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Old 09-17-2007, 12:24 PM   #337
The Squatter of Amon Rûdh
Spectre of Decay
 
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Pipe A Wightish Oxonmoot

I should like to say that the Tolkien Society did us proud, and that although davem and Lalwendë were missed, we managed to soldier on in their absence. Owing to a combination of road closures and my own incompetent navigation, I arrived at dinner on Friday just in time for the main course and had to wait until we were filling in the corners before looking for the other Downers. I caught up with Estelyn, Guinevere and Hookbill just in time for the Cambridge Tolkien Society's rendition of their combined homage to Tolkien and Spike Milligan, The Lord of the Goons. Narfforc was in evidence, but he and I didn't actually have a proper conversation until Saturday afternoon, so for now we must leave him.

Having known Guinevere through various quiz threads and Hookbill through his editorship of The Downer, it wasn't difficult to strike up a suitable conversation, which I must say was so interesting and engaging that I can't remember any of it. Perhaps my regular trips to the bar can explain my aberrant memory. In retrospect I didn't spend as much time speaking to Guinevere as I should have liked, since in person she speaks less than Estelyn, Hookbill and I; but hopefully she didn't feel ignored. Estelyn and I have, of course, met several times already, so we picked up where we left off. She was, as usual, the person who made introductions, dispensed Tolkien memorabilia, collected signatures and arranged group photographs, which would never happen if it were left up to me. She also enforced the forum regulations with an iron fist throughout, although I did make that bit up. Hookbill proved to share my delight in the subtle art of absurd comedy, much as one would expect from a perusal of his newspaper; but we also discovered that we've both watched Withnail and I rather more times than is good for us. Since he's undoubtedly reading this, I'd just like to say: "I have a heart condition."

Saturday began unwontedly early with a suitably enormous breakfast. I then attended more lectures than I did in my entire first week at university (four), sometimes with one or other of the Downers, sometimes not. In one of these, Hookbill demonstrated that he actually participates when the lecturer asks for audience participation, and that he doesn't need his books to talk about Tolkien (I clearly do, since I couldn't accurately remember a single quotation for the whole weekend). I finally caught up with Narfforc at the last lecture of the day ('The Goths and Huns revisited'), where our conversation about early medieval mythology was rudely interrupted by the guest speaker's insistence on delivering her lecture.

We all met up at one table for the Ents on Saturday night, where the first set of Downs group photographs was taken before I could get completely drunk. We then adjourned to the bar, where further madness ensued, before taking in the utter lack of entertainment that was the Tolkien reading group (not one reading that wasn't part of CRT's HME commentary, and mostly a single bore monopolising the entire event - no names, no pack drill). Estelyn, Hookbill and I all went, but all of us made excuses after a very short time. Of all of these, only Estelyn's was genuine, since Hookbill and I claimed tiredness, but actually went to a party on the roof of the block where I was staying.

I'll say this for the TS: they know how to drink, and by 'drink' I mean anything and everything that they can lay their hands on. The roof was one swinging event, where many members of the committee and several performers from the Ents letting their hair down with a vengeance. To give you some idea of the evening, I was discussing with a TS member from Holland how Joseph's Wright's comments as quoted by Tolkien [1] explained the high prices charged by Oxford colleges for use as Oxonmoot venues, while the two of us drank some Dutch mead that he'd brought and Narfforc taught two people the basics of unarmed combat directly next to us. It was, in short, the sort of drunken shambles that I particularly enjoy. I went to bed at twenty to five in the morning, got just over two hours' sleep and missed the morning walking tour. We were represented on that excursion by Guinevere and Estelyn, who had neither stayed up all night nor drunk themselves silly.

I shan't be too flippant about Enyalië, being that it's a respectful ceremony of remembrance. That leaves me little to say about it other than that it was the diametric opposite of my first visit to Tolkien's grave. A speech was made by the TS's outgoing president, Namarië was sung and another Downs group photograph was taken by the grave. Afterwards, we headed off to the Nosebag in Oxford for tea and cakes (and in my case a mountain of other food to settle my churning stomach). There we met up with other T.S. members and continued to talk about various subjects until the Return of the Bore. Eventually, at about three, Hookbill and I had to leave, since we weren't staying in Oxford for the extra night. We managed to have another chat about various subjects on the walk back to Lady Margaret Hall, and I drove him to the station, during which time I discovered that he's completely uninterested in cars. For this failure to show due slavish appreciation for my convertible, I kicked him out and charged him five pounds for the petrol, although not really.

Thus ended my first Oxonmoot, and a roaring good time it was too. I recommend wholeheartedly both the event itself and the meeting there of other members of this forum, who are for the most part neither cannibals nor zombies. I look forward to meeting more of you next year at the extended edition of the moot.

[1] "'What do you take Oxford for, lad?' 'A university, a place of learning.' 'Nay, lad, it's a factory! And what's it making? I'll tell you. It's making fees. Get that into your head, and you'll begin to understand what goes on.'" Reported in Letters #250; 1 November 1963, to Michael Tolkien. The interposed answer was Tolkien's own.
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Last edited by The Squatter of Amon Rûdh; 09-17-2007 at 05:09 PM. Reason: Corrected a glaring grammatical error and added the Joseph Wright reference in full.
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