The Lord of the Rings is One of Those Things

Under the Shadow

So yesterday was Ring Day (observed) and I missed it. Partly because I used to observe it from the old dates on the old Tolkien Calendar, where according to their adjustment from the Shire Calendar made it the day after St. Patrick's Day. I suppose having it the 25th is fine, because that's what it says in the book anyway, and it preserves its old significance as Lady's Day in the Gregorian(?) Calendar. My brain is a little scrambled and preoccupied lately, as I seem to have had another TIA, not as severe as the last one, but still a little debilitating. And just when I had sworn to do more original work, too. That's why I've fallen back into image dumps. Sorry about that, but them's the lumps.

Happy 126th!

Today is J. R. R. Tolkien's birthday!

Mike Ploog and Concept Art For Ralph Bakshi's "The Lord of the Rings"

Sam, As It Ever Was

Two weeks ago our family descended upon Eckman's Comic, Card, and Toy Show once again to scour its stalls for new finds and old memories. My nephew was hunting for zombies, my niece for My Little Pony. My brother John and I had decided we would go in not looking for anything in particular, but to just drift, browse, and enjoy, and hope to be pleasantly surprised.

We broke up into various units and the search began. After an hour and a half or so we foregathered near one of the exits in preparation to leave, and review what we had seen and bought. I hadn't scored much, just the accessories for the Marx Odin viking figure (ax, sword, shield, knife, horn, bow, quiver, arrows, and assorted helmets), a Final Fantasy action figure, and my brother John had found and given me the bear from the Crest Zoo Animals premium. Good stuff, and I was satisfied and ready to leave, when my sister mentioned seeing some of the Ralph Bakshi The Lord of the Rings action figures, and particularly Sam.

Now I have mentioned before in this blog that way back in 1979 we got all the Knickerbocker LOTR figures, except for Sam. He had always been the hard one to find, apparently, and I had never even seen one in person. We all had to run back (if you can call a fast squeeze through milling crowds a run) to the stall where she had seen it. It belonged to a colorful entrepreneur that my brother had nicknamed Kramer, a fellow who deals in the Sixties and Seventies toys we especially enjoy. John had already scoured his displays, but he had put out new stuff since then, and there they were: Aragorn, Frodo, Gollum, and to our wonder, Sam.

He was not mint in box, of course, and he was missing his little knife, but he was there. Kramer wanted $100 for each figure, but the great thing about these shows is one can haggle, and after some back and forth (and a quick loan from my sister) I purchased Sam for $85. This is a comparable price for similar Sams on eBay, if you figure in shipping and handling, and had the added bonus of being RIGHT THERE to kindle my acquisitive nature. At last I had a Samwise Gamgee in my hot little hand, and all the journey home I kept taking him out in his little plastic display box (we have a rule: no unwrapping till we get home), gazing at his details, and occasionally muttering "My Precious!"

We got home, I dug out the original figures and at last the old gang was complete, with Sam finally standing staunchly at Frodo's side. The quest of thirty-three years was accomplished. The old gap was filled, an odd psychic tension relaxed, "back-story...resolving, heart...melting, desire to destroy world...fading away!" But seriously, one of my three or four big toy yearnings had been fulfilled.

This had gone back a long way. As early as 1980, the almost complete set of LOTR figures (sans Ringwraith's Horse) had been offered in a comic book ad for $3.99 each. I wanted them, but I had no checking account at the time, and my parents had a weird fear about sending checks in the mail. I do not know if they came on cards or if they were simply shipped, but a carded mint Knickerbocker LOTR can go for two or three thousand dollars these days. What an investment that might have been (if I could ever be persuaded to part with them)!

But as for this Sam, my Sam, he might well say (adapting a famous saying) "Well, I'm home!"

