Middle-earth Journeys

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.

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.

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!!!!

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.

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…)


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

Part 2? there's a Part 2??? fantastic!

what a wonderful time you had! I knew they'd like your paintings. I love the photos, particularly of the Charwell. Can't wait for more!!

Iolanthe, I am SO jealous, and I can't wait for Part II! Your trip reports are always so funny. Loved the description of your little closet wet room, and that familiar odd sensation that comes over me anytime I enter a really good bookshop. The money just magically disappears from my pocket, and I never quite know how it happens . . .

I love the Gollum painting, and of course, I must have it. Will you be putting "Gollum" and "Telperion" for sale in the Marketplace soon? [Hint, hint . . .]

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful! I'm starting to save my pennies for next year.

Your reports are really gems, Iolanthe. Is there a place where I can see a list of all the talks?

Hi Merry . I'll have a look, otherwise I'll type them up.

I expect the paintings will get there at some point, Lindariel ! I was thrilled by the reaction to the paintings - I was glad I went to the trouble of getting them properly framed up, depsite the weight.

Mabreterese, there is a lot more to come! There was a whole party and costume parade and, on Sunday, a hunt for the two trees planted by the Tolkien Society and Enyalië at Tolkien's graveside.

Nope, can't find the talks online. I've copied them out for you Merry:

Demons, Choice and Grace in The Lord of the Rings - Chad Chisholm
Nissi and Neri: On elven Gender-roles - Jenni Bergman
THe Battle of the Eastern Field - Maggie Burns
The Significance and Place of Laughter in Tolkien's Writings - Bressler, Hepler and Galloway
The Roots of Middle-earth (Part 2, Part 1 was last year) - Bob Blackham
Roman Law in the Shire? - Murray Smith
Devilry and Images of Evil in Tolkien - Colin Duriez
Women Revealed: The Feminine Community in Tolkien's Worls - Sarah Pfannenschmidy
Why There will never be a worldwide Tolkien Society - Marcel Bulles
A Star above the Mast: Tolkien, Faerie and the Great Escape - Anna Slack
The Goths and Huns Rrevisited - Jessica Yates

See how much I missed despite seeming to do so much?!!!! Marcel's talk clashed with Anna Slack's so I was very torn. I think what Marcel had to say touched on our discussions on Tolkien Movements and why there isn't one .

Next year there will be an extra day with the Moot starting on a Thursday - I missed so many of the talks because of clashes with the quiz and the art and book displays.

As well as talks there was a slide show, a dance workshop, the BBC Radio Play of LotR performed by the Cambridge Tolkien Society. All this I missed . 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!

Thanks for doing all that typing, Iolanthe! Definitely not the usual suspects, are they? What is your estimation of the quality of the talks, say, compared to what we heard at Exeter? Interesting topics. Yes, Marcel's talk does touch into our little 'movement' spat as well as the last talk at Exeter that was a bit controversial. Were the people at the Moot mainly English, or were there people from all over Europe? Any Yanks there?

By the way, aren't we all proud of our Iolanthe? Congrats on the warm reception for your artwork and for your performance in the trivia! You have represented Me-J well!

Thanks Merry ! I did my best .

It's hard to estimate the quality of the talks because I only got to one of them, but the one I heard was excellent - really interesting. All the speakers are members of the Tolkien Society and from looking at their biogs many are academic, or have serious Tolkien-related academic interests. There's quite a wide spread of interests in these papers. All talks were about 35 minutes with time for questions afterward.

Most people at the Moot were English but there were several members from Germany and Holland and at least two Americans that I got a chance to talk to. There may have been many more.

Finally the second part of my Oxonmoot account

Saturday Evening – or I am beset by a herd of Oliphants

On with the story....

Back in my room I discovered that when I washed my face in the teeny tiny sink I could touch the enormous tap with my nose. There really is no end to the things I could touch with my nose in this bathroom.

The next event was a barbeque in the gardens, to be followed by an evening party with various home-grown entertainments.

The weather and surroundings for the barbeque couldn’t have been better. The barbeque was well set up with a huge range of salads, sensible looking sausages, slimline kebabs and poached salmon to choose from but for some unfathomable reason my brain suffered a full power surge as soon as I picked up a plate and I ended up with the fattest burger in the world in a bulging bun dripping with onions and ketchup. To this day I have no idea how it happened. I don’t even like burgers.

The barbeque was a chance to meet up again with the various people I’d got to know a little and compare our notes on the day we’d had. Sitting in a group with Fangorn, a hugely enthusiastic Dutch member who contributes a lot to the Tolkien Society Amon Hen Magazine, I discovered to my delight that he knew Cor Blok and even owned one (or two?) of his works. It really is a small world!!! We chatted happily about Blok’s work while I prodded my undercooked burger to see if it would moo.

Then it was off to the evening party in the dining hall. I had thought about offering up a song and being one of the ‘Ents’ (Entertainers) but there was a Saturday afternoon sound check to attend and I wanted to have the time for other things – plus I wanted to get a feel for what everyone enjoyed. The entertainments were, on the whole, a lot of fun. We had a wonderful folksinger called Veronica from the Dutch Celtic music band Anois who sang three or four very beautiful songs, some lovely guitar playing, some singing-a-longs and skits. It was rounded off by the Cambridge Tolkien Society who gave us a Tolkien Version of The Sound of Music: ‘How Do You Solve a Problem like Moria’, A R A G O R N sung as ‘Doh a Deer’ (R he Ranges far and wide…I wish I could remember them all) which had several encores, and yodelling Ents to the tune of ‘High on a hill stood a Lonely Goat’.

