My 8th grade teacher was one of the original Tolkien fans

I went to his house one time and he had a HUGE antique sword collection, lots of first edition Lotr stuff, a suit of armor, and his dog's name is Mellon. We had Tolkien week in his class where we learned about the history of Lotr instead of real history.
He was actually a major contributor to my obsession since he was my teacher a couple of months after lotr came to theatres.
my english teacher told me that she read the hobbit over break and loves it and wants to read more tolkien!! i am so proud of myself for introducing her to tolkien! lol jk.