Hobbit Tea contest

Hello all.
I have been a fan of Tolkien as long as I can remember. Like many my first book was The Hobbit. I couldnt put it down. I read and reread one summer until book started falling apart. Then came Dungeons and Dragons -wow. Myself and a group of friends were in a world of our own, sure beat drugs!

Favourite part of a book has to be Riddles in Dark -Chapter 5 The Hobbit. I know its boring but I still love it to this day. Other favourities are Tolkiens piece in Essays to Charles Williams and review Devils coach Horses. Great reading.

My book collected days started 20+ yrs ago with a Smith of Wooton Major. Paid £5 (not worth much more now!) but I had my first first edition. I was well chuffed and I still have it.

I find collecting is three part -
Firstly the chase! Finding that book at fantastic price before anyoneelse does!
Secondly - I am getting very picky as got older swooping a book for a better copy. Regulars will get this point i'm sure. I'm on my third Farmer Giels of Ham and still not happy!
Thirdly - Staring at them on shelf. I admire my books. Sad I know and I have not got the biggest collection in world.

Finally best find. Tricky this bit but best financially -almost mint Peoples of Middle Earth for £30 last year. Most satisfaction Sir Gawain & Green Knight with d/j at modest sum!


Look forward to reading everyone elses

As soon as I read Urulókë's comment, "Plus the boxes are very well illustrated, so they look great on the shelf for the collector as well," I had to post in this thread. I would share the tea with friends (am now hoping that I do get drawn) and keep the boxes! Just need to figure out where so I could hide them from my wife. Am certain that all of my other Tolkien items in total wouldn't occupy one-tenth the space that some of our friends' collections do. But that doesn't make her any less suspicious when I come home with a cardboard box!

Love LotR which eventually led to my obsession with the calendars (as anyone who has read any of the Tolkien Calendar Collecting thread will know.) Am on the track of some "new" ones (recently discovered anyway.) And just collected a 1986 Methuen with the original paper mailer (in good collectible condition) which I have been looking for "forever."

It's a wonderful Spring day here in The Green Hill Country (even if the calendar says it's still winter until 22 March.) Nevertheless, it was all blue skies and well over 50 degrees F today.

Good luck to all! Thanks to Urulókë (would like to know the etymology of that name!) for starting the thread. I will follow with interest.

Parm

Without Tolkien, my life simply would not be what it now is. I would not be married to my wife, and therefore our beautiful daughter, whose genetic makeup is (like everyone's) unique, would never exist.

Tolkien has been a big part of my life for as long as I can recall. One of my dad's favorite films was the animated version of 'The Hobbit' by Rankin Bass (who you'll know from having done Thundercats) and I grew up on it like Disney. My father still contends to this day that just as Adam West is the definitive Batman, John Houston is the definitive Gandalf.

Dad wasn't as into Ralph Bakshi's animated 'The Lord of the Rings' but to this day I still find it very enjoyable, with a great deal of narm charm. I only regret that it was never finished, and I wore out a VHS TV-recorded copy by watching it so very many times.

When I was about ten years old I actually read 'The Hobbit' for the first time. I had to steal the book from my brother's collection. He'd received it a a Christmas gift, which is ironic because I'd wanted it and not got it, whilst my brother does not share my Tolkien obsession to this day.

Around the same time, I discovered that Rankin Bass (who did 'The Hobbit') also randomly did an animated version of 'Return of the King'. I thought it very strange, as they'd not bothered doing either of the first two parts. Still, my love affair with Tolkien expanded and continued, and by the time I was 12 I'd nicked and consumed my brother's 'Lord of the Rings'.

Afterward, thoughts turned to other things as soon high school and girls were at the forefront of my thoughts. I never ceased my love affair with Tolkien, and often tried to encourage others to read his main works throughout my high school years. I have at least one very good friend to this day who has a love of "The Lord of the Rings" at least due to my own obsession bleeding onto him a bit. Despite this, I managed little Tolkien reading during high school myself, except perhaps to re-read 'The Hobbit' and 'The Fellowship of the Ring'.

It was in my senior year, however, that I heard a great deal more about an upcoming live adaptation of 'The Fellowship of the Ring'. I began to devour all I could learn of the project, whilst simultaneously re-reading "The Fellowship of the Ring" in anticipation of the first film's release in 2001, the year following my graduation.

