Cool,

This reminds me that the ring-verse was the very first "poem" I memorized and recited as a school assignment. Must had been around 3rd of 4th grade I guess...

Nice,

This is also for me one of the most "intense" part of the story, even if the hobbits don't think too much of it. Only after the first reading can you appreciate how close to disaster the first chapters of the book are. It never fail to move me; even if in the daylight of the Shire were things appear less dangerous than they should be, the enemy very narrowly failed to win before the (proto) fellowship even left home.

I was introduced to Middle-earth via the animated Hobbit and Return of the King films; I didn't get to see Bakshi's film until much later. And while I read and enjoyed reading The Hobbit and LOTR, the first book I read was The Silmarilion. Now I notice people either love or hate that book. I absolutely loved it; it made me see the world in a whole new light.

Edit: And I still have a lot of fond memories of MERP.

I first read the Hobbit in primary school probably ten or eleven, and I started playing rpgs at the age of eight.

My first encounter with Middle-earth was probably in my Fourth Grade Reader which contained an excerpt from The Hobbit--the chapter "Riddles in the Dark". In the early 1970s, portions of The Hobbit had appeared in the U.S. magazine Children's Digest in comics form--adapted by artist Lester Abrams. By the time the animated telefilm of The Hobbit premiered, I had had read both that book and The Lord of the Rings.

Ok, before I respond in this thread, I need to know whether this topic offers Sanctuary?

If you're going to confess to murdering the Professor I think you're out of luck.... anything else I don't see why we should hold it against you.



/wolf

No, I didn't kill the Professor... but my sin might nearly be as bad.

I have absolutely no idea when I first encountered Tolkien, or in what form.


PS: I'm assuming you mean killing Professor Tolkien. If you mean any professor, well... I did spend a bit of time in Miskatonic University so I cannot honestly claim to be innocent... depending of course on your view of the application of a sawed-off shotgun at point-blank range.

My Dad read the Hobbit to me when I was a little lad.

Been hooked ever since.