[narfforc]

Every day someone new enters into the world of Faery, walking into Middle-earth can be dangerous you know. It was forty years ago I first met Mr Bilbo Baggins, and my life has never been the same since. So what type of fan (I use the term loosely) am I, well I like to break things down so as to understand things better, here are my observations:

1. 'I read the Hobbit at school, but couldnt get into LotR, the films were ok though'

2. 'I have read LotR, and tried the Silmarillion, but couldnt get passed the first chapter'.
3. 'I have read LotR, Sil, UF and HoME, I have a number of Tolkien related books'.

4. 'I have over 250 Tolkien/and related books (40 copies of LotR), I have 13 swords, 6 helmets, 2 axes, 2 shields, 2 staffs, Nenya Vilya Narya (twice) The Ring of Barahir, one of the Seven, two of the Nine, 10 board games, lots of painted models, oh and two of The One Ring (just in case I lose The Precious). I have read LotR non-stop every day for the last 2yrs, in an attempt to give the world a loving piece of fan parody, I go to fancy dress parties dressed as a blue wizard and everyone asks who am I, to which I reply (To the Ladies) if you guess correctly I will marry you...................

So there you go, and what do we gain from this knowledge, the vast majority of people we meet, will be number 1s, especially when we are drooling. There are quite a few people who are number 2s, and they shrink away from conversations about The Really Big Dark Lord. On this site we encounter numbers 3 and 4, although there are not many number 4s, because if there were, me and the fellow that pulls funny faces at me in my bathroom mirror, might get worried.

On a serious note, I have no worries, I will continue to attend Oxonmoot each year, and there meet new people, every day someone new enters into the world of Faery..................................