My old love affair was rekindled anew as I continued to re-read each part of the trilogy prior to Peter Jackson's respective film release. By the time the credits rolled on "The Return of the King", my only niggling regret about the films was that there was not more of them, and so I began to delve into the areas of Tolkien's works that I'd not glanced at before: "The Silmarillion", "Leaf by Niggle", "Farmer Giles of Ham", "Smith of Wootton Major", "The Adventures of Tom Bombadil", "Roverandom", "Letters from Father Christmas", etc.

It was also around this time, in March of 2004, that I met who is now my wife in an online forum which geared itself to works of fantasy in both literature and film. Obviously, it was my love of Tolkien which had led me to the forum, and Helen and I met on a thread regarding Tolkien-related tattoos. I'd had Tolkien's signature symbol tattoo'd to my leg in November, 2003 in anticipation of the release of "The Return of the King". Helen had her own name transcribed in an Elvish script on her wrist.

This was the icebreaker that led to daily emails being passed back and forth, and I became more and more smitten with her with each passing month. As we did not have a physical relationship, we were forced to get to truly know each other through communication. I quickly found that she was kind, charitable, and the most intelligent person I'd never met. The only problem I saw was that she lived 3500 miles away in England, whilst I was stuck in the USA. However, after several months, she flew to Chicago in August of 2004 and we met in person. It was in Chicago on a breezy, sunny, August day that my wife handed me a gift from England, a box of Twining's English Breakfast tea. I'd never tried hot tea before, but thus began a new love affair. I prefer Earl Grey these days, but I'd never have given tea a second glance if that gorgeous brunette with the English accent hadn't introduced me to it.

Fast forward several years, and we have now been married three years and have a 2 year old daughter. My own Tolkien book collection has become 'our' book collection. It now includes volumes of 'The History of Middle-Earth', which I'd never looked at. My film tie-in sword collection is now 'our' sword collection. My Glamdring, Sting, and Shards of Narsil have joined Helen's Herugrim, Knives of Legolas and Hadhafang, along with my prize, Anduril, which my wife gave to me as a wedding gift.

None of this would have been possible without my (edit: and indeed my wife's!) love-affair for Tolkien.

Thanks for reading!

After reading Mr. Burns' post (apparently his first in these forums), I formally ask that if my name is drawn the tea be sent to him. This is a great story and merits the gift! Besides, the tea would be much more appreciated by the two of them! Congratulations to you both.

Away from The Green Hill Country,

Parm

Has your wife already made it clear she wouldn't appreciate the tea Parmastahir?

BH

I also think that 'Mr Burns' would be the rightful winner, but I will nevertheless post my little 'Tolkien history', just for fun and for old time's sake.

I am now 19 years old (actually my 19th birthday is tomorrow!) , and I first got in touch with Tolkien via my grandparents who had a little bookshop. I was 12 years old when I received the Dutch version of The Two Towers from them (a film tie-in) a few weeks before Christmas. They knew I was a fan of The Lord of the Rings, although I had not yet seen the films... I had a sticker book of The Fellowship of the Ring with pictures from the film (also a gift from them) but that was all I had ever seen of the films.
A few weeks later, I received The Return of the King (also a dutch film tie-in) for Christmas. Over the next year, I did see the films and was completely fascinated by the world of Middle-earth, its heroes, its villains, its creatures, its buildings, its nature, the whole lot in fact.
Then I began to flip through the pages of The Two Towers and started to 'read' the chapter The Forbidden Pool but I didn't manage to read more than the first two pages of the chapter.

At the end of this year, I finally bought the Dutch The Fellowship of the Ring. I could finally start, or so I thought. It wasn't until another year had passed, and I was about 14-15 years, that I really started to read The Lord of the Rings! The first time I read it, I thought the First Book was quite dull, but the rest was really 'supercool'. I was for the second (but not for the last!) time fascinated, even more than I was by the films!

I then bought The Hobbit (an old Dutch paperback edition I found in some second hand bookshop) and read it too. I thought it very good, but I liked The Lord of the Rings more, so I read the latter again. And then, my eyes really opened: I found the First Book not so bad after all, in fact, it was one of the parts of the book, that were really easy to get my imagination work, withouth being disturbed by images from the films. Later on, I managed to read almost the whole book without any film image popping up in front of my eyes. That was soooooooo coooool!!

