Mae govannen, my friends!
December marked the 15th anniversary release of the Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, the first of the powerhouse fantasy trilogy that went on to rack up a monster 18 Academy Awards across all three films. Although the reign of this fantasy series seems long past, somehow the cast still finds a way to hit us right in the feels while posting pictures and videos on social media during their little mini reunion yesterday.
Orlando Bloom (Legolas) and Dominic Monaghan (Merry) took to Instagram sharing selfies and videos of their little get together with three other members of the Fellowship. Elijah Wood (Frodo), Billy Boyd ( Pippin) and Viggo Mortensen. Although Sting and Andruil were not available to them, they armed themselves with vicious cutlery and re-enacted the fight scene against the cave troll in the Mines of Moria from the first film.
All nine members of the Fellowship recently interviewed each other to celebrate the 15th anniversary of their feat in cinematic history for Empire Magazine. You can read a short version of the article on their website here, or be sure to read the full story in the latest issue of the magazine which is on newsstands now!
It’s hard to believe that these films blessed our lives just over fifteen years ago. I am a huge LOTR nerd myself and remember seeing all these films on screen for the first time very vividly. I even remember seeing the first teaser trailer for the trilogy in theaters and crying tears of absolute joy a year before the release of Fellowship. For me, being a member of fandom while I was in high school was defined by this trilogy. My room was covered in posters and other memorabilia. My closet was full of shirts with the faces of Aragorn, Legolas and Samwise. I even own a replica of Arwen’s Evenstar necklace. And my senior pictures from high school had a Lord of the Rings theme. This trilogy was my gateway into all fandoms, so the fact that it still finds a way to pull at my heartstrings over fifteen years later is a blessing. Middle Earth and all of its inhabitants will always be responsible for pulling me into this wonderful world of fandom that we all live in.