Concerning Hobbits …. (In Norway)

As you may have noticed by now, the Norwegian Line Party for TTT was something special. Here follows a brief report from “the inside”.

The line started to form as early as Monday 21 when Emil and Tom, who also were the first to line up for tickets for FOTR last year, showed up in front of the cinema. The news soon reached the rest of us, causing quite a panic. After all, Tolkien followers are not all students, some of us have jobs and families.

I had already decided to bring my Viking tents to sleep in, but since the line was to be moved to a nearby park on Friday 25, I wanted to wait for that to avoid having to put the tents up twice. So in the early morning of the 25, I said goodbye to the real world and joined the throng in Frognerparken. I was no 14 in the line, with 10 days of queuing ahead if me.

By Sunday the population of our village had grown to over 50, and the promoters of the camp had done their bit to make things as pleasant as possible. We now had toilets (named Mordor), a tent with heating (named Mount Doom), and also a tent with four computers with access to the internet (named Silmarills)

From Monday onwards there were daily Risk Tournaments, twice a day there would be a new chapter from the BBC Radio Play to listen to, and also different games to participate in.

The weather stayed favorable, with temperatures down to –7 C and a clear sky. By Thursday the number of people in the line had gone past 225, and the newly arrived had no longer any hope for tickets for the first screening, but still they kept coming.

Thursday and Friday night FOTR was shown on a big screen in the park, and Saturday night they decided to show the extended version, to wild cheers from the audience. It was quite magical to sit there under the stars, surrounded by trees. It made you feel as if you were actually inside the film, and could hear the rustling leaves of Lorien, or feel the cold winds of Caradras.

By Sunday the Park was inhabited with large numbers of Orcs and Elves, Rangers and Rohan Riders, Hobbits and Ents (rather young ones, judging from the size. I think perhaps the Entwives may be living in the neighborhood.) The most impressing were perhaps the two boys who had copied the elven Armour from “The last alliance”, helmets, shields and all.

On the morning of Monday of November 4, more than 600 persons lined up to march down to the ticket office of the cinema, and more joined in on the way there. I now have in my possession 4 tickets that say 18 des. 00.02 and 4 tickets that say 18 des. 20.00. And yes, I am going to see the film twice on the opening day.

In the 5 days that have passed since the ticket sales opened, more than 40.000 tickets have been sold here in Norway, equaling nearly 1% of our population.

I send along some pictures from our camp, featuring my daughter Erin/Eowyn and her friend Iris/Arwen, and some general pictures from the camp. More pictures are to be found at ringenesHerre.no (the Norwegian official web page) if you click on “Frognerparken 2002”, and then on “Bilder fra Frognerparken” in the yellow box on the right.

Yours sincerely