One life immersed in Middle-earth
Fan Scott Weingart credits the Tolkien trilogy for sparking a lot of his interests.
By LAI-YAN TANG
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
Scott Weingart tears his eyes away from the computer screen and glances at his watch, expecting to see that two hours have passed in the "Lord of the Rings" chat room. It's been more than 24.
"I wouldn't call it crazy because I've done it several times," said Scott, a junior at J.P. Taravella High School in Coral Springs, Fla. This self-proclaimed Tolkien fanatic speaks Elvish, wears the One Ring around his neck at all times, owns 34 Tolkien books and reads "Lord of the Rings" at least twice a year.
"The time I've devoted to 'Lord of the Rings' is probably as much as I've slept, because I spend half the night doing 'Lord of the Rings' stuff and the other half sleeping," he said.
Scott first picked up "The Hobbit" in fourth grade, liked it, and put it down. A couple of years later, rumors spread about the "LOTR" movies, and his interest was piqued again. He began searching Web sites and stumbled into a chat room with fans around the world.
"It was there that I really started becoming a fanatic," he said. "I started buying rare Tolkien books left and right, and then I came across 'An Introduction to Elvish.'"
Uniting in language
The chat room members experimented with phrases of the Elvish languages, Quenya and Sindarin, and eventually learned the languages together.
At one point, Scott came across a Swedish chat room in which only one person spoke English, but all spoke Elvish.
"I had a great time talking to them all, and not one word did I speak in English," Scott said. "It's a beautiful language. I prefer it over any other."
Scott is fascinated with the intensity of Tolkien's world.
"When you're reading the story, you're reading it as someone who's in Middle-earth. The information you know is information that has been gathered by other characters, and there are mysteries they don't know that you don't know as well," he said.
Deep admiration
He admires Tolkien as a genius for making this world for himself and his children, and as a mythology for England.
"He had this ability and immense love to create things that were both his own and could be others' as well. He could take his dreams and make them into reality," Scott said.
"If it wasn't for 'Lord of the Rings,' I wouldn't be an avid reader; I wouldn't listen to music or be interested in computers. He was a big starter for a lot of things in my life -- an inspiration, I guess you could call it."
In a "making of the movie" program on the "Rings" DVDs, director Peter Jackson refers to several experts who assisted the production team with dialect and history. Scott aspires to be one of these experts.
Until then, he keeps his favorite Tolkien poem in mind:
The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the road where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can.
XLai-Yan Tang is a senior at J.P. Taravella High School in Coral Springs, Fla.