I’m still exhausted. Last week, Lauren and I and three of our friends went to see the midnight showing of The Hobbit. The movie was a great time, even though waking up at 6:30 the next day was not.

Tolkien seems to be extremely popular among pipe smokers. Perhaps it is simply pipester-to-pipester loyalty; perhaps it is his drawn out language that lends itself to length musings and relaxation in an armchair. Then again, maybe it’s just because he wrote incredible stories.

When we arrived at the movie theater about an hour before show time, Lauren and I met up with our friend, Aaron. Aaron is one of the most incredible costume designers that I have ever met. Not only does he create outfits for characters like Jack Sparrow, the Mad Hatter, Batman, and so many more, he also acts the characters out at renaissance faires and parties. His a phenomenal actor, a brilliant guy, and a great friend. It should have been no surprise that he came to the movie with an elaborate set of Elven bracer that he created, start to finish – including staining, stitching, cutting, and molding – just a couple of hours before.

He also brought a pipe. Until eight hours before the movie, I didn’t know that Aaron even owned a pipe. When we were hammering out plans for the night, however, he sent me a text message reading, “We need to smoke a pipe. I have the perfect one.”

Well, well, Aaron! You are full of surprises! Believe it or not, Aaron, I just happen to have the perfect pipe and tobacco for this movie, too.

Many months ago, I spoke with the great pipe-artist, Stephen Downie, about a large project. I don’t know what inspired this project, but we started something that has since become known as the Fellowship of the Pipe: nine pipes for nine of the major Lord of the Rings characters. Here’s the catch: they aren’t imitations of the pipes smoked by those characters in the movies or books, but rather they are the pipes that those characters would commission from Stephen if they were able.

As a result of this goal, each pipe has required a great deal of thinking, including what type of tobacco the character would smoke (for chamber type), level of activity (for stem length), personality (for appearance), passions (details), and geographical origin (materials). These are just some of the factors that have gone into every pipe so far of these has been created.

So far, three of these pipes have been created and will be revealed in a later post. However, I knew that one of these pipes was perfect for this movie, but I couldn’t decide which.

At the impasse, I changed my approach and decided on the tobacco first. I knew for a fact that I wanted to smoke “Shortcut to Mushrooms”, by Just for Him. The delicious, buttery blend is one of the most highly rated blends out there and is a fantastic example of an English Aromatic. Even better, it is part of a Lord of the Rings pipe tobacco series, along with Old Toby, Treebeard, and more.

With this, I settled on the second the pipes Stephen has made in the series, Legolas. This pipe contains Elvish script, is modeled after one of the leaves in the story, and features light, fanciful features as would befit an elf. It seemed more fitting for a slight aromatic than the other options.

I was so giddy to smoke that pipe before the movie that I almost forgot about the movie. When we got to the theater, however, I was so overwhelmed with anticipation and excitement at being with so many friends that I left the pipe idle in the car, completely untouched.

Despite this hiccup in my best-laid plan, we had a wonderful time. Aaron provided Mystery Science Theater 3000 style commentary throughout the previews and Lauren, having never seen or read The Hobbit, let me experience the whole thing through new eyes. Though I regret not getting to christen the pipe on such a perfect occasion, pipes are all about enjoyment. Had I tried to rush the experience, it would not have been worth it.

For those of you who have not yet seen the movie, I really enjoyed it. It has an entirely different feel from the first three Lord of the Rings movies. It is not nearly as dark and has a great deal more humor. A perfect example is the trolls. In the first movies, the trolls didn’t speak: they screamed and roared and howled. In The Hobbit, however, the trolls spoke perfectly, sometimes with British accents.

If you’re skeptical about the fact that it has been split into three movies, don’t be. The movie moves along smoothly and includes a lot more of the Middle Earth canon than does the original book, as it draws upon many different writings.

At three thirty in the morning, I left the movie theater with four people that had a wonderful time and were smiling and laughing, despite the hour. It really was a night to remember, as Biblo said.

Then I had to wake up three hours later…