Returning to Middle-earth: from one fantasy world to another

To me there’s only one fantasy world where I feel most at home. Middle-earth was, and will remain my primary destination for the tired mind and heart that long to seek solace and comfort from the real world.

Discovering Middle-earth: Part IV

The long”-ish” tale of how I began to admire and enjoy Tolkien

My first experience of reading ‘The Lord of the Rings’ (or anything related to Tolkien), was actually a weird one.

Since I was young, I wasn’t into reading – at all. Paragraphs longer than a few lines would send my mind drifting off to something completely different. I just couldn’t manage to concentrate on the descriptions and the wordings for longer than a few minutes.

Discovering Middle-earth: Part III

The long”-ish” tale of how I began to admire and enjoy Tolkien

So I basically spent the whole of 2003, shying away from people talking about anything related to ‘The Lord of the Rings’. People who had read the book or were simply speculating about how the story was going to end would find me running in the opposite direction.

Discovering Middle-earth: Part II

The long”-ish” tale of how I began to admire and enjoy Tolkien

As stated in Part I, viewing ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’ re-wired my thoughts about the fantasy genre – nonetheless, I was still far away from picking up any book written by Tolkien.

It so happened that as October 2002 passed by, I stumbled upon the second trailer of ‘The Two Towers’. And then it snapped …

Discovering Middle-earth: Part I

The long”-ish” tale of how I began to admire and enjoy Tolkien

– It all begins with me and a particular dislike …

I’ll be outright and honest – I shunned fantasy. The very idea of fake prosthetic costumes glaring at defenceless mortal beings in some wacky skirmish (encompassed within even more phony sets) made me feel both uneasy and simply appalled.