This is one in a series of posts where the content is provided by a guest who has graciously answered five questions about their experience as a Tolkien fan.

To see the idea behind this project, or if you are interested in sharing your own, visit the project homepage. If you enjoy this series, please consider helping us fund the project using the support page.

I want to thank Donato Giancola for allowing me to use his artwork for this project. Prints are available on his website!

Now, on to David’s responses:

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1. How were you introduced to Tolkien’s work?

My Dad had Nicol Williamson’s dramatic reading of The Hobbit on record, and the BBC Radio dramatisation of The Lord of the Rings on tape. After listening to those, I read the books. I was 7-8.

2. What is your favorite part of Tolkien’s work?

The (apparently endless) depth.

3. What is your fondest experience of Tolkien’s work?

Maybe having my book published? Or, more practically, having an eye-opening spiritual experience (hearing God speak, etc.) while reading the Council of Elrond, in New Zealand in 2004.

4. Has the way you approach Tolkien’s work changed over time?

I rarely read the books from start to finish now – I tend to dip in and out.

5. Would you ever recommend Tolkien’s work? Why/Why not?

Yes – but in practice I tend not to, because I prefer to discover things for myself, and I presume others are like me.

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You can find David Rowe on Twitter as himself or the account for his book!

This is one in a series of posts where the content is provided by a guest who has graciously answered five questions about their experience as a Tolkien fan.

To see the idea behind this project, or if you are interested in sharing your own, visit the project homepage. If you enjoy this series, please consider helping us fund the project using the support page.

I want to thank Donato Giancola for allowing me to use his artwork for this project. Prints are available on his website!

Now, on to Mike’s responses:

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1. How were you introduced to Tolkien’s work?

One of the smart kids (with hippie parents) in my grade 7 class was boasting that he had read the trilogy, so I decided to read it too. I had read the King James Bible for $20, so I thought “How hard could it be?” Absolutely sucked in headfirst by it. So annoyed about that Shelob cliffhanger needing me to read faster.

2. What is your favorite part of Tolkien’s work?

The characters exploring all of the very different settings and never knowing who or what they would find there. The camaraderie between them.

3. What is your fondest experience of Tolkien’s work?

Staying up extremely late reading long into the night while staying at my grandmother’s, because I needed to make sure Frodo hadn’t been killed by Shelob. I skipped ahead.

4. Has the way you approach Tolkien’s work changed over time?

The fact that there are Jackson movies to watch has made me lazy about re-reading the books. I often plan to re-read the entire trilogy, and get bogged down somewhere in the middle, because there are movies, and I’m reading other books too.

5. Would you ever recommend Tolkien’s work? Why/Why not?

Absolutely. It has a mind boggling depth of imagination and is unprecedented in terms of world building. And there’s something touching and comforting about the unflinching sentimentality and forefronting of nobility, eloquence, friendship, beauty, self sacrifice and decency.

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Mike does have a podcast entitled The Wikkid Podcast where he talks about his Christian upbringing and “some very predictable problems” of it.

This is one in a series of posts where the content is provided by a guest who has graciously answered five questions about their experience as a Tolkien fan.

To see the idea behind this project, or if you are interested in sharing your own, visit the project homepage. If you enjoy this series, please consider helping us fund the project using the support page.

I want to thank Donato Giancola for allowing me to use his artwork for this project. Prints are available on his website!

Now, on toDiana’s responses:

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1. How were you introduced to Tolkien’s work?

My parents read The Hobbit out loud to me and my brother when I was 8. A teacher was doing a children’s adaptation play and asked the students to watch The Hobbit movie by Rankin and Bass. I was cast as Elrond in the children’s play though I was a girl. That play was performed twice. As I discussed with my mom recently she told me the thing she remembered was her having made me a costume when I was in second grade and the school had to provide me a braille book so I could learn my lines; however, I remembered more the second performance the following year when the class was able to watch the animated movie. I remembered the second performance of a public  school’s children’s play of The Hobbit and my mom remembered the first because my mom is a good seamstress and made me the costume while I was in second grade, but there was no music in that performance. The next year when I was in third grade I had to play a flute solo on the tra-la-laly song, and the other music was added for the performance that year. Both times I was Elrond. I remembered the music, and mom remembered the costume. That was over 40 years ago. 

I could not remember everything until I looked up when any film of Tolkien’s works had been made and I had also found my children’s yearbook from the second time I was in the play when I was in third grade. I did not ever forget Elrond. He is my favorite character. I am totally blind. I have a mental health condition that makes me extremely fearful so the classroom teacher wanted me to be the leader who had the safe place. I was 30 years old when Peter Jackson released The Fellowship of the Ring movie. I am 51 years old on the eve of the Rings Of Power TV series on Amazon Prime, but I do not have Amazon Prime and plan to listen to the content of the stories for the series elsewhere such as in audiobooks of The Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-Earth and the music soundtrack composed by Bear McCreary.

