Post by TOA Management on Oct 8, 2005 22:18:21 GMT -5
Greetings to All:
I am your lovely - decidedly insane - webmistress, Lady Elwen - feel free to call me Elwen. Whether you are a visitor, member, or passerby, welcome to :~Watch of Tirith Aear~:. I hope your stay, however brief, is as enjoyable as possible.
The site is dedicated to the group of people who have been so affected and inspired by Tolkien's Middle-Earth that they have explored with their own lines of thought.
Equally, to those of you who enjoy reading the products of such inspiration, you are welcome here.
The site's name is taken from the watchtower near the Bay of Belfalas, for no particular reason other than that it seemed to somehow apply to Middle-Earth in a widespread sense, although I could certainly be off in that assumption...
Now, to further bore you with some of the history of the site....
The site opened in December 2004, after much contemplation on my part - the original domain was held on an MSN group, under the name :~Tales of Arda~:, and as such, I had spent my time on a select few, getting comfortable with the layout and methods.
I'd never been much of one to get involved on the internet, so I fully blame Tolkien for my increase in interest over the past few years... ;D
I had read The Hobbit in junior high and thought it was interesting. Being the sort that can never resist the lure of a good book, I wanted to see more of its characters, noticed the list of "sequels", and went out and purchased a one-volume copy of Lord of the Rings. Admittedly, that was a bad choice, but alas, hindsight never helped anyone....
I read through The Two Towers, got extremely sidetracked - never mind discouraged by the enormous size of the book - and eventually came back to it halfheartedly about six months before the first film came out.
Being one who hates blood and gore and the like on film, I wasn't planning to see the film, but my father, who will generally buy the average movie, purchased it anyway. I watched it, and immediately picked the book up again, as I discovered that I had no idea what was going on in the movie. I slap myself time and time again for not really finishing it when I first started, since it led me to confuse Aragorn and Boromir the first time around, never mind Merry and Pippin, embarrassing as it is, but I slammed right back into it and finished the entire set in a few months – even with classes.
This led me to the epitome of Tolkien, well, let's call it "appreciation", for lack of a better word: I taught myself to “speak” Quenya and Sindarin, write in Tengwar runes, and pick up Noldorin basics. I turned to The Silmarillion, and while I agree that it is a hard read - much heavier than LoTR - it is worth the time it takes to gather all of the information, and the creation of Arda is understood. The Unfinished Tales were my next task, and it expanded on some of the tales in the Silmarillion, albeit incompletely. The History of Middle-Earth was the last I picked up, and admittedly, I am still finishing it. Vastly fascinating, it takes time, but again, the creation of Arda, the evolution of Middle-Earth, and the commencement of the Valar are clarified.
By this point, I've gone through what has to be almost every creditable, published book written by or about Tolkien, from Roverandom (a gift from a friend) to Beowulf. (I have never in my life seen an essay as long as his on Beowulf...)
In about mid-2004, I began to get more involved in the online Tolkien community and eventually got the idea of creating a community of my own. The original idea, admittedly, is still under vast amounts of construction, and likely won't be released until sometime in the summer of 2006. This site, however, took much less planning, or so I thought, until I began expanding it into something much more than just a few people writing.
Thanks to my time searching MSN, I found the two lovely ladies who were generous enough to work as my assistant managers - Angel and Cerridwen. I owe much of the success of this site to them, and I can only hope that we continue to expand. I'd love to see this site become something substantial among those of the Tolkien community.
It's reached something to show for our community, as Angel presented me with the sweetest gift in mid-2005, a compilation of members' graphics and messages of appreciation and general good wishes. I can never express my gratitude for such a gift, for there are no words in existence to suffice it.
So thank you for listening to - or rather, reading - my statement. For those of you who did, I commend you. I simply wanted to state why this site exists and let you know that your webmistress may well be just as obsessed as you are – perhaps more so – but there is indeed a reason behind such insanity.
I hope to see Tolkien’s work continue as the legacy it is even after the sudden fervor over the films has died down. Tolkien’s work is not about the “hot” actors or the battle stunts; it is about classic fantasy writing - and the books that formed the basis for fantasy today.
I’m begging you to not expect updates to the site constantly. I manage two sites, contribute to, co-manage, or aid multiple others, plus an extremely stressful RL schedule, so I’m not always available to figure things out in order to add new pages. I’m always working on stuff, but it may not hit public for a bit.
Best of luck to you all!
Nai i Valar nauvar as elyë a Anar caluva tielyanna...
