I was going through my documents recently and came across this old postcard tucked away among my papers. It was an old postcard from Viggo Mortensen or the actor who played the role of Aragorn in Lord of the Rings trilogy. I totally forgot about the existence of this postcard! Thank God I didn't accidentally throw it away. Now you might wonder how in the world did I get so lucky to have this postcard in my possession?

I was a big fan of the movie trilogy. And right after the first movie, Fellowship of the Ring was released in December 2001, an obsessed fan that I was, decided to write postcards to all of the cast! Now remember this was in 2001, an era before social media exist and we couldn't leave hysterical comments on movie stars' fanpages. So back then we either write lenghty love letters or send them postcards to show our admiration. Love letters would not be appropriate, I thought, so I wrote postcards instead. I searched diligently for their addresses on the net and found some. I had no expectation that I would ever get a reply though. All I wanted was to express my gratitude for making such a great movie. I mailed those postcards early of 2002 and moved on with my life.

I received a reply from Viggo about a year later in 2003. I was elated! Yikes! A movie star sent me a postcard! It was so exciting, I almost fainted hahaha...

I didn't expect a reply from any of them especially Viggo because earlier on he announced that due to his increasing fame, he couldn't reply to his fan mails anymore. These were his exact words:

Over the years I have made the effort to read and answer every piece of fan mail that I received. Lately, however, the volume of mail has increased significantly making it practically impossible to keep up with it all and to respond to each piece personally. Although I am grateful for the favorable response that those of us involved in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy have had, it is simply become a bit overwhelming. I find that I have little or no time left for other pursuits and have little free time left for art projects or for spending time with friends and family. Therefore, as I do not wish to have mail answered for me by others, I have no choice but to say that I will no longer be accepting fan mail after October 31, 2002. Please do not send anymore letters or cards as it will not be answered. I will, however, continue to honor requests for autographs in person as I have always done. I thank you for your support and kind thoughts. ~ Viggo

Source: Frostyland

So as you can see, this postcard is a treasure. It was probably among the last bunch of mails he responded to. Thank God I didn't lose it. If you think I just made up this story, you can compare this signature with Viggo's signature elsewhere here.

If I remember correctly, I wrote a poem right after I received this postcard. It was aptly titled Postcard from Elessar but I can't remember the words anymore and the journal that contained the original copy has been lost many years ago :(

I made this Viggo stencil portrait right after I rediscovered this postcard. It was on my 'stencil art' sketchbook and the medium used was black Sharpie markers. Please excuse the fly.