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My first exposure to Middle-Earth occured at the age of 11, when- for lack of anything better, I've always assumed- the teachers at my secondary school put my whole year group into the new exam hall and made us sit through the animated film of The Hobbit. I am sorry to say that I wasn't all that interested in it then, and I'm sure I dozed off once or twice during the showing. Something about the characters- particularly the silly, rounded protagonist- stayed with me, though, and even though I was not able to recall the exact storyline (the best I could do at that point would have been muttering something Dwarves, gold and possibly a dragon) certain scenes and images, like the round door of Bag End or the map that showed the progress of the Battle of Five Armies via small jumping dots that brought to mind excitable fleas. A few months later, I came upon a copy of the comic book version of The Hobbit. At this time I was determined to read every fantasy and science fiction novel in the secondary school library, and had decided to go about it alphabetically. Note that The Hobbit was under the 'T' section (for Tolkien). Being a fantasy enthusiast, I had also heard then that Tolkien's Lord of the Rings was the must-read for the genre. Since The Hobbit was the prequel, I figured that I might as well refresh my memory of the plot and characters before tackling the giant Houghton Mifflin omnibus edition of the Lord of the Rings (with illustrations by Alan Lee) that sat next to the significantly thinner comic book. The comic book was devoured in one day, and on the next day I was faced with the predicament of carrying a book that was heavier and thicker than all of my folders combined. Somehow I managed to get the monster home, and sat down to read it. For five days I was immersed in the 3rd Age of Middle-Earth, pausing only to eat and, occasionally, sleep. Fortunately schoolwork back then was not too important- at least, not important enough to land me in any major trouble during the week in which I did none. And so it was, that, at the tender age of 12, I had landed myself in Middle-Earth for life. Writing FanFiction The first fandom for which I wrote fanfic was actually Star Wars, after becoming obsessed with that fandom for a couple of years after watching Episode One: The Phantom Menace. I had one main story that reached around seven chapters, but I lost interest in Star Wars before I could finish it. Incidentally, that was also my first experience with FF.Net, back when the site was quite small and not very well-known. Etharei the Writer The name 'Etharei' was actually put together from the glossary at the back of the Silmarillion. I admit that I did it in a bit of a hurry, as I was eager to get involved in the great big world of LOTR fanfiction. It comprises of 'Eth' from the Sindarin word 'ethuil', and 'are' from the Quenya word 'sunlight'. Etharei the Role-Play Character Just before the summer of 2003, I stumbled onto this remarkable website called the Lord of the Rings Fanatics Plaza. I was familiar with online forum communities after being a member of TheForce.Net forums. What I really liked about the Plaza, though, was being able to join a Kingdom and gain points from posting, which in turn can lead to promotions. At the time of writing, I've been a member of the Plaza for nearly three years, and over that time have come to know many fellow Lord of the Rings friends from all over the world. The Plaza gives one the chance to practically live in Middle-Earth, and I see it as a way of expressing to Professor Tolkien our great love for his work. Where To Find Me LiveJournal - http://etharei.livejournal.com Stories of Arda - http://www.storiesofarda.com/author.asp?AuthID=247 Of Elves and Men - http://www.ofelvesandmen.com/authors/e/etharei Open Scrolls Archive - http://www.scribeoz.com FanFiction.Net - http://www.fanfiction.net/~etharei |
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General Disclaimer: The contents of this site are not my property. Any recognisable characters, names, dates, placed or situations have been temporarily borrowed from their rightful owners for the purposes of fun and entertainment. I am not making any money off the publication or maintainance of this website. |
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