vampires, spaceships, and fantastical worlds—the tales of L.E. Teetzel

December 19, 2021 marked the twentieth anniversary of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.

Twenty years.

That seems both an impossibly long amount of time—how has it already been twenty years?!—and far too short. I was 12 when The Fellowship of the Ring hit theatres. Grade 8. My anime phase was in full swing, but I was also reading a great deal of high fantasy and loving it. The fantasy novels I was reading felt like these vast, undiscovered worlds. No one had ever told me about fantasy. There wasn’t much high fantasy on TV back then (if any), and I had yet to really jump into video games beyond platformers like Spyro the Dragon and Crash Bandicoot, and JRPGs like Final Fantasy VII and IX. I also didn’t know anyone who read fantasy with the same fervor I did; I didn’t know anyone who read with the same fervor I did.

So when my mom and stepdad at the time took me, my brother, and my stepbrothers to see The Fellowship of the Ring, I was excited to see high fantasy come to live. I had yet to read The Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit, but I knew the genre and I knew this movie was going to be something important. I also knew it looked like a good time and if there is one thing that has never changed about me, it’s that I’ve always been easy to please when it comes to movies: if I have a good time watching it, I’ll like it.

But anyway, like I was saying, how is it possible that twenty years has passed since I was that excited, awkward kid sitting in the theatre, watching a new passion unfold before me? And how is it possible that, a lot of the time, I still feel like that same excited, awkward kid, and that no time has passed at all?

The Lord of the RIngs was immediately special to me. I latched onto the world and characters after that first viewing, even though the rest of my family was complaining about the movie being over three hours long, and the only thing I wanted to do was spend more time in Middle Earth. So, I asked for, and got, the books for Christmas, and jumped right in.

I was… underwhelmed, shall we say? While I enjoyed reading the books and I’m glad that I did, it felt more like reading something academic rather than fiction. Part of me loved that—I can’t even tell you how many theories I developed privately that The Lord of the Rings was actually history that somehow only JRR Tolkien was privy to, and that elves and dwarves and hobbits had once roamed the European countryside and all you had to do was look at the lingering makers on the people around you. Look, I was obsessed. I could appreciate the world-building and I fell in love with the idea of creating a world so rich and detailed. A world that felt so real. Even after I’d left my theories behind, I knew I’d carry the feeling of discovering that world with me forever.

I don’t particularly like reading the books. I’ve only done it twice. I find them dry and kind of boring for the most part, the truly enjoyable character moments few and far between. It was the same with The Hobbit, though on a much smaller scale, obviously.

But the movies.

Oh, the movies.

I’m not even sure I can adequately describe how much the six movies that make up The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit mean to be. How much of an impact they’ve made and continue to make on my life. Some of that impact I’m only discovering as I rewatch them, first to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of The Fellowship of the Ring, and then just to give into the nostalgia and the inspiration. But I’ll try to run it down.

First, I just want to remind you that, unlike many who waited for and watched these movies, I had and have no special attachments to the books, and all I wanted out of the movies was a fun adventure. I love the movies, warts and all. They’re not perfect, obviously, but I treasure them and the memories surrounding them.

Perhaps the biggest impact The Lord of the Rings had on me is to be found in my writing. I discovered fanfiction through The Lord of the Rings, and while I don’t remember the exact chain of events that led me to stumble upon fanfiction.net, stumble upon it I did. And I discovered that hey, I wasn’t the only one who had made up a version of myself to insert into Middle Earth. I wasn’t the only one who wanted to live there. There was a whole group of people who were writing their own stories set in Middle Earth—and not just Middle Earth, either. But that was where I started.

Her name was Yafyladen. She was an elf in Mirkwood and she was in love with Legolas. And that first fanfiction I wrote was truly awful in just about every way it could be, from plot to characterization to dialogue to formatting. I wrote it in WordPad. It was single-spaced and one huge block. Not even paragraph indentation. It was impossible to read. I didn’t post it—I was too sacred—but just knowing I could was kind of exciting.

That was the first thing I’d ever written for me. And it was fun.

I never stopped writing.

Also of huge importance to me is the music. Howard Shore created a world within his music, and music that is wholly synonymous with The Lord of the Rings for me. I love the soundtracks and to do this day, listening to them even independent of the movies, will move me to tears. The soundtracks are hugely inspirational. I didn’t think I’d love anything more than the hobbit themes or “Into the West,” but Howard Shore proved me wrong, as the dwarf themes from The Hobbit trilogy are my favourite Middle Earth themes. To this day, they send shivers down my spine.

The Lord of the Rings was also one of the things me and my best friend bonded over. By the time we meet in the summer of 2003, two of the three movies were out, and we were all deep in our obsessions. But not only did she love the movies, but she read a lot too. We didn’t become best friends until a year later, but it was pretty clear from the beginning we existed on, if not the same page, facing pages. She and I still quote random lines from the movies or the cast featurettes in the special features to each other.

Few things have left such deep marks on my life.

And, as I write this, I’m watching An Unexpected Journey, and thinking about the fanfiction I wrote for The Hobbit, including the original characters I made up (Ibrearyn replaced Yafyladen, and Astrid and Nerys came about for The Hobbit). I watched The Fellowship of the Ring on December 19, to honour the anniversary, and I was immediately sucked back in—despite not having watched any of the theatrical versions for years; extended editions all the way, baby. Middle Earth is a comfortable, familiar place to me, and these movies were made with such love. And the cast all seem to be having such a great time. Both those things make these movies just fun to watch. Like, so fun.

Of course, I have the memories of my dad taking me and a friend out of high school to see The Two Towers and The Return of the King. And the memories of watching the special features on each of the extended edition Lord of the Rings DVDs each Christmas while eating the chocolate waffles my dad made. And the memories of my best friend and I going to the theatre New Year’s Day in 2013, 2014, and 2015 to watch An Unexpected Journey, The Desolation of Smaug, and The Battle of the Five Armies while we nursed hangovers and ate popcorn slathered in fake butter. Those memories make each subsequent viewing all the richer.

And it was emotional and comforting and brilliant to revisit Middle Earth over the past two weeks, to see my favourite characters again, to watch my favourite moments, to laugh as old memories surfaced and funny moments passed, to cry as characters died and epic moments played and music swelled. I found my way back to Middle Earth, an old favourite place, and it made me really, really happy.

What a way to start 2022.

And yes, part of me will always love Legolas and his dumb background faces.

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