Hello, I'm John Wain and came to this forum on Galin's proposal. Actually I am moving over from another Tolkien forum, hosted by HarperCollins, which is about to close. Starting all over again is not always easy to do, but I hope I'll get by and be able to contribute something to this place as well.
I consider myself an experienced Tolkien fan because I have studied (and still study) his works, not just reading them. My dad bought (in Romanian) the LotR and 'The Hobbit', and soon also 'The Silmarillion'. That happened around 2004, but I found it too difficult to get into the books, because they were so long. Also the Two Towers had a defect - a passage of around 20 pages missing - it was my father who saw it first, and I also thought of reading the book and being obliged to skip a passage which, for all I knew, might have been of importance. (It was, actually, because the missing pages were most of the chapter 'The Voice of Saruman'!)
Anyhow, I did not read the books after all. The films came, and I saw them, and was impressed with the story. At that point (2005) I decided I should get into the books as well. Looking on their back covers to understand better how LotR, Hobbit and Silmarillion were connected (there was no Wikipedia then! - or if it was, I did not know of it), I figured out that The Silmarillion came first in the chronological order, and The Hobbit was second.
I started reading The Silmarillion in Romanian, and was awe struck by 'Ainulindale' - a memorable read, and all the book as well. But the map - as all maps in all the Silmarillions I now know of - was horrendous. It gives you an idea of what is where, but on the whole I lost track of all the Noldor princes and the whereabouts of the characters through Beleriand and adjoining lands. (Also because the map published there is so cropped, I had no idea where Helkaraxe or Aman, or for that matter, even Angband, were.)
I was so impressed with Silmarillion, though, that when the time came to choose a subject for an English paper to hand in at the end of my high school, I knew it would be the Cosmogony in 'The Silmarillion'. But at the time I only had the books in translation, and was quite unprepared for the task I had set to achieve.
I got lucky however that Romanian bookstores had just started at the time (could have been because of the films' growing popularity in Romania, I don't know) to sell the books in English as well. That's how I landed myself with all Tolkien's books in original. (As an aside note, I had not gotten to LotR by that time, and since I had already bought it in English, I never read it in Romanian any more - yet I did read it in original twice and I'm on it from a more 'professional' perspective for the third time). I also got Unfinished Tales, and afterward, I bought the 12 History of Middle-earth books, one by one - all from Romanian bookstores, but all in English.
When local stores could provide no longer, I turned to Amazon. Biographies, commentaries, special editions - you name it, I have it. My only limit to what I'd buy was my pocket. Sadly for me, it's run dry in the last year or so, and I still have a huge wishlist waiting (in excess of 1000 GBP of Tolkien books), which I'm going to buy one day, if they are still in print.
I'm not a Tolkien scholar, but I'm attempting to be one, because Tolkien is definitely my favourite author, and I decided that studying him deserves my attention.
Well, I hope I managed to get you to the last lines of this rather large first post, but I thought a good introduction will get me started. I'm eager to know every one and every thing better!
Hello John Wain. Welcome to the Tolkien Forums! Galin is highly respected here and if he suggested you try us as your new "Tolkien Forums" site my thought is to follow his advice. If he recommended it to me I know I would.
By the way, This is a wonderful introduction you wrote. Many of us don't appreciate the difficulties created trying to find Tolkien's works in their native tongues. But your description of how you (with a little help from your father) managed to get the basic texts in English parallels' those who struggle to get his works because of tight purse strings. Sort of reminds me of how Frodo had to buy Bill the pony for the outragious sum of twelve silver pennies.
I think you will enjoy our forum. Folks here come from a variety of academic & scholastic, national & international, age, gender, social status, and introduction to Tolkien's works.(movies and books) And all are very welcome!
We are bound with the common theme of loving Tolkien.
I am not an administrator or officer on the Forums. I am just a plain old member. But if I can help in any way; to answer questions or help figure out how to use the site, please feel free to reach me through PM, on a thread, or on the chatbox. I am sure with your background with Tolkien's works your contributions will be insightful and fun to read.
