Iran to celebrate J.R.R. Tolkien’s birthday
 

http://www.ibna.ir/vdcauino.49nuw1gtk4.html

Bet you didn't see that coming.....

Prince of Persia
 

How interesting davem!

reminded me of a thread some time ago by Saucie regarding Tolkien in Iran and how different cultures draw different parallels between the Prof's works and their own mythologies.

http://forum.barrowdowns.com/showthr...highlight=iran

Brilliant, I say! And yes, Rumil, I was immediately reminded of that thread as well.

I believe it's wonderful when rather distant cultures can embrace some work like that - and at the same time not just "import the West" with it, but be able to take it in, with their own interpretation and ways (while at the same keeping true to the author).

2011 who'da thunk it?
 

Hi Davem and Legate,

glad to see you around. It's been a bit quiet in the old Barrow recently. Hope you're both keeping well, and Lal too! Maybe we'll get another influx when The Hobbit hits the screens.

I must say that the few Iranians I've met have been lovely people and fearsomely intelligent as well, so would make perfect Tolkienites ;).

All the Best

I expected to read that Ahmadinejad had declared the day a national holiday, not that a couple of teachers had decided to.... do what exactly?

No, I didn't see that coming.

Since they said they would hold a forum assessing his works...blast him with modernist criticism, perhaps?

Hello to all,

My name is Mahdi. I was searching and found this thread.
I'm Iranian fan of Tolkien and moderator of one of Tolkien's fan sites and forums of Iran. (www.Arda.ir and www.forum.Arda.ir)

I must mention that Tolkien is very popular among Iranian people and there are some good forums like Arda.ir , Valimar.ir , fantasy.ir , ... .

This celebration was joint meeting of Arda and Fantasy Academy and I as moderator of arda was there. If you want to know what happened in that meeting you can read this(if you know Persian):
http://arda.ir/news/259-arda-fantasyacademy-isna.html
or Google Translation here:
http://translate.google.com/translat...demy-isna.html

But Google translation isn't good (Arda has been translated as Policy! and many other mistakes) so I say it in brief. It began with biography of Tolkien and his books then a long discussion on Tolkien's books and reading parts of The Hobbit, Silmarillion, The Children of Hurin and Lord of the Rings.

At last I must tell Kuruharan that there was no "modernist criticism"! ;)

Regards,
3DMahdi

Welcome, 3DMahdi! Great to see an Iranian Tolkien fan on the Downs!
Your link to your own forum really makes me sad that I can't read Persian - I'd love to peep into some of the discussions there and see what people from another culture think about Tolkien's works.
Yes, Google translator is horrible. We have a whole thread here dedicated to hilarious Google mistranslations of quotes from Tolkien - it's incredible.
Again, welcome, and hope to see you around here more often!

I can only second Pitch's welcome and regret that I can't read it - great to know it exists though.
:D

I third it!

And yes, it's so good to know that there are geeks like you all over the world! :D

Thanks for your welcome Pitchwife, Mithalwen and Galadriel55.

Tolkien is so great and he has fans all around the world because his works are about things that are common in all cultures: admiring peace, bravery, truth and love.

I feel special. :p

This does bring me to the potentially odd question of what sort of literary criticism Tolkien does come under in that part of the world?