Middle-earth Journeys

Welcome to MeJ Geordie.

Pokes head in. Looks around. I guess with all the talk of the Hobbit and things looking like they might come to pass, it's time to keep a closer eye on the doings in Middle Earth.

Welcome back, elizabeth! Yes, Middle-earth is on the map again--an exciting time!

Welcome Elizabeth and Geordie

Great to see you over here, Elizabeth .

thanks. I'll try to stick around and not get too busy.

I'll get the glue.....

Iolanthe wrote:I'll get the glue.....

Hi, my name is Mark, and I have been a huge fan of Tolkien's writings practically all my life. I think his monumental invention of an entire universe is unparallelled in literature. Not only is his Creation beautiful, original, and convincing, but he makes us care about it as well. The enormous fan interest culminated in the Movies not long ago, and now a Hobbit movie is being made. I hope that his masterpiece, the Silmarillion, will become a film before too long. He is my favorite author, and it will be great to discuss aspects of his world with people who also love Tolkien. I came here because I looked on the Internet to see if anyone but me thought Tom Bombadil was the Flame Imperishable, and was delighted to find that one of your members had convincingly expounded on it in an elegant essay. I am very happy to be a member of Middle-Earth Journeys, and am looking forward to talking to all of you soon. May Iluvatar bless and keep you all.

Welcome again, Mark! You'll find plenty of kindred souls here!

I have begun to read The Alchemist because it got wonderful reviews and because my nephew's high school class was required to read it over the summer and he thought I would like it. I'm not finished with it yet, so I should probably refrain from commenting, but I can tell already that this is a journey myth created according to a recipe. It is brimming with 'lessons' right on the surface. The characters are archetypes--they don't even have names!--and the language is flat. Give me the richness and depth of Tolkien's universe any day! Truly, there is nothing like it.

Let me add my welcome here as well, Mark. I'll join in on the Tom Bombadil/Goldberry discussion once my holiday responsibilities settle down. Glad you liked the essay!

Welcome Mark, it's lovely to see you here and have a new member!

Not only is his Creation beautiful, original, and convincing, but he makes us care about it as well

That absolutely sums it up for me - so many writers work hard on the former and miss the latter completely.

Welcome to MeJ Mark! Good to have another voice joining the conversations!

A bit delayed (can you believe I forgot my password... again? ) but welcome to MeJ Mark. I'll be cruising around the board to see what I've missed.

Suilaid na seryn în phain i deithad John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, ni meren a tholed sí.
No guren linna a chened bain I chirithon, am mellyn i ngevedithon; no ní veren an ngogerin i phain!

Greetings to all lovers of what John Ronald Reuel Tolkien has written, I am happy to have come here.
May my hart sing when seeing the beauty I may find, with friends I may meet; and may I be happy to share freely all that I find.


I found this forum quite by accident: I recently became a member of the Dutch Tolkien Society (Unquendor) and another member mentioned a print he had by Sue Wookey. I then found her website, and was quite struck by some of her paintings: they had a mythical quality that I find fascinating.

I have been familiar with Tolkien's work since I was a child, for my father was a great Tolkien fan. He read us the hobbit at bedtime and there was always this part of one bookshelf with not only LOTR (in English and Dutch) but also the Silmarillion, the Unfinished Tales and his lesser known works like Leaf by Niggle, the Adventures of Tom Bombadil, Tolkien's Letters, Smith of Wootton Major and even Farmer Giles of Ham.

He (my dad) was more than just a fan; he was very much aware of the specific quality that sets Tolkien's works apart from almost all other fantasy. He was deeply interested in philology and the mythical background of north-western europe - he also had the Kalevala, Beowulf, several books on the Arthurian legends and whatnot. It is too bad he did not live long enough to see the publication of the HoME series, for it would have delighted him.

Thus, the legendarium has been part of my inner landscape as long as I can remember although most of the time this was sort of "on the back burner". Whenever I read Tolkien though, this inner landscape would become very manifest again, up to the point that I could literally see it before my mind's eye: standing on the threshold of, well, something. It was always the same scene: a mountainous landscape, flooded with light from an invisible source near the horizon (invisible because it was too far to the right - I know it may sound a bit odd, but that is how it appears to me).

Some years ago I realised that it had become possible to learn Sindarin (or Quenya) elvish - something that I had longed for since I was a child. As I started studying, I noticed that this inner landscape came more to life than ever before, and since then I have felt a great need to express what I "see" in whatever way I can find: by drawing, writing poetry or other means. I've also become very interested in the process itself: what is it that makes me want to do this? What is it that I am trying to express anyhow? I find it to be a journey of discovery, unlike anything I have ever experienced or thought possible.

I have created a number of images, in various stages of elaboration or completion. They are simply renderings of how things appear to me (my mind's eye), and I have not yet figured out what I should do with them or even what form or technique would be best. There's a number of regular drawings on paper; some pastels drawings, some water colours. But I also experiment a lot with digital painting, using a Wacom tablet. Or even quite different things, like creating a three dimensional environment of parts of Valinor, in simulator software called OpenSim, or using Blender (a 3D content creation and animation tool). I've also made some video's. It's all equally fascinating.

Anyhow, this is probably enough by way of introduction - otherwise there'll be nothing left to say

- luthien