[Aganzir]

I was 10 years old and had just befriended a girl nowadays called Thinlómien.

I had heard of a book called The Lord of the Rings, but I had never thought about reading it. As a child I often read books because their names, covers or descriptions seemed interesting, and the Lotr unfortunately looked rather nondescript (in a child's opinion the Finnish edition indeed looks dull out).

I remember walking with Lommy in the wintry schoolyard, and she spoke to me about the Lord of the Rings and roleplaying and everything that was already a part of her life, but by now a part of my life, too. I actually owe everything to her.

When I turned 11 I got the Lord of the Rings from my aunt as a present. I read it quickly, and started rereading almost immediately when I had finished it for the first time. At some point my father thought I had become hooked and read no other books anymore, so he forbade me reading it for two or three months (I had read it say 6 times in 1,5 a year, but I don't think it was that much). I took it with me to school and read it anyway.

By my next bithday I had read the Lotr for several times, the Hobbit, the Silmarillion and the Unfinished Tales. There was something in Tolkien's works that made me love them, and that love is something I will probably always carry with me.