LOTR Fantasies...
 

I don't know what it is...but you get to loving and understanding almost all the Tolkien characters. You pity Boromir when he dies and comprehend his human wishes. You smile grimly inwardly along with Aragorn when you think of the solemn, rugged warrior on this nearly hopeless quest...hell, even Legolas' poufy ways start growing on you. I can't even remember my pre-Tolkienite existence. Well, I can, but it wasn't so much fun. Does anyone else live in that half dream-like stance where the almost expect to run into Merry or Gandalf since they along with the others occupy so much of your conscious? It's odd.

****EDITED BY THE BARROW-WIGHT****
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[ February 25, 2002: Message edited by: The Barrow-Wight ]

Dream-like? No. Though I'm sure you'll probably get some yesses to your question, I know where to draw the line. It certainly is fun to imagine that I accompanied the Fellowship on their journy though, that I dueled with orcs and performed magic, I know it will never happen, so instead of wasting my time worshiping LOTR, I strongly admire it, and all works of Tolkien. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

I understand you completely! I keep thinking that the Ringwraiths are chasing me when I gallop through the cross-country course at my riding lessons! I even tell my horse to "Naro Lim" (what Arwen says to Asfaloth as she's taking Frodo to Rivendell). [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

It seems I live my entire life as if I am dreaming a dream. Therefore, yes. I understand.

I don't consider ME a fantasy world. It's real, I tell you! When I graduate I'm gonna find ME!

I have some very peculiar beliefs about good books, but we won't go into that here. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

Well, I'm pretty sure that I live for and by the turning of a page, so in one sense, Middle-earth is very real to me, as are all truely great books. But I know who I am and were reality is (or, the shadow of it, at least) and am content to remain here for now. Does that count?

I get lost in the story while reading it, as with all great epics, but when I put a book down, which is not very often, I come back to civilization. Well, actually, I do not think that our world is that civilized at all.

Dream-like state, well thats basically describing me after I read any good book, especilly after I read LOTR. For about two weeks after I finished ROTK I was in a very dazed state, I wouldn't talk to my friends as much as I used to(which kinda worried them), insted I just sat by them during lunch staring at nothing while thinking things about LOTR.
I actually went ino this phase for about a day or two where I was always wondering what Frodo or Sam or any of the Hobbits would do or think of if they were in our world. I would always be like "Hmmm... what would Merry think a microwave would be?" or what would he think of it.
I dunno, I just go through weird phases after I read a book. I'm probley confusing everyone at the momment.....

How do you define reality? If it is what we perceive then a 'fiction' story can be as real to someone as a 'factual' occurance. While they are definately different levels, and i can't say i've ever expected to meet an elf/dwarf/etc on the street (i do know a hobbit though: short bloke with the HARIEST feet i've ever seen), the books are real to me on their own terms.

I have lived my whole life with LOTR and regularly find myself casting people I meet into certain roles. But then having LOTR and the Hobbit read to me when I was a baby (it was the only thing that would calm me) and having lived alongside it ever since it is very much a part of my reality! I read the trilogy myself at the age of seven but didn't attempt the Silmarillion till ten or so. But from then on...well, my house has always been filled with LOTR pictures, calendars, ornaments....pets named after characters...you name it!!!

Airetauriel

Well....if you believe as I do that on some level, authors 'receive' their books (just read Alice Walker's dedication at the beginning of "The Color Purple"), that possibly these things exist on some unknown plane, then living somewhat in a dream state may make sense, as you might just still be in the 'receptive' mode as the author was when he/she wrote the book, connecting to the characters on an altered state...

But then again, maybe not.

LOL
[img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

Ah yes, I've just received a ring from Nepal as a belated Christmas present, and I have already convinced myself that it is the dormant Nenya! If not, it is still Elven in origin.

I was wondering who had Nenya, and who has Narya. I have Vilya! [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

Tolkien himself believed that Middle Earth existed, if only in a collective imagination.
-Peter S. Beagle

I think that Tolkien went into such great detail it's almost like... whose to say that these places and these people never did exist. It's almost as if he knew something that we don't. Ya know.
I look at people on the street and say that their ancestors could've been elves, or hobbits, or, well, you get the picture. Kinda weird, I know. I mean, there is sooo much lost history in our own world it's kinda fun to look at LOTR as if it really did exist!

I am utterly convinced that Mirkwood is in my backyard [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] There is a forest behind my house that looks exactly like I thought Mirkwood would look like. Theres a stream and a huge tree that looks like it's been around for a thousand years and millions of other trees. I imagine almost all the time when I am in the woods that there are elves in hiding the trees.

Yes, I guess you could say its dream like. Truely, if I had one wish to settle my desire, it would be to go to Middle Earth in the Third Age. Seriously. Its not a oh-my-god I SO want to go to Middle Earth, like some people do, but it would be an adventure, which I really need right now. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

In some book I read that it takes just someone to believe in a world and want it to exist, and it will exist. (Clumsy, but I can't word it better)
Tolkien told us of Middle Earth, and don't we all now make it exist here(?) or somewhere out there (?) [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

I've almost persuaded myself that I've got Narya, a ring with a big ruby that I got on graduation and have been wearing for for almost 15 years (along with a tiny silver dragon and 5 or 6 other rings). I just wish I could get the One!

Yup! My whole life is freakishly LotR based! I have renamed most everything near me in ME names, and my pets... I have two fish in my pond, Frodo and Sam, the Water Strider is Aragorn... well, you get the idea.

I think my family are hobbits. We love to eat, my mom loves gardening, we love getting and giving presents at every opprotunity, we're short- well, they are- it's scary!

Dream-like does pretty much describe it...I'm always thinking about LotR, it has become a part of my life. Many times, usually during class, I will just drift off to Middle Earth. The time I realize that LotR is really in my conscious is when I actually feel the presence of one of the characters or feel as though i'm in a certain place in ME. Just this morning I felt as though Pippin was with me as I woke up. I usually feel his presence strongest, most likely because I think about him more often. Once before I woke up and felt as though I was in the forest, travelling along with the hobbits and they were resting beside me. Yes of course I had just woke up and thats when most people are not quite with it, but its a really comforting feeling and it stays with my for quite a while. Maybe i'm jus going crazy, if so, I like being crazy. LotR is definitely within me.

This past semester, I borrowed a friend's copy of the single-volume red leatherbound edition of LOTR (The definitive version in my opinion, and the edition that WILL be in my library by Christmas). Every time I opened this huge volume to read, I felt just like Bilbo at his desk in the Undying Lands, poring over the final draft of the Red Book of Westmarch.

And he lived happily after, to the end of his days.

[ July 04, 2002: Message edited by: Greyhame ]