A Tolkien Blog Party of Special Magnificence!

Yes, I know it's Celebrate Musicals Week and I should probably only be posting about Les Mis and I really don't need to post three times per day...but I happen to be a ginormous fan of Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit (and Tolkien in general), so when I heard about this blog party, I had to participate.

1.  Have you read The Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit? If so, how many times?
I've read both, too many times to count.  Well, not true.  I'm only read TH two or three times, and I've read the complete trilogy of LOTR...four times?  Five?  And I've read the individual books a lot more. 
2.  Have you seen any movies based on them?

Yes, I've seen The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and the LOTR trilogy made by Peter Jackson.  I love them all very much. :D
3.  Who first introduced you to Middle Earth?
 Nobody in particular.  I was aware of the existence of LOTR and TH for a long time because I knew a lot of Tolkien fans.  I wasn't really interested for the longest while, but then I decided to try it and got hooked. 
4.  Who are your three favorite characters?  (Feel free to elaborate on whys.)
Elaborate, you say?  Never ask me to elaborate on Tolkien- I might go off on a random tangent.  But here are my three favorite characters:
1. Faramir

This guy is one of my favorite characters ever.  He doesn't get much character development in the movie, but he's awesome in the book.  He's scorned and ridiculed by his father and always overshadowed by his older, more headstrong brother Boromir.  But he stays strong and loving, and he has one of my favorite romances with Eowyn.

2. Eowyn

Some of her dresses are just gorgeous.

Eowyn is almost an Eponine character.  She loves Aragorn, even following him into battle (seeking death because he doesn't love her- are you starting to see parallels?) when she can't persuade him to stay with her.  Only, her story has a happy ending; while recovering from a wound in the Houses of Healing, she falls in love with Faramir and he with her. *happy sigh*

3. Samwise Gamgee

Sam has always been a favorite of mine.  His stalwart devotion to Frodo, his hopeful, loving and cheerful heart, and his sheer stubborn determination to go on when others would have given up always endear him to me.  Plus, he has some of the best lines.
  
5.  What's your favorite Middle Earth location?
Um.  Location?  Rohan, 'cause I've always had a special place in my heart for the Riders of Rohan. 

6.  If you could belong to one of the races of Free Folk (Men, Elves, Dwarves, Hobbits, Ents), which would you choose?

YOU CANNOT ASK ME THIS.  It's too hard!  Let's see...well, I wouldn't be an Ent because I'm not that patient (or that old!), and I wouldn't be a dwarf because I'm not very fond of being underground, and I'm already a Man, so I'll pick something different...which leaves me with Elves or Hobbits.  I pick being an Elf.  But I'd love to be a Hobbit too...and I wouldn't mind being a Man if I could be like Eowyn.
7.  Would you rather eat lembas or taters?
Lembas.  I've always been curious about a food that sustains you like that.
8.  If you lived in Middle Earth, what weapon would you prefer wielding?
Erm.  Um.  I'll take a sword, please.  

9.  What draws you to Tolkien's stories?  (The characters, the quests, the themes, the worlds, etc.)
Well...everything.  But if I had to pick one in particular, I'd say the dry, common-sense wit that Tolkien spices it with.  Combined with the huge, stately way he tells most of the story, it makes for a very unusual writing style that makes you sit up and take notice.  Also, the characters and themes.  And the worlds.  And the quests.  And...forget it. :D
10. List up to five of your favorite lines/quotes from the books or movies.
Only five?  Very well.  Humph.

  “Dear me! We Tooks and Brandybucks, we can't live long on the heights.'
'No,' said Merry. 'I can't. Not yet, at any rate. But at least, Pippin, we can now see them, and honour them. It is best to love first what you are fitted to love, I suppose: you must start somewhere and have some roots, and the soil of the Shire is deep. Still there are things deeper and higher; and not a gaffer could tend his garden in what he calls peace but for them, whether he knows about them or not.” 

 “We may stand, if only on one leg, or at least be left still upon our knees.” 

 “A time may come soon," said he, "when none will return. Then there will be need of valour without renown, for none shall remember the deeds that are done in the last defence of your homes. Yet the deeds will not be less valiant because they are unpraised.” 

 “Follow what may, great deeds are not lessened in worth.” 

 “I stand in Minas Anor, the Tower of the Sun; and behold! the Shadow has departed! I will be a Shieldmaiden no longer, nor vie with the great Riders, nor take joy only in the songs of slaying. I will be a healer, and love all things that grow and are not barren.”

 “For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.” 

Yes, that was six quotes.  My apologies.  But I couldn't decide; I could barely narrow it down to six!

Join the fun here!
-Miss Jane Bennet