One Fandom to Rule Them All

I remember being a very young child looking through relics in my grandparents’ basement and finding a box of old records and another box of old books. In the box of books, there was a paperback picture book detailing Bilbo Baggins’ journey through Middle Earth, told as a written version of the 1977 TV movie; the box of records had the accompanying “book on vinyl” recording. The toddler that I was at the time looked through the pictures and thought how strange these hobbit creatures looked and that it must be a very dangerous journey to be on because Gandalf looked serious and foreboding. I put the book back in the box and forgot about its existence for many years.

As a middle schooler, I had a number of friends who loved The Lord of the Rings series. They were still very daunting looking books, especially for someone who’s longest book read at the time was only Twilight. But to hear my friends tell stories of Mirkwood and the dwarves made the saga sound like one of the most interesting adventures on earth (or Middle Earth).

In 2012, New Line Cinema released The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Being the person that I am, I insisted on reading the books before delving into the theatrical versions of the story, so I purchased a paperback set of the three Lord of the Rings novels plus a copy of The Hobbit. I was so excited to have finally read The Hobbit and entered the world that so many of my friends raved about. Watching the latest movie made the experience even more intriguing as I made mental notes comparing each scene on the screen to those in the books. My mother, however, despite having been the owner of the paperback picture book in my grandparents’ basement, asked us to pause the movie every few minutes so she could ask clarifying questions about what was happening, who the characters were, and why they were doing what they were doing.

As an adult, I have spent many fond evenings with my boyfriend and his sister watching the original movies, getting lost down YouTube rabbit holes of LoTR fact and conspiracy videos, and discussing all of our favorite parts of the stories. Most recently, we have taken a liking to Dominic Monaghan’s and Billy Boyd’s (better known as Merry and Pippin) rambling podcast called “The Friendship Onion” in which the hobbit actors discuss everything from their friendship that spawned as a result of LoTR, to trivia about the fantasy world, to all manner of entertaining tangents; on occasion Sean Astin (Sam) and Elijah Wood (Frodo) also make appearances on the show. Our collective enjoyment of the series is so great that we have drawn up plans to recreate the pubs of The Shire in our basement as a space for entertaining.

Not only is LoTR an important part of my personal life, but it has also made its way into my career. I am a high school science teacher at a private school in Philadelphia, and work with a number of other avid LoTR fans. The freshman English teacher has her students read The Hobbit as part of their curriculum, and her classroom is decorated with homemade cutouts of Bilbo and Gollum as well as the head of Smaug. One of the Theology teachers also incorporates LoTR into his classes, having the students view The Fellowship of the Ring and look for places where Tolkein’s Catholic beliefs can be found. As a science teacher, my freshmen will be learning genetics by tracing characteristics through hobbit family trees to see how different traits are inherited.

The point of these anecdotes is quite simple: The Lord of the Rings is such a widely applicable, relatable, and enjoyable series that it can speak to wide audiences over numerous decades. My uncle, who was 13 when the animated Hobbit TV movie was released, is just as enamoured with the story now as he was as a teenager. Likewise, some of my students who are now 14 and 15 years old claim that they are the “biggest LoTR fans EVER”, even though most of them were born nearly 50 years after the first publication. For a fantasy world to garner such enjoyment for so many people over such a time span, it is hard to say that any fandom can be greater than that of The Lord of the Rings.