The First LOTR Fans

[Laurinquë]

As we all know, Lord of the Rings has varied in popularity though time, it caught on in the 1960's and 1970's, slowed down, then caught on again when they made the movies. What I would like to know is how many of you on here are old-time fans, the ones who first brought the books into popularity. If so, then I want to here all your stories of what it was like back then, when there were no movies and few people had heard of the books. There was no barrowdowns.com then, how did you meet other fans? What was fan culture like back then? How were you introduced to the books? I want to hear it all.

[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.

[Laurinquë]

Wow...That is really, really, amazing. Think! People not knowing what LotR was! I cannot imagine that, but then I am very young and cannot even remember a world without internet! I can see that it would have been nice to actually get to met some of these people, instead of just guessing what they are like. Conventions! That would be awesome.

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Well, I didn't discover it until 1970 or 71, which was after the first Big Wave, but I hadn't heard any of it, living on a little Army base in Germany. I had checked The Hobbit out of the library many times, but since it was a First Edition there was no mention of a sequel. I don't remember how I learned of the LR, but when I did I had to special-order it (the original ugly Ballantines).

[Selmo]

I found Tolkien as a young teenager in 1961.
My younger brother brought The Hobbit home from school; I read it; I was hooked.

I quickly moved on to LoTR, borrowed from my local library, and then bored all my friends with my enthusiasm for the books. None of them were in the least bit interested.

The long wait for the publication of The Silmarillion was many years of torture.
.

[Estelyn Telcontar]

Back in 1973, my boyfriend gave me the four books (Hobbit and LotR) and said I simply had to read them. I've always been an avid reader, and though fantasy was a category which did not yet exist for me, I had read some science fiction (because of a brother who gave them to me and said I had to read them!) and lots of fairy tales, so I was quite willing to start.

It's a good thing I had finished all major projects for that semester because, aside from the bare necessities of life, I did absolutely nothing but read for the next three days. I was enthralled, and I know I didn't pay very close attention to the poetry and merely skimmed the battle scenes, because I was eager to continue. Can you imagine my disappointment when, all of a sudden, the book was finished?! I thought I still had half a volume to go, and there the rest of it was appendices and index! I'm not sure - it's very possible that I reread the whole thing immediately, just to get back to Middle-earth.

For Christmas of that year, my boyfriend gave me the Ballantine's red box with all four volumes, Tolkien's heraldic emblems on it, and Tolkien's illustrations on the covers, and Tolkien's words on the backs:

This paperback edition, and no other, has been published with my consent and co-operation. Those who approve of courtesy (at least) to living authors will purchase it, and no other.

That was the answer to the Ace publication.

I remember seeing a Tolkien calendar in a shop some time that summer, IIRC, and not liking the images, because they did not fit in with my own mental pictures. I've often wondered who the artist(s) was/were? I don't remember. Anyway, shortly thereafter I came to Germany, and over here no one had ever heard of Tolkien - even Lewis' Narnia books (which I had come to read about the same time) were unknown. I'm not sure just when the first translation of the books appeared in Germany. I became a lone closet fan, rereading the books occasionally (LotR more often than the Hobbit - I've come to enjoy it more in recent years than I did back then), and not talking to anyone about them.

The boyfriend faded out of my life, but the books stayed with me. When my children were growing up, I never read the books to them, because we spoke German at home, and I only had them in English. Later, when I found the translation and tried to read it, it could never measure up to the original, so I let it be. I was very excited when the Bakshi movie came out and was shown here - dubbed, of course (always a disadvantage!), but still, it was hyped to be state of the art animation technique. I went to see it, did enjoy it at least somewhat, and was again very disappointed when what I thought was only a break turned out to be the end of the movie! I can remember protesting that the story wasn't over yet! I never did get around to seeing the other two (RotK and Hobbit) animated movies, except in bits on YouTube these days.

Then, more years later, the Peter Jackson movies came out; I was in the States visiting family there, and went to see FotR with my siblings and several family members - nine of us altogether, to be exact! I very much enjoyed it, got out the books and reread them, talked to my family about it, read every magazine article I could get my hands on - and soon everyone around me was bored with my attempts to tell them what I thought and felt!

Somewhere I got the web address of a site that listed the best LotR websites; after combing through several of those, I checked out one of the "community sites" on the list. That was the Barrow-Downs; I started with the main page before discovering the forum - when I found the discussions there, I was hooked! Finally there were other people just as interested as I - as a matter of fact, even more interested and knowledgable! That was six years ago, and though many of the discussions that I found most fascinating date back to the "good old days", I'm still here and still enjoying it! I have been incited by the discussions to read the Sil, Letters, and many, many other books both by and about Tolkien, learning a lot from the books and the people here.

Meeting real life fans and being part of an internet community do not exclude each other. I attended "Tolkien 2005" in Birmingham, met Barrow-Downs members and members of the German Tolkien Society there as well as other international fans, and generally had a wonderful time! Then I decided to join the German Society to have that opportunity more often. Now I'm preparing (for the second time) a serious lecture for our annual Seminar, have sewn costumes for the casual get-togethers, attended Oxonmoot once, and met over a dozen Downers on my various national and international trips.

Dear me, I'm rambling like a geezer, aren't I?! I guess since you asked for "it all", you got it! For those who are interested in more tales from the olden days, I invite you to read the "Tolkien Coming of Age Club" threads 1 and 2. Over five years ago, I invited all Downers whose acquaintance with Tolkien's works goes back at least 18 years to join in reminiscing there, and though I have repeated my story here, many who posted several years ago have faded into memory, legend, myth even. Their tales are worth reading! Oh, and those of you who, like Ibrîn, have been Tolkien fans for over 18 years are very welcome to join us geezers there. We have plenty of rocking chairs to go around, and though things are slow, we are rather Entish beings and have long memories!