Michael’s Comments (group member since Jun 10, 2010)

Michael’s comments from the J.R.R. Tolkien group.

Hi Michelle: thanks for joining us :-)

Hi Ricardo: Maybe you'll find the inspiration to explore a bit further :-)

Chortle!

Let's have the Professor over for Christmas!

As a lighter alternative to The Children of Húrin, or as something to fill up the corners, we're reading Smith of Wootton Major by J.R.R. Tolkien.

There's lots of books with this story in - the link to the specific edition is for illustrative purposes only :-)

Funny :-)

Lord of the Rings by Sir Thomas Malory:

Whosoever throweth in this Ring into yon Crack of Doom shall be rightwise born overthrower of the Dark Lord of all Middle-earth.

Oh, dear! I'm sure somebody else can do better...

Hi, Lucy - Have you read The Children of Húrin? That's going to be our next read, starting in September. Oh, welcome aboard!

Hi, Andylee - Thanks for making our Group your first choice. You have excellent taste! :-D

Christa - Ron Paul 2012 wrote: "HI, I had a quick question and wasn't sure where to ask it so I thought I would ask it here. Do you have a thread for Tolkiens book "Tales from the Perilous Realm"?"

Yes, there is a folder, but it doesn't show up as nobody's started a discussion topic in it yet. If you create a new topic and click the folder drop-down list, you'll see it there and you can inaugurate it :-)

I was actually thinking of running a Perilous Realm Group Read for Sept-Dec to run alongside the main Children of Húrin read. Christa, you can chose if you like: Farmer Giles, or Wootton Major - which shall it be?

Although I'm usually wary of Hollywood motives, PJ is the man who turned down massive funding to make LotR as TWO films, because the books are presented as a trilogy and that was his vision. He stuck to his principles and we got what I consider to be three excellent films as a result.

With The Hobbit, he's said that as he was getting into the filming process, he realised that this would probably be the only chance he'd have for presenting larger aspects of the legendarium, so he's going for it! I'm prepared to put my faith in him delivering us a new trilogy that will match his vision for the LotR films (Please don't let me down, Peter!!!)

Hi Christa - though welcomes seem superfluous as you've already been busy in the discussions :-D

Hi, Ginny - I hope you enjoy your time here. We're all a bit giddy about Tolkien!

The first time I read LotR was when I was 14. I'd asked for the deluxe boxed edition for Christmas and knew that my dad had received it and hidden it away somewhere. One weekend before the holidays when he was out, I managed to find it ("hidden" in the wardrobe - not very secret, nor very safe!) and read the first 200 or so pages in a sitting. I had to return it to it's hidey-hole and promised myself I wouldn't read any more of it before Christmas Day, which I didn't.

I've never had any other edition, and probably never will. This is my most treasured book. As the Goodreads record had no cover image for this volume when I first added it to my shelf, the one you see now is a scan of my very own copy :-D

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

My word!! What a lot of new members! Rick, Niall, Rita, Danskmacabre, Bob: Welcome all :-D

Hi Anjelica and Jake - welcome to the group :-)

I'd say that counts, Andy - in fact you probably get extra points for it!!

What memorabilia have you got?

Hi Samuel and Leia

My toes are well hairy, and thanks for joining the group!

Global awareness fail!

I will edit the thread headings a bit later. Thanks for reminding me that it's a small world, after all.

Stefan wrote: "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!!

:)"

I have that tattooed at the top of my thigh

Hello Pat & Kristen

Welcome to the world of all things Tolkien!

Very much so.

Thanks for sharing!

We're having similar library funding problems here in Britain, with some being closed altogether. It's so sad because once they're gone, it's unlikely they'll re-open once (if?) we come out of recession. We'll all be culturally the poorer, but at least we'll have X-Factor and The Apprentice to amuse ourselves with :-\

So, reading back my post above I've been entirely negative, which was not my intention!

There's a boss character at the end of one of the Tekken games that I thought actually did look like a balrog, minus the flaming sword and whip. My son informs me he was called True Ogre.

How else do you think, or would like to see, Tolkien's works influencing present culture?