Arwen the Webmaster

A-U nicknames: Arwen the webmaster, Arwen, Arweb, Ar, newrA, Tev

Age: Around two decades

Birthday: August 14th

Place of residence: USA, west of the Mississippi

Occupation: college student, on the side graphic/web designer

Favorite LotR character: Sam

Favorite LotR actors: Elijah Wood and Billy Boyd

Favorite LotR book: Return of the King

Favorite LotR movie: ditto...

Favorite song on each LotR soundtrack: The Breaking of the Fellowship (FotR), Evenstar (TTT), and the Return of the King (RotK)

Favorite authors: J.R.R. Tolkien, Robert Jordan, Douglas Adams, Jane Austen, Libba Bray, Lloyd Alexander, J.K. Rowling, C.S. Lewis, Tamora Pierce

Favorite non-LotR movies: Pride & Prejudice (mini-series and 2005), Chronicles of Narnia, Pirates of the Carribean, The Princess Bride, Moulin Rouge, Robin Hood: Men In Tights, Miss Congeniality, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Batman Begins, Spiderman 2, Ever After, The Mask of Zorro, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Almost Famous, The Constant Gardener, Gladiator, Little Women, Bridget Jones' Diary, Star Wars (original trilogy only), Phantom of the Opera, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Bend It Like Beckham, The Importance of Being Earnest, About a Boy, Mulan, Dear Frankie, School of Rock, North & South, Finding Neverland, The Jane Austen Book Club

Favorite music artists: Nightwish, Within Temptation, Epica, Evanescence, After Forever, Stream of Passion, Lullacry, Xandria, Lacuna Coil, Leaves' Eyes, Delain, Nemesea, Emilie Autumn, DragonForce, Kamelot, Howard Shore, Harry Gregson-Williams, John Williams, Hans Zimmer, James Horner, Klaus Badelt, Dario Marianelli, E.S. Posthumus, X-ray Dog, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Riverdance, Enya, Josh Groban, Hayley Westenra, Jon Schmidt, Loreena McKennitt, Gregorian, Alanis Morissette, Dido, Sarah McLachlan, Tori Amos, Anouk, Marié Digby, the Corrs, Alison Krauss, The Wreckers, ABBA, Chicago, the Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, Simon & Garfunkel, Paul Simon, Plumb, Trading Yesterday, Cascada, Delta Goodrem, Michelle Branch, Kelly Clarkson, Maroon 5, Matchbox Twenty

Favorite non-LotR actors/actresses: Christian Bale (*squee*), Richard Armitage (*squee*), Johnny Depp, Russell Crowe, Keira Knightley

Why I made this site: No one else had the LotR fan site I was looking for, so I made it myself. It didn't start that way: the first version was a very personal, template, silly half-LotR site. Waaay not impressive. But then I started to realize that people liked the site once I'd redone it a bit, so I kept going...and going...and going. I never intended it to get this big, though, or expected it to. Another reason I started Arwen-Undomiel.com was to meet other Ringers. I only have a few non-cyber-friends who love LotR nearly as much as I do, and I decided the web was the way to go. Not that I talk to other Ringers online long enough to get to know them anymore, but at least it was fun at first.

Online anecdotes:

  • Once, when talking to a friend via AIM, she IMed me a sound clip of Orlando Bloom droning on and on and on about how he broke his back and how lucky he was to be able to walk and blah blah blah, and I could not get him to stop talking. There was no stop button. So I had to sit through his sermon xD
  • In one of my first versions of this site, I wrote "I want to throw the computer out the window".
  • My first non-family/friends visitors were Eleniel and Amanariel
  • At one time I had more than 100 people on the waiting list for banner dedications. After that, I grew smarter and stopped them altogether.
  • The guestbook option of favorite movie (with the drop-down choices repeating again and again) was inspired by a site dedicated to the less-than-perfect Boston drivers: the site had a survey which included a question on which state to kick out of the USA (the choices were "New York" [about 10 times], and "New York, and maybe Jersey, too"). Note: I have nothing against NY and NJ.
  • As far as I know, I was the first person to start dedicating LotR character banners to people and putting the dedicatee's name on the banner. Also as far as I know, I randomly decided on the 700x150 pixel banner dimensions and am amused to see that it's now the standard A-U size.
  • I have been e-mailed in Spanish by site visitors several times, even though I've never learned the language and nothing in the site is in Spanish.
  • In the early days of the site, I had a box that popped up every time someone visited the index page that said something like "Frodo lives! Gandalf for president! LOTR rules!" If visitors clicked OK, they could get to the page. If they clicked Cancel...well, they were stuck somewhere in the outskirts of cyberspace.
  • It was only after starting this web site that I began to use LotR, FotR, RotK, etc. instead of LOTR, FOTR, and ROTK.