Tolkien Events 2012
 

The Return of the King will be held at Loughborough University between 16th and 20th August. This is a five day event and anyone who attended the Aston University event in 2005 will tell you how amazing it was, let's make this just as good, plenty of time to arrange/save up for, let's get as many Downers there as possible....................... I'm going.

I'm definitely planning to attend and will lecture on a topic concerning music and Middle-earth. I am also planning to bring and present one or more costumes...

This would be a fabulous opportunity for a big Downer get-together!

I am planning on my Five Wizards costumes Esty. I think this will be bigger and better than Aston 2005, I am so looking forward to it.

2012 is here, and tomorrow we celebrate the Professor's 120th birthday. Be sure to toast him at 9 pm your local time!

Thanks for the reminder! Until now, I always missed it.

.......Hic........Happy Twelvety Prof.......hic..

The fun is always on the wrong side of the Atlantic!

There are numerous Tolkien events In The West, but probably no or few members here who know about them and pass on the information. Of course, the fact that JRRT was English means that there is more focus on him in his home country.

Are there any US Downers who know of Tolkien events State-side and are willing to post the dates and locations here? Or Canadians, or Australians, or...

The Tolkien Society has associate groups called smials and there are many in the US and Canada and Europe. I belong to one, Wellinghall Smial. We try to meet once a month, at least some members if not all.

I think the most active used to be Heren Istarion in NYC. But folks can check out the TS's page to see if there is a smial near them: List of Tolkien Society smials. Contact info available through that link.

In addition to attending Oxonmoot and Return of The Ring, Downers can also make their own moots. Famous--infamous?--ones in the past have been Bostonmoot and Finlandmoot, and one summer the Finns made an entire summer of moots across the US. I was lucky enough to attend Niagara (Falls) moot. These mostly are organised on Facebook, which has a Barrow Downs group page.

Another way to maintain contact with other Tolkien fans is of course to join the Tolkien Society, which also has a Facebook page.

Middle-earth Weekend 19-20 May

Sarehole Mill Birmingham.

middleearthweekend.org.uk/

Tolkien: The Forest and the City 21-22 Sept

Trinity College Dublin Ireland

conrado@tcd.ie

The Cambridge Tolkien Society

Anyone in the Cambridge area will find this interesting.


tolkien.soc.ucam.org/future.html

The German Tolkien society has now published the programme for its seminar in Jena in late April.

Tolkien Seminar programme.

Thanks!
 

Thanks for the notification of the event in Dublin this September, narfforc. :) I've put my name down for it, and will let people know how I get on.

The German Tolkien Society has announced its special guest for the summer Thing: Cor Blok! You may be familiar with his illustrations for the official Tolkien calendar - an unusual style, but one that Tolkien himself liked enough for him to buy some of Blok's art. Of course, any person who has actually met JRRT himself is already an interesting guest, as far as I'm concerned!

British Library Exhibition - Writing Britain: Wastelands to Wonderlands
 

Anyone going to London before September who has an interest in Britain's literary landscape might be interested in this major exhibition at the British Library - part of the cultural Olympiad. I saw an advertisement for it in the paper yesterday - the strapline "Not all those who wander are lost" obviously caught my attention, however it is the manuscript of the Hobbit that is on show.

It isn't a free exhibition (Full price tickets £10 concessions for students etc) so in the unlikely event your literary tastes don't go further than Tolkien you might not find it good value for money - but I am sure that doesn't apply to many Downers:Merisu:

http://www.bl.uk/whatson/exhibitions...out/index.html


There is also a Hobbit specific event on 21st September

http://www.bl.uk/whatson/exhibitions...ent131380.html

I think that this is the Friday of Oxonmoot, and I know many are giving that a miss this year due to Return of the Ring, however since it is due to finish at 8pm it would be possible to combine the two if you were prepared forgo the opening dinner.

Anyway I have booked and hope I don't end up having to move house that weekend... I plan to go to the exhibition sooner so will report back. Have been meaning to have a look at the BL since they completed the renovations.

Just found out that Brian Sibley is a guest speaker at this event so I am minding less that I didn't go to ROTR (though grateful thanks to Poison Ivy for getting me his autograph!!).

Moleskine Hobbit
 

It was mentioned at the Hobbit evening at the BL that Moleskine are producing a range of special edition notebooks for the anniversary. They aren't available yet but it looks like they will be released at the end of November.. in good time for all our *Christmas lists!

*other present giving opportunities are available.

I actually got one of these for Christmas. Was ridiculously overexcited but I haven't decided what to use it for yet. Any suggest ions?

I got one of those for Christmas too! (And a copy of Hobbitus Ille, for what it's worth), and I have the same problem of not knowing what to use it for. I want to use it for something properly fitting its attractive dignity... but that's the sort of holding out that is likely to see me fail to use it at all, which would be worse.

How about using the notebooks for recording live Tolkien activities and collecting signatures of Downers and other Tolkienists? You can also ask artists to draw in them. I have a selfmade fabric journal (well, I'm actually on the second one because I go to a lot of German Society events in addition to the international ones) which serves that purpose for me.

Mithalwen or Formendacil, could you provide a picture or a link so we can see what this lovely notebook is like?

Estelyn's suggestion is a lovely one, as her fabric books are full of souvenirs of wonderful moots--and she has some original artwork by very well known Tolkien illustrators as well!

I am far too antisocial to need 192 pages for autographs and it ia a bit small for lecture notes at least for my spider fell in an inkwell and staggered across the page scrawl. I may have to have an adventure of my own. I Have pics will try to link

Ooooh, a "There and Back Again" of your own - that sounds great!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/8...MP04X2X5D0J981

This is the one I have. The larger version would have served better for the kind of communal commonplace book.
There is ared foil dragon and the section ofvthe map covering the mountains and mirkwood inside the pocket is a map of the wild an d a thorin and co style return to ..otherwise a normal moleskine

Still, it is lovely. The dragon is nicely done. I think it would do quite nicely to be your own RedBook for an adventure.

Or reviews of favourite restaurant feasts. You could begin by going back to Hobbits--or writing a review of our lunch there with Poison Ivy.

Oh deari probably shouldn't have got it save it was so very lovely.I don't perhaps have the record keeping temperament. If something isn't memorable enough to remember why waste time writing it down? If it were indexed I might have used it for recipes as it is adventure seems the way forward. nothing for it, will just have to become a piratical maid of all work or similar...

If I'd seen this I might not have got myself a Marvel Comics one. I wanted a nice notebook for work rather than use the standard 79p ones from Banner from the stationery drawer. I always keep my notebooks anyway, as I end up noting personal stuff and drawing in them when I'm having the pants bored off me in an irrelevant meeting. So using it for work is OK in my err....book.

Or use it to note down quotes you like. Lists of books you might want to read or places to visit. Recipes. Gardening notes. Family history notes. Daily weather and nature observations. Just to note stuff you find interesting.

I have a replica Red Book though that I've never used - it came with a box set of five action figures (Bilbo, Frodo, Sam, Merry & Pippin) I got back in 2001. I thought I'd better not use it because it was part of the set.

Stationery is one of my weaknesses so I do have notebooks for a lot of these thingsbut the family history appeals sincce it ia currently spread across teo general notebooka and it is a truly hobbity thing..cheera..