2. What is your favorite part of Tolkien’s work?

The sections on the elves and Rivendell.

3. What is your fondest experience of Tolkien’s work?

Reading/listening to the books/watching the movies once every 5 years. Meeting new friends who are also fans of Tolkien’s work. Because I lost my husband to cancer 6 years ago and we can no longer watch the movies, I have sought ways to immerse myself in the books and will do so for as long as I live. I get enchanted every time I read them. I listen to something about Tolkien every day as the highlight of my day.

For the fondest experience I have with Tolkien’s work, it is a very recent one: This year in August 2022 – to listen to the audio play done by Chad Bornholdt’s crew of “The Council of Elrond” wearing headphones and listening to the chapter in Dolby Atmos 3-d sound that they were able to use. I heard it on The Music Of Middle-earth podcast by Jordan Rannells. Oh Yes! That was a blessed hour and 45 minutes!

4. Has the way you approach Tolkien’s work changed over time?

 Yes. While I was afraid that I would have to leave Tolkien’s world as a child, I am learning there are more books than The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and I never have to leave. I do not want to leave Middle-earth. By necessity of my health condition I need to “go to Rivendell” by way of practicing guided mindfulness meditation every day through mindfulness apps that give directions on deep breathing and muscle relaxation – and I am then at “Rivendell.”.

5. Would you ever recommend Tolkien’s work? Why/Why not?

Yes. It is hopeful and encouraging even though much of it is very sad.

This is one in a series of posts where the content is provided by a guest who has graciously answered five questions about their experience as a Tolkien fan.

To see the idea behind this project, or if you are interested in sharing your own, visit the project homepage. If you enjoy this series, please consider helping us fund the project using the support page.

I want to thank Donato Giancola for allowing me to use his artwork for this project. Prints are available on his website!

Now, on to Andrei Guchin’s responses:

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1. How were you introduced to Tolkien’s work?

When I was 11, The Fellowship of the Ring by Peter Jackson was released. I couldn’t go to the cinema to watch it, but I remember doing it at a friend’s house a couple of months after the premiere. I loved it! The story, the special effects, the orcs, the elves, everything. After that, I asked my parents to buy me the books. From then on, there was no coming back.

Nowadays I have a bookshelf with more than 60 Tolkien related books – including a collection of The Hobbit in different languages-, maps, posters, paintings, figures, T-shirts, and more.

2. What is your favorite part of Tolkien’s work?

Generally speaking, the way he describes the places in a very detailed manner, revealing his love of trees and nature. This is something that I usually do when I am anywhere so I feel very represented. I tend to remember more about places than people.

I also love how he developed a proper culture behind each race. The alphabets, languages, songs, myths, etc. Everything is explained so well and so well connected to the rest of Middle-earth that you could believe that they are real.

3. What is your fondest experience of Tolkien’s work?

I spend most of my time with my head in Tolkien’s worlds, so I have many stories to share here. I had the privilege of visiting New Zealand some years ago and have been in many places where the movies were filmed. It was amazing, just like being in Middle-earth! Being in Hobbiton was a very emotional experience for me.

Most recently, the last time I read The Hobbit, I was going through a hard time in my life, so I got to this part of the book when Bilbo says “So comes snow after fire, and even dragons have their ending”. I never paid special attention to this quote before, but that time it was as if Tolkien himself was telling me that face to face. I felt relieved, hopeful. Nowadays this is one of my favorite quotes from Tolkien’s work.

4. Has the way you approach Tolkien’s work changed over time?

When I was a child I liked Middle-earth’s stories because of the adventures, the battles, the magic, the creatures, etc. I enjoyed watching the epic scenes in the movies and playing the video games. Nowadays I keep enjoying that, but I understood that they are more than just fairy tales and I started looking at the stories with other eyes. All the books introduce situations that can be easily translated to real life situations, from daily challenges to more complex concepts like life, death, friendship, love, life purpose and more. It’s really interesting to see how quotes like “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us” may have different meanings depending on the moment of your life in which you are reading it.

5. Would you ever recommend Tolkien’s work? Why/Why not?

I wonder if there is anyone who ever answers “No” to this question.

There are so many different flavors in Tolkien’s work when it comes to tales or stories that I find it very hard for anyone not to find a story they enjoy. From Letters from Father Christmas to The Silmarillion, you will always find a good fit for you. And if you are the sort of person who says that fantasy books aren’t for you, you might want to take a look at the “On Fairy-Stories” essay and see if it changes your mind.

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You can find more from Andrei Guchin on Twitter!