Remembering 10 Years of Back to Middle-earth Month: Memories of 2006

[dreamflower]

Discussion post for 2006:

The first mention of Back to Middle-earth Month was in an anonymous contribution to middleearthnews on February 27, 2006:

Contributed by Someone-who-didn't-give-us-their-lj-name: (O_O) March 2006: Back to Middle-Earth Month

Miss the golden days of the Lord of the Rings fandom? Get homesick for Middle-Earth? Then this is for you!

You don't need to sign up anywhere to participate. But if you see this on your friends-page and like the idea, please post this text to your LJ to spread the word.

How to participate:

1. Pick a day of the week (or more than one) on which you resolve to always post something LotR-related in March, and let your friends-list know.

2. Go back and read your favourite chapters from the book, or watch the movies again. Let the beauty of LotR inspire you. And then, share the love.

3. Start your subject line with (B2MEM) when you post, and use a "b2mem" tag. This'll make it easy to spot your B2MEM-entries.

No matter if you just ramble about your undying love for LotR, picspam us, post wallpapers, icons, or write fan fic / create fan art, the plan is to get as many LotR-related entries on our friends-pages as possible throughout March.

Sounds good? We've been there, let's go back again!

The idea caught on, but the announcement was for very general activity. A few days later a somewhat more specific challenge was issued by there_n_back on March 1.

It may be found here.

Did you participate in that very first challenge? Did you make posts or write stories? If you did, please share your experience with us here in the comments. Give us links, share your anecdotes and memories.

Did you miss out on it, but find yourself curious about it? Check out the comments and ask questions and join in the discussions! And if you check out previous works, be sure to let the creator know how you liked them.

Comments

[dreamflower]

2006 was the first year I had heard of "Back to Middle-earth Month". There was no specific theme that year. During that month, I posted several fics, but I did other activities as well, as I noted in my last post of the month:

Well, this is the last day of "Back to Middle-earth Month". I've posted some fic--but also:

I knitted 81 rows on my Pippin scarf.
I did a calligraphy setting of Bilbo's Last Song.
I listened to "In Elven Lands" by The Fellowship, "Leaving Rivendell" and "Dawn at Rivendell" by the Tolkien Ensemble, and "Songs of Middle-earth" by The Hobbitons. Money well-spent.
I re-read The Adventures of Tom Bombadil.
I've read tons and tons of brilliant fic, some of which did not even feature hobbits (Elves and Men and Dwarves can be somewhat interesting if there are no new hobbit stories available).
I've obsessed about hobbits on the phone with danachan.
I embellished a purse with a hobbit themed collage.
I somehow or other managed to drag hobbits and/or LotR into my every conversation.

In other words, I didn't spend this month too differently than I do every other month...

I ♥ hobbits!

That first one was a lot of fun, though it was not organized like subsequent years. If you want to check out some of my activities, you can search the tag on my LJ: "b2mem 2006".