I only watched the Ralph Bashki cartoon and the Rankin Bass ROTK and The Hobbit when I was a kid. I knew nothing about Tolkien in 2001; I was 8 years old. The Mummy Returns had just come out, the sequel to my favorite childhood movie, so I had my dreams fulfilled already. Dad had watched a trailer on his computer over and over for a movie that had three release dates, each around Christmas. Suddenly Mom and Dad wanted really bad to go to the movies. They had to get my brother off his Super Nintendo to head out in the middle of the night. It was freezing cold and the smallish theater was crammed with people. We had to wait in a long, sluggish line just to get some popcorn.

When the movie started, I got confused fast; I didn’t know who this old wizard was or why everyone cared about him. There were two guys with long hair and beards who I thought were the same. Dad seemed to be excited about the evil wizard with long white hair and a scary voice. I only asked one thing when it was over: WHY DID IT HAVE TO END THERE! We all groaned when the two hobbits went over the horizon after so much had happened, and we didn’t want it to end. We watched it a ton of more times in the theater after that, each time bringing different friends along.

During the next year, we got a bunch of Burger King goblets and action figures. I still hadn’t read any of the books. Mom had this huge poster at home that was a map of the world in the movies. We ate at Skippers just before going to see the next one, a year later. It opened on a Friday, so we all ate fish while Dad tried to tell me what to expect. All I remember about seeing the second movie for the first time is really hating the long-haired guy who kidnaps the hobbits. Each of these movies was so long that I had to space out when I went to the bathroom each time, so I didn’t miss anything. This time we saw it in the new theater which had moved behind Applebee’s. We always made it a point to eat there before the movie. The food was better then.

Coming up on the third film, I actually started reading the third book. I found the books hard to read, with character names I couldn’t pronounce. Then I remember having an afternoon swimming class after which Dad told me to dry off quickly and get ready to go to the theater. I cried multiple times during that movie, mostly when the character I had previously hated charges to his death. I cried so much that a woman in the seat next to me had to comfort me. I felt so sorry for him, being so obedient that he was willing to go on a hopeless mission simply because he was ordered. From then on, he became my favorite character. My first attempts at writing were fanfiction about him. We watched the third movie so many times I can’t remember.

That was my humble introduction to the fantasy universe of J. R. R. Tolkien. I’m one of those babies who watched the films first. Luckily my mom taught a whole lecture class on his books at church. This helped me better understand the characters and the story when I read the books for myself. To this day, my dad still watches scenes from the movies which always move him to tears. My brother played the amazing tie-in video games nonstop. The Lord of the Rings is a part of my family and my memories.  

There is something just so original about The Lord of the Rings. It provided the template for all fantasy films and books afterwards. Orcs are now featured in many other fantasy series and The Lord of the Rings completely changed our cultural perception of elves from the workers in Santa’s workshop. Nowadays, no fantasy epic movies can be released without being compared to The Lord of the Rings, at least visually.

More than that, you have to give J. R. R. credit for making his own expanded universe during his lifetime. He created a new language and names in that language and then wrote a story around it. He is the father of modern fantasy. Everything he wrote was original and only inspired by real world Norse mythology. But what deepens it is that he used his Catholic faith to turn it into an allegory for ideas that make it a stronger and more faceted story than any other fantasy since then.

I just hope that enough people will be curious enough from the memes and movies to go back and appreciate the novels.