I think I have always been somewhat aware of The Lord of the Rings, partially because of my love of The Hobbit and partially because my dad reread it every couple of years, but it was always a little daunting: such a fucking big novel for such a, at the time, small person. And that was before I found out that I had only been looking at the first novel in the trilogy. I did try reading the saga, stealing The Fellowship of the Ring from my dad’s bookshelf and using a flashlight under my comforter, but I could barely get past the first chapter. It just wasn’t my cup of tea then – still isn’t – but the movies? I could get down with the movies, starting with the fun 70s animated ones.

Fast forward to my senior year in high school: I find out in my AP history class that the books are being adapted into a film trilogy. I’d just been disappointed in The Phantom Menace, so I was looking for another speculative fiction series to obsess over. Plus, my dad was a big fan of the books, so I figured we could bond over the movie version of them as we had about Star Wars. I was also annoyed at the guys in my AP class, most of whom were deciding if I and the only other girl there were enough like Eowyn, so I decided that attending The Fellowship of the Ring on its opening night (my birthday, coincidentally) would allow me dole out spoilers for the ones that weren’t able to secure tickets. I didn’t expect to actually enjoy the movies, and I was able to figure out more than one way to piss of the guys. Did you know that they get mad when you know more about stuff they love and then also have opinions that don’t match theirs on the lack of the presence of Tom Bombadil? Because I do.

I am much less contrary now, although I still get a little bit of joy when I piss an annoying man off, and I still enjoy the movies. As a matter of fact, I watch at least one of them once a month, mostly for background noise because I have them memorized, so I supposed I have to thank the annoying high school boys who named their cars Shadowfax and Glamdring and Celeborn for that.

Art Credit: Gabz