Back to Middle-Earth meme, part 1/4: 'The Fellowship of the Ring'

[rodneyscat]

(What's this meme?)

In 1986 I bought second-hand paperbacks of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, after my sister had been raving about them for years. During my holiday I read them and got drawn into that world. My favorite characters were Sam and Eowyn, both of whom I identified with. Shortly after, I bought brand new beautifully bound versions of the books, and an equally beautifully bound second-hand version of The Silmarillion, although it took me until 2002 to actually read that one.

In spring 2001 I saw the first trailer for the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

I know I'd seen some mention of it being made, but ever since watching Bakshi's version at a Dutch comic convention I didn't expect to be impressed very much. Vaguely interested, but not expecting a lot. This trailer made my heart pound and took my breath away though.

I remember promotional pictures appearing in magazines and movie guides. The first one I saw of Frodo was this one and it confused me as hell, because wow, that kid from 'The War' and 'Flipper' sure had grown up nicely, but I hadn't realized the hobbits would have actual hobbit feet, and that took away some of the sexy...



The second one I remember seeing didn't help either, because hello, Elijah had grown up hadn't he? I mean, he looks beautiful but also 12!!



December 2001 came. I went to see the movie 4 times and was overwhelmed every time, grateful that we would get a year break between movies, because damn, I really needed the recovery time! Also, Frodo's hobbit feet and youthful looks didn't bother me anymore. He did get me hot and bothered though and I wanted to know more about the actor, about Elijah Wood.

Now here comes a real turning point in my life: January 2002 I went on the internet. Wow! Pics and clips and info and loads of people who were just as (or even more) passionate about the books and the movies and everything concerning them as I was. I visited too many sites to mention here. Most of them don't even exist anymore.

But I need to mention the Yahoo group AEF; Adult Elijah Fans. I met people there some of whom I'm still in contact with. It's the place where I found out about fanfiction, and shortly after that fictional person slash, and shortly after that real person slash. I found out about fanvideos. I started collecting pics and vids and fics, and exchanging what I found with others. We taped stuff from tv, or copied videos and send them to each other by snail mail. Without fast connections and file sharing sites such as MegaUpload we had to make do but boy did we have fun!

Here's that history in links and pics:

'A gleaming Pearl' by Xenobia
My introduction to naughty (het) fanfiction. It's written in a style that right now I wouldn't pick to read anymore, but boy howdy did I enjoy this back in the day!

'At the Rivendell internet cafe' by fennelseed
It's not my introduction to slash, but the fics that would qualify for that aren't available on the internet anymore, and I'm not sure if that's a great loss frankly... But this story is at least one of the first, and it's still as hilarious as the first time I read it. It's also still a lovely introduction to fps.

'Tennessee' 'In the mountains' and 'Chattanooga' by cimness (then known as Cimorene)
Was my introduction to real person slash. It was Viggo/Orlando with some Elijah/Sean on the side, not the pairings I ended up reading later.

Then there were the fanvids that were new to me:

'I'm too sexy' by versaphile. Gandalf centered and damn funny. Seeing Gandalf galloping over the hills will never fail to make me hum 'hop doododoododo hop doododoododo etc'.

'I don't care' by uluviel (go to 'music videos', pick 'lord of the rings' and then click 'I don't care'). Elijah/Dom and Frodo/Merry, and I've still got the song on my ipod.

That clip also reminds me of this particular picture of the hobbits and Bill:



In the meantime I made the excellent move of finding a job in a movie theater, so I've seen the movie god knows how many times and all for free :D

Oscar night came, and I stayed up all night, from 1.00 am to 7.00 am, and taped the whole show.

From that night I picked this particular clip because I loved Whoopy's skit, Peter's accent, Elijah's wide-eyed introduction. But most of all I loved Fran motherly squeezing Elijah's shoulder.

So I spent a lot of my time off browsing the internet, searching for fics and pics, emailing or posting at forums with fellowfans. And waiting for the premiere of The Two Towers. Waiting for Eowyn.

Comments

[princessofg.livejournal.com]

thanks for the memories. yay.

[rodneyscat.livejournal.com]

This is the kind of post that takes me forever to put together, because of all the things I come across that make me want to watch and read and look up.

Good memories :D

[primula-baggins.livejournal.com]

Now you've got me crying! *sniff* I started crying just because you posted about LOTR.

"But I need to mention the Yahoo group AEF; Adult Elijah Fans. I met people there some of whom I'm still in contact with."

In fact, that's where I 'met' you.

I've never seen that Oscar clip. I didn't become a LOTR fan until late 2003, and I never saw that clip. *more tears*

Thanks for posting.

[rodneyscat.livejournal.com]

For years I couldn't share what I had on tape, but then I got software to convert videotapes to .wmv files, and alchemie was kind and generous enough to host the clips. I just checked and they're still up on her site, so if you want to check some more clips out you can get them here (http://rodneyscat.livejournal.com/477613.html). There are in fact more posts that month with Elijah related clips.

[mother2012.livejournal.com]

Ohyes! Now *this* is B2mem!

Got to hit the hay now, but I'm going to come back to this tomorrow. And yes, AEF would be where *I* met you also, but I don't know what name you used then.

January 2002 I went on the internet. Wow! Pics and clips and info and loads of people ...

Hey! Yeah! Me too.

Thank you! This was wonderful!

[mother2012.livejournal.com]

P.S. Uluviel's I don't care remains one of my favorites to this day (and I will probably go off and play it now).

And I remember reading "At the Rivendell Internet Cafe" myself!

[rodneyscat.livejournal.com]

At AEF I was dutch_eowyn, as I was pretty much everywhere on the internet back then.

I love all Uluviel's lotrips clips and they still never fail to move me :D

[msilverstar]

*sniff* those were the days! And you and I have only met once, briefly, at Collectormania, but I am glad to have given you a hug. And these are the days, we can enjoy them too.

[rodneyscat.livejournal.com]

Ah, Collectormania! I love that we had this moment in fandom where so many fans from all over the world who knew each other from LiveJournal got to spend time together. Sure it was great seeing Billy and Dom and Elijah and Sean and so many others from the movie, but the evenings at the hotel were the best!

[cc-weasel.livejournal.com]

*sniff* Indeed! I think LotR will always be one of my favorites. It's definitely the fandom that first got me involved in the online community as well. Thanks for sharing this with us. :D

[rodneyscat.livejournal.com]

It's certainly a fandom that lured a lot of newbies to the internet :D

[foxykc.livejournal.com]

that's so wierd because my little brain has been taking me bak to those times as well. What fun!

[rodneyscat.livejournal.com]

It was an almost magical time and I look back at it with great fondness :D