Tolkien Society Oxonmoot 2007
14th – 16th September
Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford
Lady Margaret Hall from the River
© Iolanthe
Part 1:
Friday Night - or why a Hobbit would love my bathroom
While lugging a modest suitcase and a bag full of framed paintings though North Oxford’s leafy suburbs there comes a moment when you wonder why you didn’t just get a taxi. I’ll never learn. The walk from the Park and Ride bus stop to Lady Margaret Hall is a lot longer than it looks on the map with a little red case bumping behind you. I even passed near the end of Northmoor Road (of Hallowed Tolkien fame) and trudged by without even a flicker of interest. I finally bumped the case over the cobbled entrance to the college (built 1878 – the first women’s college in the university), collected my key, bumped around the cloister with my little red bag and arrived at my designated 4th floor accommodation – which had a lift. Oh happy day!
Well – the room was jolly nice. New, light, spacious and with an entire bathroom packed into the space of a fairly small shower unit. Not so much a wet room as a wet cupboard. I discovered to my delight that if I sat on the loo I could touch the door with my nose. You can’t say that of a lot of bathrooms.
Lady Margaret College: The view from my window
© Iolanthe
I dumped the red suitcase, grabbed my paintings and hurried off to register. I presented myself at a desk full of envelopes where I was asked for my number. There was a flurry of tut-tutting when they realised that I didn’t know what it was. Apparently everyone was sent one. Looking completely blank (something I do rather well after years of training) I was handed a list and discovered to my joy that I was Number 049! This was 043 better than ‘The Prisoner‘ who was only Number 6! My desperate ignorance re-numbers made them twig I was a newbie and therefore I got sent to register in the Hospitality room so I could be hospitalitied. I strode confidently up to the new desk and announced very loudly that I was Number 049. They immediately asked me my name. It’s a terrible strain being a newbie.
Jokes aside – they had a great welcome set up for newbies with a couple of very friendly Society members given the sole mission of looking after us, something they did very well
.
I then had to get my pictures over to the Art Room so I could get them hung for the next day. As soon as I walked in I saw
Anke Eissman arranging a display of her prints and postcards. After getting my two pics up on the display wall I headed straight for her and was so effusive that I think I terrified the living daylights out of her. She is very nice, intense and, I think, quite shy. Or maybe it was just meeting me. Anyway I asked her the burning question that I had always wanted to ask her. Why does she paint in a letterbox format? She said, as I suspected and wrote about in my profile of her, that it’s the cinematic quality that appeals to her. She finds the shape frees her up as it doesn’t set the same limits as more usual formats. She said that she concentrated on the quieter themes (something we’ve all picked up on looking at her wonderful work). She had some new paintings up of Isildur at the Gladden fields. They are terrific – especially one called
The Ring Has Moved On where he is bending over the water after the Ring has slipped from his grasp. I said I could see how much she’d improved over the years and she replied “I hope so”. That was my prize-winning dumb statement of the year. Some days I just shouldn’t be let out. I then kept bumping into her every time I arrived at a doorway - poor girl. She must have thought she’d gained some kind of bonkers stalker.
Oh – and the art show organiser really liked the two pics I hung –
Lothlorien and
Gollum. Luckily I had a good spot well away from Anke’s so by the time you got to them they looked really almost OK.
So. Off to dinner which was wonderful. Pork fillet with mushrooms and juniper (?) berries and a chocolate mousse thing. By now I’d managed to tag along with quite a few people and sat opposite a couple who had been coming since 1980. Nothing like being the newbiest newbie of newbidom. I discovered that Maggie (who is lovely and comes from near Buxton, mabreterese!) was a very talented and expert costume maker. I later found out she was judging the costume parade. I lay awake all night trying to remember if I had said anything daft about costumes.
And so off to the bar where I caught up with Marcel – who remembers us Merry and is as fun and as charming as ever – and then somehow found myself being strong-armed into the terrifying Saturday morning quiz by the very guy who was supposed to be looking after me as chief newbie watcher. I’d been told over dinner that only the geekiest of geeky Tolkien experts had the knowledge to enter it. I should have heard big BIG alarm bells ringing. But he is a complete sweetheart, introduced me to everyone I should know, is a fellow Farscape fan and completely persuaded me (along with Angie who runs it) that I’d be absolutely fine. I envisaged us all sitting comfy-like around tables with pen and paper, just like the average pub quiz. So I said goodbye to the morning talks I was going to go to and found myself in a team of three with Olorin and Our Captain, who I was assured, knew
everything and I could get away with just being a bit of padding.