Again, You are most welcome! Bear an Elf-Friend
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Vocatus atque non vocatus, Deus aderit Called or uncalled, God is present
Thank you very much, Bear and Bilbo, for the kind welcoming. I am already finding the discussions interesting, but the reason I did not post so much yet is that most topics already have lengthy talks stemming from the original post, that it would be quite inappropriate to express a view to that original post without first reading what the others answered, too. Especially since some topics are quite old and I would not like to necropost something which already has been fully answered!
John, When I joined the forums I found the same difficulty with the lengthy history of some posts. I too felt the need to read through all the contributions (postings) to the thread. I agree with you that it feels inappropriate to just throw an opinion out there.
But I would like to add a kudo to that position. Yes, sometimes a ventured opinion may seem redundant. But that opinion has few important functions ... it re-opens the thread to further exploration and creates reinforcing or new tangents which may have lain dormant. It also reinforces certain ideas or themes that the thread presents. The variety of opinion and support for other's opinion leads to discussion and forum interaction. Lastly and most impotantly it also opens the door for us to get to know you.
The responses to your post may not be as deep or as long as has been written before but don't be surprised if it does trigger a lengthy, deep, and well thought response either. Your willingness to post will not be ignored no matter how old or active the post is.
We look forward to your posts John Wain. With an American idiom, "Give 'em hell!" Bear
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Vocatus atque non vocatus, Deus aderit Called or uncalled, God is present
Bear, thanks for the encouragement! I am trying to look through the posts, especially those which received attention in the recent past, and to post opinions. However as a general rule I like my posts on Tolkien-related subjects to be researched and useful, so I take time to think.
There are also two more days before the forum I came from closes, so in this time I'm in two boats, so to speak. I will come here more often starting next week!
I really like the place, from the few days I've spent here I can tell this. On the other forum, I was one of the most active members and had some 1500 posts; I'm hoping to get to post at least as much here - both in relevant discussions and in more leisurely ones!
Welcome to the Forum, John Wain. You will find many knowledgeable and interesting people here, as you already have. Come and join in as many conversations as you like.
So! today's my 23rd birthday. Time for a little celebration:
I just wanted to salute the community on this occasion - it's a very interesting place, and it's great to be 'around' such people as you are! I've got lots to learn and to share here, so here's to many good days together.
Happy Birthday John! Hope you had a great one and got all the gifts you wanted How do you get the picture in there? I have been trying to figure out how to have my personal Shield in my posts. Could you help me?
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Hey dol! merry dol! ring a dong dillo! Ring a dong! hop along! fal lal the willow! Tom Bom, Jolly Tom, Tom Bombadillo!
Thank you Arwen and Glorfindel. To post a photo, just find its link (but it must be the link to the photo itself, not to the page where it is hosted (for example, if I want to post your avatar, I just right-click on it - there will be a message saying that hotlinking is not allowed, but once you press OK, you'll be able to view the source if you're using Mozilla), and then you add the address in the tabs (I'm not sure that's the correct name for them), like that:
First of all, you need to upload the photo somewhere on the Internet. I recommend imageshack.us; you'll need to make an account (signing up is free) and then you can upload any photo. After uploading there, you'll get access to several links - one of them is called 'direct link' and this is the one you'll need to put between the [img] tags.
PS : I'm posting this here and not in a PM since I believe it may also be of use to other persons who'd like to know how to do this.
-- Edited by John Wain on Wednesday 25th of May 2011 07:52:32 AM
Many of us don't appreciate the difficulties created trying to find Tolkien's works in their native tongues. But your description of how you (with a little help from your father) managed to get the basic texts in English parallels' those who struggle to get his works because of tight purse strings. Sort of reminds me of how Frodo had to buy Bill the pony for the outragious sum of twelve silver pennies.
-- Edited by jannypan on Tuesday 14th of June 2011 02:39:52 AM
