I've had a theory about Tolkien and geeks brewing for some time. I think it all comes down to names. Every proper noun in Tolkien all has at least two different names, sometimes three or four. This is commonly sited as a problem for people new to the universe. My theory is that geeks are naturally more inclined to take this in stride, because most of us have several aliases ourselves. I'm down to only two these days, but in high school I was regularly called by four completely different names. Five if you count the LARP persona. Strider, Aragorn, Elessar and Estel are all the same person? Sure, okay. No problem.