In the middle of the night I woke up in a cold sweat and couldn’t remember who Legolas was.
Saturday Morning Quiz – or can I go home now please?
Ah, the joys of showering in a bonsai bathroom. I discovered that if I stood still I could touch three walls and the curtain with my nose without moving my head. It wasn’t so much washing as standing there pinioned and hoping the water would wear the dirt off.
Hobbit sized breakfast
© Iolanthe
After breakfast, in which I entered the dining hall thinking about cereal and left weighed down by The Full English, I made for the Quiz Room. I learned during breakfast that the Quiz is beyond fiendish. I expect Morgoth used it to torture the Elves and could largely be responsible for the whole race of orcs. I was almost first arriving in the Quiz Room, largely sprurred on by massive newbie panic. I was so first I got to do the sound test for the Microphones. MICROPHONES. What sort of quiz is this? I sat obediently down on a platform and did a practice question for the Mike the sound man.
I found Olorin but our Captain 'He-Who-Knows-The-Answer-To-Everything' hadn't arrived yet. They started off with the only two teams to arrive complete (teams get eliminated each round), who sat opposite each other on the platform like University Challenge. Everyone had to answer an individual question
. Then there are group questions. Then the captain of each team can nominate a subject (First and Second Age….Lesser Works and Poems…) for the opposing captain. If he can’t answer it and the other captain can, the other captain gets full points. We still had a slight problem in having no Captain and the fact that my brain had died somewhere around the mention of ‘individual questions’.
They started off with a cracking first round full of gems like ‘How old was Bilbo when he adopted Frodo?’,‘Who did Gandalf and Pippin meet at some place I’ve never even heard of…’ and ‘Who was Balin’s father…?’
The Cambridge Tolkien Society team got knocked out and – oh horror – we had to go up Captain or no Captain. A member of the audience offered to fill in (‘I don’t know anything but I’ll give it a go…’ ‘Oh great. Thanks.’) and Olorin took the Captain position because even though I’ve never met him before I would have killed him if he hadn't. 'He-Who-Knows-The-Answer-To-Everything' was apparently ill and we were stuffed.
I managed to answer my first individual question – Yay! I even got the second – Double Yay! Then from somewhere improbably deep in the recesses of my mind I pulled out the name ‘Fingolfin’ as the owner of Ringold in the team round. Even Olorin was impressed. Then we took a spectacular nose dive and crashed out. Still we got sixteen points (better than the winning team before and after us got in their rounds). Not bad for some padding, a reluctant captain and a volunteer from the audience.
The competition was won by Marcel’s team in a very funny final round where they trounced the Death to Orlando Bloom team. The highlight was someone managing to give the complete Latin title of Farmer Giles of Ham. I reckon we could have all done that one!!!!
The Fiendish Quiz with Marcel’s winning team on the right.
© Iolanthe
So – can you all name the first 6 books of Return of the King - in order?
The Art Room – or my head gets to big to fit in the room
After the quiz I headed off to have a good look around the Art Room. It’s mixed of course, with some really good stuff, paintings influenced by the films, a wonderful piece of stitched work, miniatures. There are prints of
Ruth Lacon’s fascinating, detailed work inspired by Persian miniaturists. I spotted someone looking at my two paintings and went into shameless hovering mode. She seemed to really like them – we started chatting and I discovered that not only does she like them a lot, but she is Becky Carter-Hitchin whose work we are really familiar with here at MeJ – I know a lot of us really love her paintings. She’s exhibiting a couple of the older paintings I’m familiar with – including the
Two Trees of Valinor which has always been a favourite of mine. But there are some stunning new ones that have beautiful convoluted Celtic knotwork framing central texts: ‘Theoden’ and ‘The Horse and the Rider’. These are gorgeous and Becky told me how thrilled she is that Alan Lee has seen them and loved them. God, I’d be thrilled too! Way to go Becky! This is the first exhibition of her Tolkien work and she has a new website coming online soon:
http://www.marquistadesign.com. I’ll let you all know when it goes live. I had a long chat with her, Anke Eismann and a Russian artist who’s name I really should have written down, about Tolkien art, where to put it on the internet, the merits of different sites, useful tips on making prints. I learnt so much useful stuff, you have no idea. (If you get around to visiting and reading this, ladies, thank you! I had a wonderful time talking to you all. It was the highlight of the weekend for me).
