![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/212\/2012\/12\/imgres.jpeg\" "\\"imgres\\"")
<\/a>I\u2019ve always had a weird relationship with Tolkien. Never cared much for the books, absolutely love the movies. As a writer, Tolkien has his defenders, but I always had trouble getting past Tom Bombodil, and second-breakfast. I\u2019ll always be quick to acknowledge Tolkien as the creator of my favorite literary genre (the epic fantasy), but he\u2019s far from my favorite author within it. I appreciate the world building, but I\u2019d rather read George R. R. Martin, Robin Hobb, or Patrick Rothfuss. <\/p>\nDespite my problems with Tolkien the author, his books have made for wonderful movies. Middle Earth has so much depth that it\u2019s easy to think of it as a real place, and when you add in Peter Jackson\u2019s New Zealand location shoots it becomes even more real. One of the reasons Lord of the Rings has been the only truly successful fantasy series is that sense of place. Between Tolkien, Jackson, composer Howard Shore, the special effects, and great actors portraying solid characters (take notes whoever writes the next series of Star Wars<\/em> movies) you get a fully realized world when you watch Lord of the Rings<\/em>. That\u2019s what makes everything so successful.<\/p>\n Escapism movies are a favorite of mine, especially when done right. Christopher Nolan\u2019s Batman<\/em> films are great movies with or without a superhero in them. Likewise, Joss Whedon\u2019s The Avengers<\/em> was the perfect mix of character, story, humor, and action. I awaited the release of those films with bated breath, but my excitement for those films was nothing compared to the anxiousness I felt while awaiting each film in the LoTR trilogy<\/em>. I think it was in 1999, we (my now wife and I) saw a teaser trailer for The Fellowship of the Ring<\/em> that was nothing more than a black screen saying \u201ccoming in 2001.\u201d We clapped and cheered, literally. We can be that geeky, and we offer no apologies for it.<\/p>\n We fantasy fiction fans had been waiting decades for someone to translate the images in our brains onto the big screen. Previous attempts at big screen fantasy always felt so small; the stories, the characters, the consequences. By 2000 when the first images were released from Fellowship<\/em> you knew that Jackson\u2019s take on fantasy was going to be something else entirely. It\u2019s strange to say, but I felt like I<\/em> had a lot riding on that movie. If it had failed there would be no Game of Thrones<\/em> on HBO, no hope for a Mistborn<\/em>* movie. If Peter Jackson had been unable to make Rings<\/em> work fantasy at the movies would have become a lost cause, something reserved for kids and Sci-Fi Channel schlock fests. I don\u2019t need anyone to legitimize what I read or what I want to see in a film, but it\u2019s nice when it happens. (When I say \u201cfantasy\u201d I\u2019m mostly talking about \u201cEpic Fantasy\u201d taking place on worlds that are not our own.) <\/p>\n While Tolkein was a pretty committed Christian, he was certainly fascinated by Norse and Celtic mythology. That\u2019s where a lot of his characters and stories come from. So while he may not have worshipped Odin, he was at least influenced by him. (Surprisingly, it was C. S. Lewis who had a far more serious dalliance with early 20th Century Paganism.) I have no idea if Gerald Gardner and\/or Doreen Valiente read Tolkien, but by the 1960\u2019s The Hobbit<\/em> was being referred to as \u201cThe Hippie Bible,\u201d and the hippie movement played a large role in the development of Modern Paganism. My favorite bands from the late 60\u2019s\/early 70\u2019s made copious Middle Earth references, most famously Led Zeppelin in Ramble On<\/em> (. . . and in the darkest depths of Mordor, I met a girl so fair, but Gollum and the Evil One crept up and slipped away with her . . . . ), but Black Sabbath\u2019s The Wizard<\/em> is either about their pot dealer or more likely Gandalf the Grey. <\/p>\n Pagans have long been influenced by Lord of the Rings, the most public instance in my mind is probably Lothlorien Nature Sanctuary<\/a> in Indiana, but I\u2019m sure there are probably others. There are also all the magical names that have probably been borrowed from Tolkien over the years. If you think of how little Pagan-type material there was to read up until the 1980\u2019s it\u2019s not surprising that at least a few of us in the tribe would have gravitated toward Middle Earth. Magic, mystery, great jewelry, what\u2019s not to love about all of those things? <\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=KRGLSitWsas<\/a>\n As the calendar moves toward Yule and Christmas, I\u2019m just as likely to be counting down the days until The Hobbit<\/em>. I\u2019ve already started driving the wife crazy by listening to Howard Shore\u2019s Misty Mountains<\/em> song over and over again. After hearing it for the fourth time this past Saturday morning she yelled \u201cExcited much?\u201d Damn straight I\u2019m excited much! There\u2019s nothing under the tree quite yet that says \u201cTo: Jason\u201d but that\u2019s OK, the best present of all this Holiday Season is being delivered on Friday. <\/p>\n *If you aren\u2019t getting these references, it\u2019s all related to fantasy. <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Friday brings yet another installment in Peter Jackson’s translation of Tolkien to the big screen. Middle Earth is in my Pagan (and geek) DNA, and to say I’m excited is probably an understatement. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":493,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1],"tags":[790,108,788,107],"class_list":["post-1015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pagan","category-uncategorized","tag-led-zeppelin","tag-middle-earth","tag-pagan","tag-tolkien"],"yoast_head":"\n<\/a>For several years LoTR<\/em> became a part of my Holiday experience. That all three (and now four!) movies were released in mid-December certainly helped with the Christmas\/Yuletide associations, but I took it a step farther. I decorated with 12-inch LoTR<\/em> (fully articulated!) action figures for several years, posing Gimli, Aragorn, Legolas, Gandalf, and Frodo around the Yule Log (don\u2019t worry they were in no danger of catching on fire, we keep candles on the Yule Log, it doesn\u2019t go into the fireplace). My wife wasn\u2019t always happy with this decision, but she dealt. <\/p>\n<\/a>We have now established that Jason is a grade A movie geek (and proud of it), and yes I\u2019m super-excited about The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey<\/em>. I know that the reviews have been mixed, and turning The Hobbit<\/em> (book) into three movies is a huge amount of overkill, but any chance to see Andy Serkis as Gollum and (Sir!) Ian McKellen as Gandalf is a welcome one. We may not head to the midnight showing on Thursday night, but we\u2019ll be there Friday night with furry feet on (perhaps not literally, but I would totally do that if I could get away with it). There\u2019s more to Middle Earth than just hobbits and elves too, in a lot of ways it\u2019s kind of an essential Pagan touch-stone.<\/p>\n