An Unexpected Blog Party

Nessima Tavariel is having an epic Unexpected Blog Party in honor of the newest and bestest movie coming out this month! Well, coming out for some people. Yeah, I'm one of those who will have to wait until it comes out on DVD to watch it.

Still haven't the foggiest what I'm talking about? THE HOBBIT!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, I'm rather excited. And I am most enthusiastic about Nessima's blog party! I've been trying to closely follow the party every day (although I fear I haven't been very faithful about it... ahem), and each day only makes me that much more excited about finally seeing The Hobbit when it comes out. There's an awfully fun tag which I shall fill out later in this post, as well as spiffy giveaways. (Is it legal to post about more than one of these things in just one post?)

This is one of the wonderful items in the giveaway on Nessima's blog: LOTR notecards! I love this one with Bilbo and Gandalf on the front. I absolutely love this first sentence in The Hobbit. Tolkien really knew how to start a story well. I could probably quote every first and last line of each part of LOTR. 

Squee! LOTR jewelry! This poem is one of my favorites of Tolkien's (notice I said one), and this necklace is another giveaway item for the Unexpected Blog Party.  

The Shire Necklace. I think I may have found love at last, peoples. Wow. This is just epic. And I have no other words to describe it. 

The fourth and last giveaway for Nessima's party. This is the "Evenstar" necklace and earring jewelry set -- so pretty! Please, please, please (pretty with a cherry on top) do stop by Nessima's blog and check the whole party, giveaways and all, out. It's just downright swell.

And now, time for the tag questions (which do not come from a doctor {for more info on that, please see this post}):
1. How did you first hear about LOTR & The Hobbit? An aunt and uncle of mine saw the movies when they were still fairly new (2003), and because they knew we liked fantasy and such, they recommended that we see them, too. My parents rented the movies and watched them on my dad's laptop (we didn't have a DVD player at that time), and since we were still quite young, we weren't allowed to watch the whole thing, only certain parts that Mom thought we might like. After that, a few years later, we coerced our parents into renting and later buying the Extended DVDs, which we have watched many times since then with the greatest of pleasure.

2. How many times have you read LOTR/The Hobbit?  Or have you yet to read it at all? I've read LOTR probably 4 times, and I'm currently on my 5th time through. The Hobbit is the same, for I always read the books in order (Hobbit, Fellowship, Towers, Return), and always end up reading the entire concordance at the end of RotK. Yep.

3. Would you name your child after a character from it? I would be very tempted. Very. I probably wouldn't give them an outright name like Galadriel or Frodo, but I might slip in a subtle LOTR reference in a middle name somewhere.

4. What are your thoughts on Tom Bombadil?  Do you think he should have been in the movie? The first time I saw The Fellowship, I had only read the books once, and that was only a read-because-I-had-to-because-I-wanted-to-see-the-movie-and-I-wasn't-allowed-to-watch-the-movie-without-reading-the-book-first read, so I really didn't notice they had cut poor Tom out until after the movie was finished and we were comparing it to the book. Although I would have loved to see Tom on screen, I like The Fellowship the way it is. Perhaps they should make a movie about Tom after they finish The Hobbit. ;)

5. Do you have a favourite piece of poetry from any of Tolkien's books? No, no, no! Do not ask me this question! I have most of the songs memorized, so it's too hard to pick a favorite. The Road Goes Ever On And On, Bilbo's bath song, Those Who Wander, etc.

6. Have you read any of Tolkien's work besides LOTR and/or The Hobbit? The Simarillion, Children of Hurin, Roverandom, and I think I started the Book of Lost Tales... before I lost it to the library due date.

7. Can you write in the Tengwar? Nope. Sadly.

8. Were you at all disappointed that Prince Imrahil wasn't in the movie? Not that much, really. There wasn't that much of him in the book, so you really didn't miss him as a major character. However, I did like that they put a lot more of the focus on Faramir.

9. What would happen if you and Denethor were put face to face? After I got over his astonishment at his being alive, I'd probably give him a piece of my mind concerning Faramir and just what I thought about his role as a father.

10. Would you rather reside in Edoras or Minas Tirith? Hmm... probably Edoras. I'm more prone to the Rohirrim than the Citadel.

11. What think you of Éomer's armour? Amazing... just like all the armor is in LOTR. I love how they made different styles of armor for each character/race/nationality. You can tell it's all LOTR, but you can also tell if it's dwarf, elf, Rohan, or Gondor.

12. What do you think of Boromir? Mixed feelings. I despise him for wanting the Ring and turning on Frodo in The Fellowship, but in the Extended Two Towers, you see the brotherly relationship he had with Faramir and you retract all those nasty feelings because you want to see Boromir and Faramir happy and together again as the brothers they used to be.

13. Which is your favourite LOTR couple: Sam & Rosie, Aragorn & Arwen, or Faramir & Éowyn? Don't throw anything at me when I say that Aragorn and Arwen are my LEAST favorite couple. Too much mush between them in the movie that never happened in the book! :P Sam and Rosie are cute, but I'd have to go with Faramir and Eowyn. After all that had happened to them, they both deserved to end up with someone like that. Especially Faramir.

14. Did you shed any tears when Thorin died?  I'm assuming this is while reading the book, since I haven't seen Thorin die in the movie yet (it's not out yet, for cat's sake!). And no, I didn't cry. I don't think I've ever cried while reading.

15. Which is most terrifying of the following: orcs nabbing you in your sleep, giant spiders crawling out of dark tunnels and forests, Nazgul standing right over where you're hiding, or a ghost army that doesn't like you very much? Hmm... all sound frightening, but I'm not sure about terrifying. Orcs and spiders I could probably handle (as long as I had someone else on my side), Nazgul... maybe... The ghost army might be the worst just because you wouldn't know what they would do. Everyone else you can kinda predict.

16. How well would you enjoy life as a hobbit?  Would it be preferable to being something like, say, an elf?  Or a Ranger? Life as a hobbit? Um... yes! But being an elf would be pretty spiffy, too, so I might choose that over being a hobbit. 

Don't forget to stop by Nessima's blog to see more of her Unexpected Blog Party!

God bless!