'Pre-baptised'

[davem]

So I was thinking. CS Lewis once said that his intention in the Narnia books was to 'pre-baptise' children's imaginations - they would first read the Narnia books, & when they later encountered Christianity they would be in some way prepared for what they would encounter in the Christian story. What he meant, I think, was that Jesus would remind them of Aslan & so he wouldn't seem so 'strange' & unfamiliar to them. Perhaps he also meant that the Narnia stories would create a 'longing' in them for a 'bigger' story.

Now, was there anything that 'pre-baptised' you for Middle-earth?

For me, believe it or not, it was a Monty Python sketch. I was about 12 or 13 years old & I had flicked across onto BBC1 & Python was on. There was a panning shot of a bleak Icelandic landscape & a voice intoned the following:

"Erik Njorl, son of Frothgar, leaves his home to seek Hangar the Elder at the home of Thorvald Nlodvisson, the son of Gudleif, half brother of Thorgier, the priest of Ljosa water, who took to wife Thurunn, the mother of Thorkel Braggart, the slayer of Cudround the powerful, who knew Howal, son of Geernon, son of Erik from Valdalesc, son of Arval Gristlebeard, son of Harken, who killed Bjortguaard in Sochnadale in Norway over Cudreed, daughter of Thorkel Long, the son of Kettle-Trout, the half son of Harviyoun Half-troll, father of Ingbare the Brave, who with Isenbert of Gottenberg the daughter of Hangbard the Fierce ... "

Now, up to then, I'd never come across the Eddas or thee Sagas, & this was totally strange to me, yet at the same time it awakened a desire in me that was fulfilled three or four years later when I discovered The Hobbit & LotR. I went on to read the Eddas, the Sagas, Beowulf, The Mabinogion, Kalevala - & many of the other works that inspired Tolkien himself, but looking back on it, it was those Pythons that awoke the desire for Middle-earth. Of course the sketch was meant to gently mock Saga literature, but even in that form it touched me on a very deep level.

What was it for you? Was there something that made you realise there was something you were looking for - some 'gap' that you hadn't been aware of up till then - & suddenly, when you found Middle-earth, you realised 'That's what it reminded me of!'