I am livid that the black axe of Gothmog was not voted the mightiest weapon in all of Tolkiendom. It's always the elves that have the last say in the history books. What do you think did for Feanor? Consumed by the fire of his spirit, indeed. No body, so convenient. I fed him to my balrogs, and my dog Sauron was grateful for the scraps.
But I digress.
I had the Hobbit read to me at a very young age, although it did not help me beat the video game. I remember reading Fellowship at around the age of 8 or 9, I don't know when I finished the trilogy but the Silmarillion had become my favorite book by the time I was 16. About this time I began to stalk the internet, assuming the persona of a jaded lord of balrogs and going by the name GothmogLOB on AOL in a "jrr tolkien" private chat room from which the regulars eventually branched off into a mailing list on which we mostly made surreal Tolkien/Broadway crossover fan fiction, argued about politics, and drew ASCII silly-string. By '98 I had made many friends and by 2000 had managed to unmake them all.
Anyway, I was having a conversation today about early internet chat room culture and found myself Googling to try to find evidence that all of the last paragraph wasn't just a figment of my own imagination, when I stumbled accross this community. So hi! I'm James. I might post here again.
This is a fun spot to hang out and discuss JRRT and his books. I hope you do post again. Poke around and check out the trivia. There's a book discussion going on and some other neat things.
I have been a member here on Tolkien Forums since August 2011 and have come to realize that this site is full of helpful, knowledgeable and fun members who never fail to help or propel the understanding of Tolkien's many fine works.
The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, LOTR as well as poetry, fan-art, trivia are all actively moving and sometimes waiting to be revived by a new fresh take on things. Feel free to jump in anywhere.
If you need any help getting familiar with things just let me know, I 'd be happy to help, if I can. If I can't you can ask almost anyone here and they will be willing to lend a hand....good peeps here.
Enjoy yourself, looking forward to seeing you in the Threads.
