[Ibrîniðilpathânezel]

Sheer luck, to begin with. I first read LotR in 1964, and at the time, the only other person I knew who'd read it was one of my older brothers (and I read it because of him; I wanted to know what was so fascinating for him). I was all of 11 at the time, and though I loved the book dearly, the next person I met who was even vaguely familiar with it was my English teacher during my sophomore year in high school. My best friend put up with me telling her about it, but she was put off by thick books at that time (she did eventually read it, but it was years later). The first fan of LotR I met was during college, and that was by pure luck. I was sitting in some hallway in one of the campus buildings, embroidering the White Tree onto a black shirt for a costume party, she happened to recognize what I was doing, and we got to know each other. She knew a couple of other people who were LotR fans, and they knew a few others, and within a year or so, there were enough of us to start that university's first science fiction/fantasy club. She happened to know about SF conventions in the region, and those were where I first met a LOT of LotR fans. The convention circuit was the easiest way for fans to meet and get to know one another, but it was nothing like things are today. The concept of being able to meet and talk with other fans on a daily basis wasn't even a pipe dream; we were lucky if we were able to meet anybody outside of town more than a few times a year. I know there are some "oldtimer" fans who long for those good old days, but personally, I like today's ease of communications a lot more. Yes, there's little meeting face-to-face, but there are so many more people, from all over the world, that it's vastly more fascinating.