Powerful Tolkien experiences

[Thinlómien]

Has there been some very powerful, Tolkien-related experience in your life? If yes, what was it and how was it? I think I'd be intrigued to hear some of those.

I think there are plenty of threads focusing on how it felt to first read the LotR or see the PJ movies, so let's not concentrate on that here. Other, "less mainstream" experiences and stories are very welcome on this thread. Like, for example, stories of plays you've seen, music you've listened, RPG's you've played or discussions you've had, or whatever, only imagination is the limit.

Now that I'm rambling here, I might as well start.

About a year ago, I was in a training for summer camp councellors. The training weekends are cosy and nice and every night one of the trainers reads aloud a bedtime tale. One of these tales I will probably never forget. Usually, the tales are read aloud from some book. This time, however, the storyteller, a guy in his early twenties, told us the story in his own words. That was because he was blind. He told us the story of Aghan the Drûg from The Unfinished Tales. Amazing is a lame word to describe it. It was dark except for the gentle light of a lamp far away. We trainees were laying on mattresses and on one another. It was very silent except for the quiet and calm voice of the blind storyteller. He told the story - which is a very powerful and moving story in itself - in his own words, but Tolkien's way of telling a story shone through it, and the storyteller's way of telling it was by no means degrading to the elaborate and lovingly-woven pattern of Tolkien's language. The storyteller told everything smoothly, didn't leave anything out or get mixed up in his own words. He truly seemed to know the story by heart and his love for it could be heard in how he told it. I could not do anything but listen and be drawn to Middle-Earth as if by a spell woven by both Tolkien and the storyteller. I wished he'd never finish his tale. When he did, I was not the only one in the room with tears in my eyes.