I have to apologise here – I didn’t take a single photo of the art show due to being on a completely different planet. All I can do is grovel.
I had to drag myself away for dinner which was rather dismal sandwiches with no flourishes or cake (there really should have been cake) but never mind! I was walking on air. And I even knew that Ringold was Fingolfin’s sword.
Saturday Afternoon – or I buy too many books
After lunch I headed to the Dealer’s book room intending to buy very little. I still have terrible memories of struggling through Oxford last year with more books than the Bodleian Library stuffed in my suitcase – all of which I could have ordered on the internet and avoided extreme pain. But it’s a horribly tempting Smaug’s cave of gold with not just shiny new books but nice musty old books – very handy for cheap second-hand copies to make notes in - and full of collector’s gems. I felt a strange weakness overcome me as soon as I entered. There were several full size framed prints of Ted Nasmith’s latest works hanging which made me glaze over even more. Seeing them that large you really appreciate all the detail he puts in. Ted’s agent Andy (?) was there – he also manages Ruth Lacon’s art, runs
ADC books, and organises the Moreton in the Marsh exhibition. We had a long chat about Ted’s work (all I did all weekend was have long chats with people….) and I did my effusive fan thing all over again. There are some great new paintings including Gandalf and the Balrog on the mountain. We discussed the wonderful use of light in ‘The Kinslaying of Alqualonde’ which is apparently owned by one lucky member at the Moot – unfortunately there will be no prints of it available. Ted usually comes to the Oxonmoot and performs his songs, something I’d love to have heard!
After our discussions about Farmer Giles and Smith of Wooton Major I was thrilled to find quite cheap (damaged) early copies of both of them with all of Pauline Baynes’s original illustrations. Of course I bought them, and also a beautiful early copy of the Adventures of Tom Bombadil also with her illustrations. I stopped short of buying her gorgeous Illustrated Encyclopedia of Mythology only because it was the size of The Red Book and I had a rare moment of common sense. I now regret it very much and am thinking of contacting the dealer. I guess I’ll be doing an essay on Baynes soon!!!! I also found a first edition of Donald Swan’s ‘The Road Goes Ever On’ and bought that so I could learn the music. Plus Roverandom (there were a lot of quiz questions on it). Plus the new Children of Hurin Tolkien Calendar and Diary. So much for not buying much. I had now created a whole new suitcase to lug about on the way back. Brilliant.
My books illustrated by Pauline Baynes
© Iolanthe
Totally penniless I staggered out of the Dealers room with my bags and headed for the one talk I still had time to attend: ‘A Star above the Mast: Tolkien, Faerie and the Great Escape’ given by Anna Slack. I especially wanted to catch it because of all our conversations and the fact that Anna was mainly talking about ‘Smith of W-M’ and ‘The Sea Bell’. Her essay was a wonderful look at man’s deep desire to make ‘The Great Escape’ into another world – the eternal world reflected in Faery symbolised in Tolkien by a Star. I’m in the middle of writing an essay for here on the image of the star in Tolkien and I’m just going to have to put the whole bloomin’ thing in the bin now unless I can shift the focus to stars on brows.
I dumped my books and decided I wanted some quiet time so I took myself off into the grounds of Lady Margaret Hall because the weather was, quite frankly, glorious – bright sun, clear skies….
The grounds are really beautiful – like a giant cottage garden – and you can walk right down to the River Cherwell and watch people lazily punting up and down. The river and the trees bent over it are really magical – Oxford as Tolkien loved it. I even found The Old Forest and Old Man Willow and could really believe I was by the Withywindle. You would have loved it here, Merry!
Here are some views by the Cherwell (pronounced Charwell – I was corrected several times…)
Tom Bombadil’s Boat?
© Iolanthe
The Old Forest
© Iolanthe
The Withywindle – really the enchanted River Cherwell
© Iolanthe
Then all too soon it was time to go back to the Art Room, take down the paintings and get them packed up. I did a bit more shameless hovering and feel encouraged that I really ought to concentrate more on my paintings. I attended one last thing – the Smials forum – in the hope of finding local members. There are local members but no local Smial. By the end of the meeting insanity took hold again I’d almost volunteered to start one. I think they must put something in the water. It's fatal to enjoy yourself too much. Very dangerous going outside your door!
More to come in Part 2 
. I'll have a look, otherwise I'll type them up.
.
. The CTS also performed a comedy version of LotR at the Saturday Night meal - it was the Goons version of LotR and very funny. I completely forgot to mention it above!
! I did my best 
.