I then bought The Silmarillion and Tolkien's Fairy Tales, and then, I sold my soul to dear Ronald. What a Great Tale was The Silmarillion! Of course I faced some difficulties in reading it (the first time, I only read a part of Ainulindalë, I let it rest for some time, and then I started again and managed to read through the whole book, and then read it again, and then I finally 'got it'.)
Also the Fairy Tales are so Great, they were (and are still!) so beautiful, especially Leaf by Niggle and The Smith of Wootton Major.

If I would have to choose what my favourite work by JRR Tolkien is, I can say, without any doubt, that I have no idea. They are all just so wonderful, that if you think this one is your favourite work, you start thinking about that other work and realize you just can't make the decision.

And so I started collecting! I have now more than 100 books by, on or with contributions by Tolkien, some old ones, some new ones, some commons, some rares (Ancrene Wisse (1962) in mint condition, alas without dj; Essais de philologie moderne (contains Middle English Losenger);...). A great find, that really set me off collecting about three years ago was a first edition of Sir Gawain and The Green Knight. It's spine was in poor condition, but nevertheless I was really proud of my first old, rare Tolkien book.
I also have some calendars, some LPs and some other miscellanea.
I wrote some articles for a Dutch Tolkien forum, and won a contest with one of them (it was about Valinor) and that article will probably be published in Lothelanor, the journal of the Flemish Tolkien Society Elanor.
I also did my end work for English at high school completely about Tolkien (I named it "Wanderings in Middle-earth, essays on Tolkien and his works") , and almost got the highest marks possible! (I did put a lot of effort into it, because it was of course a subject that interested me greatly )

But now I'm at university studying Dutch and English Philology - I even based my studies a bit on Tolkien! He arose my interest in Old and Middle English and Dutch - , I have a lot less time to dedicate to one of my main hobbies...

And that's my story!

PS: I really liked reading the other stories! Very nice concept for a contest!

I hav been watching these posts with interest and agree with a number of others that Mr Burns post is an interesting contribution and merits the prize.

I have a lot of tea to give.... so "prizes" not "prize".

More stories, please! I am loving this thread.

As a keen lover of Tolkien and Tea this was a competition for me. I acknowledge that my story is terribly uninteresting, especially compared to the stories already posted, which were all pleasant reads. I agree with the general consensus that Mr Burns story has so far been the outstanding one, but they are all good tales.

I was first introduced to Tolkien when I was in year Four and our teacher read us The Hobbit. He had different voices for most characters and made the chapter Riddles in the Dark a particularly memorable experience, with his Gollum voice and encouragement of us to get the riddles. My Nine year old mind was blown away and my imagination was given a good workout. My passion for Tolkien was started and over the next year I read The Lord of the Rings, and by doing so got my year Five teacher into it.

A couple of years later I picked up The Silmarillion. I was a tad apprehensive about this book as I was advised by people that it was a bit of a tough read. I started it and couldn’t put it down, finishing it in a few nights; not understanding all of it but thoroughly enthralled.

I do not pretend to be an expert on Arda, and still have lots to read by and about Tolkien. I am in no rush to do this however as I have a whole life to do so (having just turned Nineteen) and want to appreciate Tolkien’s work over many years.

I am working towards a decent Tolkien library. The only special/rare/collectible books I have so far are the modern special/deluxe editions. Possibly my favourite Tolkien books I own are three paperbacks of the LOTR ‘trilogy’, which I purchased at the age of nine. I took them everywhere so they are a little well used; creased and slight foxing. The feature I like about them is that they are the paperbacks with the Geoff Taylor cover artwork, which I find almost as captivating as the story itself.* Also the fact that they were my first Tolkien books.

I love Ralph Bakshi's animated Lord of the Rings, but am not a huge fan of Peter Jackson’s versions. My favourite Tolkien Tale is The children of Hurin. This contains the best chapter ever written, The Words of Hurin and Morgoth. I love the power in this chapter. My favourite passage being Morgoth’s curse, Hurin's defience, and Hurin being placed on the “chair of stone upon a high place of Thangorodrim……”.


Well, that’s my story and thanks for reading.

Loonka







*I am hunting another set of these paperbacks, in mint condition. I also once saw a set that were hardcover’s, in a foreign language I would be interested in having. If anyone can help me with these it would be much appreciated.