told me there was a riddle game going on in the Forum. I checked it out, and the rest, as they say, is history.

[ September 13, 2002: Message edited by: Susan Delgado ]

Maril -- ah, yes, Denethor! We never did get back to beating that particular horse, did we? I also recall we had a really nice discussion about the motives behind Frodo's claiming of the Ring shortly after your arrival.

I was doing an exhaustive search, trying to find out where my peculiar looking editions of LoTR came from, and started contacting Tolkien forums, looking for experts who might be able to help me identify my books.

I didn't even bother to make up a Middle-Earthish nickname when I registered, because I didn't figure I'd be sticking around.

Mith was kind enough to reply to my post, and, if I remember right, was able to lead me to a very helpful author of a Tolkien bibliography.

After looking at his reply, I spotted the "What Other Books Are You Reading..." thread, and thought it would be fun to reply to that. Then I came back the next day to see what replies were posted there, and found another interesting thread...then another...then another...

Almost a year later and I'm still posting. That has to be a record for me. Oh, and I still have those "peculiar-looking" LoTR books. But I don't dare touch them now. Turned out they were American first editions! [img]smilies/eek.gif[/img]

The site was listed in the December 2001 issue of Yahoo Magazine along with a ton of other LotR boards. I tried out a few, but liked this one the best

sharon, the 7th age hobbit

Mr. U. - Ah yes! 'Did Frodo fail?' That was excellent, one of those threads you really felt a conclusion was reached. Your points were marvelous, it was a delight to be convinced of another point of view.
Denethor... we were really getting down to subtle levels there (despite Mithadan's wry comment: "whack, whack. Poor horse!" Ha!). But the holidays and the release of the movie intervened, and I started re-writing the movie in "Second-guessing Peter Jackson."

My, we've had good times, haven't we?

-Maril

Many long years ago (about two and a half, to be exact) I was looking for Tolkien-based art and ended up at Planet-Tolkien. I visited their EZBoard and got really hooked to the forum lifestyle. Over the next six months, I traversed the wide world of Tolkien EZBoards, including The Old Forest, The White Council, Entmoot, and several more. I ended up opped at three or four of them and racked up about 3,000 EZBoard posts. Now, this was back in the day when The Barrow-Wight went by RKittle and posted regularly at other boards, not to mention this one. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] His undeniable charm and panache led me to click the link in his signature, and soon after, I posted my first greeting at his EZBoard in August of 2000.

Unfortunately, I got rather burnt out on posting, and I think I take the superlative of Oldest Member to Least Posts ratio, so if you want to talk to me, come into chat and scream KKKKAAAATTTTEEEE! This also works if you want to get kicked out of chat. No guarantees on which result you may get. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

I think I found the 'Downs in late February. I got the link from the "Tolkien site of the Month" in a guild on Neopets... I lurked around, trying out the name generators, then tried the chat room in early March. I started coming back to the chat room every day, and people were always talking about discussions going on in the forum... I felt kind of left out of the chat because of that, so I joined the forum, and I'm so glad I did! The chat room is alright, but it's almost always totally silly. I like the forum because there's great in-depth discussions going on -- I've learned so much in the 5 months I've been here!

I have know clue how I found the Downs, all I remember is reading something about how the Barrow Downs was one of the best sites the creator of the web page had seen. Then I waited a <u>long</u> time to look at the forum, because I'm actually not that great with forums, but I just liked the Downs forum, and joined with my normal name.

I was actually surfing askjeeves.com to find some pics and info on the movie, and this website came up. I looked around for a few days, and then finally went to the forum. That was about...4 months ago. And I have been coming here ever since!

I found the downs while searching for paintings of Silmarillion charactors. I had heard of this place at other sites though, usualy it is that name generator. I have a question about the art section. Is there perhaps a search function for the art or a place where the art is gatagorized? Also, is there any place to comment on the art?

Comment: I am impressed with the forum here, I was pretty socked when I read about the Silmarillion project that is going on. Unfortunately I'm only reading it for my second time and wouldn't be of much help among the knowledgable people but I enjoy reading the discussions.

After seeing the movie I surfed around the internet for LotR sites. I saw tons more LotR sites before this one. They all looked good but after a day they got borring. Then I finnaly found the Barrowdowns. I think it was because I found a link to the Hang a Hobbit game. That game was too much for me so I went to the rest of the site.

After one of my friends saw the movie she started to look for LotR websites (at least i think so [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]) and she found the downs. she told me about it and checked it out. then i started to visit chat (i'm on every day now, can't live without it [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]) and - HERE I AM! Thanx to my friend who told me about this great website [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

[ October 11, 2002: Message edited by: Artilien ]

Agkh! I hate to admit it, but I was surfing around on "Legolas is very sexy or something similar sounding"-pages when I found one with 'other LotR-related webpages/sites'. I clicked on all of them and saved them in my favorites-folder "'til I get time". I looked on all of them and (Oh yes, forgot to mention, BD was included on the list) I felt I had to "vote for us on TolkienWorld.com". I saw it had a high state, and I checked it out (quizes(sp?), mad-libs etc.) I tried the chat, but to be honest, you scared me away... then, because I like the site to much to forget it, I looked at the forum, joined, and started to reply on the threads... "The day, the Downs truly died..." [img]smilies/evil.gif[/img]

(Btw, my favourite's is still full of all those pages ... I really should delete them... [img]smilies/rolleyes.gif[/img] )

Through the back door of course!

I was surfing the net, looking for Tolkien sites, as I had just finished rereading the LOTR and wished to discuss stuff, especially the Silmarillion since I was beginning the Silmarillion CLiffnote's project.

I was glad to find the Down's as discussions actually carried some weight here. I tried talking about Feanor on one board and got one response that had nothing to do with my discussion question. At least I get responses that are on topic most of the time.

A friend showed me the barrowdows, since he knew I like Tolkiens works, I never saw such a good Tolkien site before, so I joined up! [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

I heard from a friend who heard from a friend, but I was the more excited about it than either of them. I'd been looking for a good Tolkien website for a while. Thanks!! [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

[ October 05, 2002: Message edited by: Tanraugwen Greenleaf ]