Elves, And Hobbits, And Dwarves... Oh My!

Yes, I'll admit that I'm a little late in posting this (okay about a month late, but who's keeping track? *ahem* I'm not), but so many other things came up that I never had the chance to finish this whole tag out. Anywho, this tag was part of a Tolkien Blog Party of Special Magnificence back around the twenty-second of September to commemorate the anniversary of both Bilbo's and Frodo's birthdays, hosted by The Edge of the Precipice, and you can find the link to the original party HERE. And yes, I'd highly suggest that you visit there.

1.  Have you read The Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit? If so, how many times? YES! Currently working on my fifth time through. And that includes reading The Hobbit and ALL of the appendixes at the end of The Return of the King.

2.  Have you seen any movies based on them? Only Peter Jackson's amazing film adaptions: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Two Towers (2002), The Return of the King (2003), and An Unexpected Journey (2012). "Seen" is rather uninformative, considering I have the majority of all four movies memorized.

3.  Who first introduced you to Middle Earth? I'd have to say probably my parents. My dad read the books when he was younger, and then after RotK came out in 2003, he allowed us kids to watch them AFTER we read the books. Of course, we all immediately loved them.

4.  Who are your three favorite characters?  (Feel free to elaborate on whys.) I'm torn! Favorite characters because of humor and quotes would be Legolas, Pippin, and Merry, otherwise for actual character and morals I'd go with Samwise, Faramir, and Eowyn.

5.  What's your favorite Middle Earth location? Lothlorien. Hands down. But I have a sneaking suspicion that it might change once I see how Peter Jackson visualizes Mirkwood.

6.  If you could belong to one of the races of Free Folk (Men, Elves, Dwarves, Hobbits, Ents), which would you choose? Elves. Without a doubt. Or, if I had to choose a second, I'd say either part of the Rohirrim or a quiet inhabitant of the West Farthing.

7.  Would you rather eat lembas or taters? Lembas. 

8.  If you lived in Middle Earth, what weapon would you prefer wielding? A bow. These long-range weapons have always appealed to me, even before I knew about LOTR, so once I saw that so many in Middle Earth used them, I was only more enticed.

9.  What draws you to Tolkien's stories?  (The characters, the quests, the themes, the worlds, etc.) First and foremost would be the adventure. I love a good fantasy. And these are clean, wholesome stories that you don't have to worry about immoral things popping up while you're reading. The characters that Tolkien created were so memorable, so quotable, that you can't help but like them. I went into this a little more in this post here, if you'd like to read more.

10. List up to five of your favorite lines/quotes from the books or movies. I thought about ignoring the five limit and posting tons of favorite quotes from the movies, but on second thought, let's follow instructions and simply keep to quotes from the book, though not including any songs, because that just wouldn't be fair. And I just noticed that the majority of my favorite quotes come from The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring.

There was a terrific splash, and a shout of "Whoa!" from Frodo. It appeared that a lot of Pippin's bath had imitated a fountain and leaped on high. Merry went to the door. "How about supper and beer in the throat?" Frodo came out drying his hair. "There's so much water in the air that I'm coming out here to finish," he said.

No spider has ever liked being called Attercop, and Tomnoddy, of course, is insulting to anybody.

"Go not to the elves for counsel, for they will say both yes and no."

In a hole in the ground, there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat; it was a hobbit-hole, and that meant comfort.

 When Mr. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would be shortly celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a party of special magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton.

And, please don't forget about the great event that Melody and I are hosting during the month of November! We'd love to see you join us! 

God bless!