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Viggo Mortensen

Viggo Mortensen Films

Lord of the Rings

About Brego.net

About the Brego.net Site

Supporting Brego.net


Brego.net first went live in April of 2004, with a few pages of links and a David Letterman video clip that I had captured from television. We had a small but steady stream of visitors as we built up content. Over the years our server traffic has grown exponentially. We ask for help in covering expenses. We have a lot more video clips and other material patiently waiting to be uploaded, but literally can't afford the extra hits at this time. This site is and will continue to be a labor of love, but even favored sons must be fed and Brego.net has been sucking mama dry lately! Your help to cover costs would be greatly appreciated.

If you can contribute, you can make a PayPal donation, no matter how small. If donations exceed expenses (not a problem so far!) we will donate the excess to Amnesty International. Brego mama thanks you!

Who is this woman and why is she doing this?

I first read The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings in the late '60s, when I was in high school. I am a detail freak, and so along with my friend Frankie Treiber, I became mildly obsessed with the history, culture and language of the books. We're not talking about scholarly pursuits, mind you. Rather I spent hours practicing calligraphy that looked "Middle Earthish" or Elvish, wrote "Frodo Lives!" on my school notebook covers, and practiced saying "Luthien Tinuviel" for no apparent reason. I was in love with Frodo, Sam, Aragorn, Gandalf, and especially Shadowfax. But by the time I went to college, other interests had taken over.

Over thirty years later, when the Fellowship of the Ring was released in December, 2001, I was in a hell of my own making, working 70 hours/week in the Bay Area, over 3 hours from home. I was exhausted most of the time and didn't even notice the movie release. When the Two Towers came out a year later, I didn't want to see it until I had seen FOTR, and was afraid that if I watched them both it would be difficult to wait a year to see the final installment. I knew I would be sucked in again.

Finally, in February 2004, I managed to set aside a weekend, borrowed the DVDs for Fellowship and Two Towers, and watched them both. I then called my friend Suze, lender of the TT DVD, and said, "I have to go see Return of the King ... NOW!" We headed off to a matinee that afternoon.

I was hooked again. The following weekend I watched all three again, and ordered copies of the extended DVDs of FOTR and TT for myself. I wanted to go a third time and started wondering about my sanity. I bought copies of the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings books, but I didn't dare start them for fear that my business would collapse from neglect. Fortunately I was scheduled for a week in Hawaii in mid-March, so I took the books with me and spent the first five days of my vacation working through their 1300 pages.

Now I could let go, right? Uh, well, now I needed to see the movies again because I was confused about some of the differences between the films and the books. And I hadn't yet gotten to watch the extended DVDs I'd ordered. So the weekend after my return from Hawaii, I watched all three movies again. Starting to sound a bit obsessed?

It's now April 10, 2004, three weeks since I last saw the movies. Return of the King is still playing in a theater about an hour from here, and every few days I am drawn to check the listings. I keep telling myself I have to wait until the DVD is out May 25th but I'm not sure that I will. I've also read almost all of the LOTR a second time -- I started by going back over sections to compare them to the movies, and then found it hard to stop. Now I am working my way through the appendices. I am determined not to let myself buy the Silmarillion, I can't afford the time!

Why choose Brego.net?

When I started becoming obsessed with the LOTR movies, I thought about building a web site. I didn't know what I would put up on it but wanted a name that was short, easy to remember and spell, and with positive connotations. No orcs.com for me. Of course all the obvious ones (frodo.com, samwise.com and such) are taken, so I looked for a secondary or tertiary character. When I saw Brego I knew it was the right choice as I have been horse-crazy since I was about 3 years old. Coincidentally, the "Brego the Builder" references from the books also struck a note with me, as I built a house a few years ago.

The cynical might say that it's because Brego is the only character in the movie other than Arwen who gets to kiss Aragorn on the mouth, but I say this is absolutely and completely irrelevant. Please be kind and don't argue with me about this.

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