10 Books A Day: #135

All titles are by J. R. R. Tolkien

The Fellowship Of The Ring...Ninth Printing...Houghton Mifflin Company

The Two Towers...Eighth Printing...Houghton Mifflin Company

The Return Of The King...Eighth Printing...Houghton Mifflin Company

The Fellowship Of The Ring...56th Printing, March 1976...Ballantine Books

The Two Towers...52nd Printing, March 1976...Ballantine Books

The Return Of The King...51st Printing, March 1976...Ballantine Books

The Lord Of The Rings: Collector's Edition...Houghton Mifflin Company

The Lord Of The Rings...Illustrated By Alan Lee...Houghton Mifflin Company

The Lord Of The Rings...One Volume Edition...Houghton Mifflin Company

The Lord Of The Rings...50th Anniversary Edition...Houghton Mifflin Company

I bartered a year of my life for my first look at The Lord of the Rings.

I was in middle school; my older brother Mike was in high school. I had read The Hobbit, and was spellbound; in the back, there was a notice: "If you are interested in Hobbits, you will learn a lot more them in The Lord of the Rings." Our library didn't have copies, and I moaned about the fact. Mike found out the high school library did, and in return for procuring them for me, he had me agree to do his turn of cleaning our bedroom for a year. I remember that after I finished The Fellowship of the Ring I had an agonizing wait for someone to return The Two Towers; in my impatience I peeked into the beginning of The Return of the King. Pippin and Gandalf were headed for Minas Tirith. What? What happened to Frodo? Where was Minas Tirith? It seemed to take forever before I could resume the tale at the right place. But a certain mania was born that year, as well as a new-found tendency to be neat and orderly.

That Christmas I received my first proper set of the trilogy, a gold box-set that also included The Hobbit, all in paperback. These had covers by Tolkien himself; the box was decorated by his "Elvish heraldry" designs. In the copy of The Return of the King are still some special book marks I made, decorated with pictures of the Eye and ring inscription, that I made to mark readings for our annual "Downfall of Sauron" party, duly noted on my Tolkien calendars. I had a complete set of the Darrell K. Sweet covers LOTR, but I sent them to Florida with my brother Yen. I still see them on his shelves when I go to visit, looking very well read.

The copy I really coveted, though, was what we called "the red LOTR", the Collector's Edition. Slip case. Red leatherette. All three parts in one volume. Book marker ribbon. It was the Bible for Tolkienuts. It was the Red Book of Westmarch. When I finally got it, it was for years the place I kept "important" documents. It has since been joined in it's all-in-oneness by the Alan Lee illustrated edition, the movie tie-in edition, and what I can only describe now as "the black LOTR" 50th Anniversary Edition. I read The Lord of the Rings at least once a year, still, but it's getting to the point where I don't have to physically anymore. I can just enter a state of Tolkienity.

Yesterday I was walking to work, slightly after seven a.m., just after posting my stuff about The Hobbit, and thinking about what to say about The Lord of the Rings. It was a beautiful cool morning, with purple skies and golden leaves stirring in the damp morning air. I passed a young neighbor girl, waiting for the bus. We nod and say good morning sometimes. This morning I noticed she was reading something while she waited. It was a copy of The Fellowship of the Ring, with a picture of Elijah Wood as Frodo on the cover, and it looked well read.

"Lord of the Rings?" I asked.

"Yes," she said.

I thought of about half-a-dozen things. I thought about what a fine thing it was on a beautiful September morning to be reading The Fellowship (my favorite book of the three). About how often as a kid I myself had filled up empty times by journeying into Middle Earth. About how just next door there was the (probably) finest collection in town of all things Tolkien. About how it was just on this day (Sept. 2) that J. R. R. Tolkien had passed away in 1973. In fact, I couldn't think of anything to say that just wouldn't sound kind of creepy coming from a 46 year old man to a maybe 13 year old girl, no matter what sort of feeling of kinship, of continuity, might have just welled up inside of me.

So I just said, "Great!", gave her a thumbs up, and hobbled on to work. But I felt strangely uplifted, and optimistic. A great cycle was going on, and a new generation was discovering Tolkien's books, and not just limiting themselves to the movies, or to vampires, or to boy-wizards. The world was enchanted again.

Book Count: 1606.