All the best,
Lady Elwen, manager
I am your lovely - decidedly insane - webmistress, Lady Elwen - feel free to call me Elwen. Whether you are a visitor, member, or passerby, welcome to :~Watch of Tirith Aear~:. I hope your stay, however brief, is as enjoyable as possible.
The site is dedicated to the group of people who have been so affected and inspired by Tolkien's Middle-Earth that they have explored with their own lines of thought.
Equally, to those of you who enjoy reading the products of such inspiration, you are welcome here.
The site's name is taken from the watchtower near the Bay of Belfalas, for no particular reason other than that it seemed to somehow apply to Middle-Earth in a widespread sense, although I could certainly be off in that assumption...
.*.~.*.~.*.~.*.~.*.~.*.~.*.~.*.~.*.
Now, to further bore you with some of the history of the site....
The site opened in December 2004, after much contemplation on my part - the original domain was held on an MSN group, under the name :~Tales of Arda~:, and as such, I had spent my time on a select few, getting comfortable with the layout and methods.
I'd never been much of one to get involved on the internet, so I fully blame Tolkien for my increase in interest over the past few years... ;D
I had read The Hobbit in junior high and thought it was interesting. Being the sort that can never resist the lure of a good book, I wanted to see more of its characters, noticed the list of "sequels", and went out and purchased a one-volume copy of Lord of the Rings. Admittedly, that was a bad choice, but alas, hindsight never helped anyone....
I read through The Two Towers, got extremely sidetracked - never mind discouraged by the enormous size of the book - and eventually came back to it halfheartedly about six months before the first film came out.
Being one who hates blood and gore and the like on film, I wasn't planning to see the film, but my father, who will generally buy the average movie, purchased it anyway. I watched it, and immediately picked the book up again, as I discovered that I had no idea what was going on in the movie. I slap myself time and time again for not really finishing it when I first started, since it led me to confuse Aragorn and Boromir the first time around, never mind Merry and Pippin, embarrassing as it is, but I slammed right back into it and finished the entire set in a few months – even with classes.
This led me to the epitome of Tolkien, well, let's call it "appreciation", for lack of a better word: I taught myself to “speak” Quenya and Sindarin, write in Tengwar runes, and pick up Noldorin basics. I turned to The Silmarillion, and while I agree that it is a hard read - much heavier than LoTR - it is worth the time it takes to gather all of the information, and the creation of Arda is understood. The Unfinished Tales were my next task, and it expanded on some of the tales in the Silmarillion, albeit incompletely. The History of Middle-Earth was the last I picked up, and admittedly, I am still finishing it. Vastly fascinating, it takes time, but again, the creation of Arda, the evolution of Middle-Earth, and the commencement of the Valar are clarified.
By this point, I've gone through what has to be almost every creditable, published book written by or about Tolkien, from Roverandom (a gift from a friend) to Beowulf. (I have never in my life seen an essay as long as his on Beowulf...)
In about mid-2004, I began to get more involved in the online Tolkien community and eventually got the idea of creating a community of my own. The original idea, admittedly, is still under vast amounts of construction, and likely won't be released until sometime in the summer of 2006. This site, however, took much less planning, or so I thought, until I began expanding it into something much more than just a few people writing.
Thanks to my time searching MSN, I found the two lovely ladies who were generous enough to work as my assistant managers - Angel and Cerridwen. I owe much of the success of this site to them, and I can only hope that we continue to expand. I'd love to see this site become something substantial among those of the Tolkien community.
It's reached something to show for our community, as Angel presented me with the sweetest gift in mid-2005, a compilation of members' graphics and messages of appreciation and general good wishes. I can never express my gratitude for such a gift, for there are no words in existence to suffice it.
.*.~.*.~.*.~.*.~.*.~.*.~.*.~.*.~.*.
So thank you for listening to - or rather, reading - my statement. For those of you who did, I commend you. I simply wanted to state why this site exists and let you know that your webmistress may well be just as obsessed as you are – perhaps more so – but there is indeed a reason behind such insanity.
I hope to see Tolkien’s work continue as the legacy it is even after the sudden fervor over the films has died down. Tolkien’s work is not about the “hot” actors or the battle stunts; it is about classic fantasy writing - and the books that formed the basis for fantasy today.
I’m begging you to not expect updates to the site constantly. I manage two sites, contribute to, co-manage, or aid multiple others, plus an extremely stressful RL schedule, so I’m not always available to figure things out in order to add new pages. I’m always working on stuff, but it may not hit public for a bit.
Best of luck to you all!
Nai i Valar nauvar as elyë a Anar caluva tielyanna...
All the best,
Lady Elwen, manager