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Where do you all feel most connected to Tolkien?

17 Jul, 2022 (edited)
2022-7-17 8:40:04 PM UTC

Dale Nelson wrote:

Onthetrail wrote, "There is a place in the Welsh hills, entirely unconnected to Tolkien movies and whatnot, an oak tree sat just off the river as it comes from the hills around Snowden, a sandstone wall that has been there for generations. There I feel connected to Tolkien because it is where I often took a break on walks and read his books as a teenager."

I'll bet that, though that location isn't associated in your mind with movies made from Tolkien's writings or with specific scenes in his books, it does have some affinity with something in the latter. In other words, your memory of the place is enriched by associations both with the content of what you read and with the time in which you read it.

If that makes sense to anyone else, it would be interesting to hear about such spots of time and place.

I had various places, and still do, that I find certain passages enjoyable.

On that spot in North Wales I always enjoy reading scenes in Rohan, the Fellowship boating along the Anduin, and especially anything from The Silmarillion as the landscape has the textures and colours that I have in my minds eye when reading. Another favourite place of mine is Dinas Bran, in the hills above Llangollen. A simple search on Google will confirm what is particularly wonderful to read up there. Middle-earth is for me made up of so many places in the North West of England and Wales. Especially the North. Cheshire and the open land around Beeston and Peckforton Castles are stunning and very much my Middle-earth. Although not especially Rohan-esq, I still picture them as that whenever I go home.
17 Jul, 2022
2022-7-17 9:01:46 PM UTC
On the subject of the theme park, I find it hard to get upset by it all, to be honest. Doesn't really impact me in any way or the other if an LoTR theme park exists.

On the subject of places I personally associate - I don't really have any places with associations for LoTR (certainly not the whole NZ is Middle-earth thing), but I do associate the view South from my house with the Blue Wizards, though Ted told me Patagonia was his inspiration (and watching drone videos from Patagonia, I can see why).

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17 Jul, 2022
2022-7-17 9:06:28 PM UTC
That is beautiful Stu. Amazing view.

I could also imagine a black rider on that hill, searching for Hobbits.
17 Jul, 2022
2022-7-17 9:19:29 PM UTC
Amazing view Stu. Could see the south of Eregion here, the end of the misty mountains before Isengard and the Westfolde.
17 Jul, 2022
2022-7-17 10:09:22 PM UTC
It was magical when I visited Oxford in 2010. I couldn't feel more connected to Tolkien anywhere else.
18 Jul, 2022
2022-7-18 5:37:29 AM UTC
I think it has to be the most obvious place, Wolvercote Cemetery in Oxford.

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18 Jul, 2022
2022-7-18 7:32:28 AM UTC
Like Stu scenery and mountains do it for me
Taken earlier this year from Mt Psiloritis Crete???

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18 Jul, 2022
2022-7-18 7:29:16 PM UTC
There is a spot on the shores of the bay were my city is located. With these long beaches and nice trees along the shore and its just open enough to get a taste of the great western ocean off the coast. Long waves coming in.
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