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Originally Posted by davem

Its odd, but for me, its almost as if I was yearning for Middle-earth before I even knew Middle-earth existed. Or at least as if, on some level, what Tolkien created was what I desired - not Beowulf or the Sagas, or the Kalevala or the Eddas - but what Tolkien himself created from those sources. As if someone or something was tapping me on the shoulder to change the TV channel that night, catch that Python episode, so that I'd become conscious of that 'need' I had felt without even knowing it was there. Because it was Middle-earth I was looking for - the sources never touched me in the same way when I did finally read them. No, it was Middle-earth itself that I wanted & only Middle-earth.

It may be of interest to define the need that ME fills. Is it common amongst enthusiasts - why are we here? Or is it something random? Guess this will be hard to explore as we don't have easy access to those that have read LotR yet did not get on the bus.

Anyone want to take a turn on the couch?

But what if Tolkien hadn't created M-e? What if I hadn't been able to find it because Tolkien had never brought it into existence - would I still be looking for it? Or would I have just 'made do' with the 'glimpses' I found in the Sagas & books of fairy stories?

It's been said that if the gorilla did not exist that we would have created it. Likewise, eventually someone would have put forth the theory of General Relativity. Middle Earth would have been/would be created as well (i.e. by Robert Jordan of WoT fame perhaps? ). You see this Middle Earth and think it 'good,' yet have not read the version created by the doubleplusgood Tolkien using the word processors invented in 1902 (in another timeline). Reading that one, you would think that this version that we currently have leaves you feeling a bit empty.

As if someone or something was tapping me on the shoulder to change the TV channel that night...

Busted! Sorry...blame it on bad time machine calibration and a local negative reality inversion.