This all led up to the costume parade and competition in which prizes were given for originality and effort. There was a lovely Tom Bombbadil, complete with long pipe and beard, a Faramir, lots of elves and The King of the Sea and his Court, who entered as a group. As soon as I spotted the mermaid I thought of mabreterese’s painting and her question but no one around me knew the answer to it either. The efforts people had gone to was amazing.

By 11.30 I was too tired to even think about going to the bar so I retreated to my room for an ‘early night’. To my horror I discovered that one of the ‘after party’ parties was going to take place on the same floor as me. I now know the meaning of ‘do you want a quiet room?’ on the booking form. I just assumed they meant one at the end of a corridor with no passing traffic! Gawd the NOISE. At one point I thought there was a herd of Oliphants galloping about above me. I couldn’t work out why all the noise seemed to be overhead and it wasn’t until the next morning that I discovered that the party had been on the roof and I was on the top floor. The party went on until at least 4 am and by 4.45 I was still awake. I was so fed up with tossing and turning that I got up and stood by the window for some air. That’s when I saw the most amazing star hanging over the top of one of the buildings. I’m certain it was Venus but I have never seen it so large or so bright. I thought of the Morning Star, of Sam and his star in Moria, of Eärendil, the Silmarils and the prayer to Elbereth. It just seemed so wonderful to see it hanging there so brilliantly on such a weekend – like a blessing on the Oxonmoot.


I felt a bit less blessed at 5.45 when I was still awake. Even better there was now an owl twit-twooing outside my window.

At 6.30 someone started tidying up on the roof above me and stomping about like a cave troll, accompanied by nasty crashing noises. So I gave up completely, made a cup of coffee and sat hunched in my duvet making notes – pretty much a potted version of what I’ve put here with all the swearing and jabbing the page repeatedly with my pen taken out. At 7.00 I got up and spent a happy 10 minutes viciously elbowing the shower cubicle into submission.



Sunday Morning – or the great tree hunt

Feeling like a balrog I failed the breakfast test again. After lying awake for a zillion hours I reckoned I deserved at least the full Hobbit of egg, bacon, sausages, mushrooms, tomato, funny flat potato things, baked beans, watermelon, honeydew melon, coffee, toasted partygoers on little spits…..

Barely able to move I checked out of my room, dumped my case in the holding cell (a sort of catch-all bedroom for abandoned suitcases) and teamed up with a group who were going for a walk in the nearby University Park to look for Tolkien’s Bench and the Two Trees. Tolkien, of course, never sat on this bench. It was placed there by the Tolkien Centenary Conference in his memory and two trees, one silvery and one gold, were planted nearby. We found the bench OK and the view of the river Cherwell from it was lovely (I think he would have liked sitting on it if he could) but would never have found the trees without help. Luckily some members had gone on the 9am Tolkien Tour and we bumped into them by the bench, which had a very nice plaque on it:

I suppose I expected the trees to be set in a sort of grand isolation (like Laurelin and Teleperion) with plaques below them too and surrounded by dancing Elves but they were in a sort of clump with other trees. Nothing wrong in that except if you want to identify them. ‘Laurelin’ is indeed very gold – there are two ‘Laurelins’ as one proved a dismal failure (were’s Yavanna when you need her?) and has stayed Hobbit sized. She now has a sister tree. The other is very dark with a silver underside to the leaves. If only I could tell you what kind of trees they were, but I can’t.

Then it was back to Lady Margaret Hall to catch coaches to Wolvercote Cemetery for Enyalië. There was plenty of time at the graveside for quiet thoughts, before the Chairwoman of the Tolkien Society read from the ‘Lay of Luthien’, the part where Beren finds Luthien dancing and pursues her, followed by a few brief words about the real event that Tolkien based it on, when Edith danced for him amongst the hemlock.

After a moment of quiet four wreaths were laid on the grave by the UK, German and Dutch Tolkien societies (I didn’t identify the 4th wreath) and a member sang Donald Swann’s setting of Namárië from ‘The Road Goes Ever On’:




It was most beautiful and unearthly, sounding very like plainsong. Then after another chance for quiet reflection it was back to Lady Margaret Hall for final goodbyes.

I’m already thinking of next year – I will certainly go back if I can to exhibit more paintings, meet up with everyone again and maybe sing as one of the Ents in the Entertainment. I might even push the boat out and (heaven help them) do a recitation of ‘Christmas With The Balrog….’

Thanks, Iolanthe, for the fine report and all these early morning laughs! Tolkien and his classmate used to talk about the 'Oxford sleepies', referring to the fact that one seems to need more sleep in Oxford, but I think our experiences there suggest that the much-needed sleep is hard to get!

Lovely pictures!

Thanks Merry . I must admit I was like a Zombie by Monday which is when the lack of sleep seemed to hit me.

Enyalië was lovely, but nothing will ever be nearer to my heart that that small group of us at Tolkien's grave last summer when Father Guiliemo led his short service and prayers. That was really special.

Yes, indeed: we prayed for "our brother Beren and our sister Luthien". I think it was the memorial Tolkien would have prefered. I don't know if I told you about this, but I found one of our French colleagues from the conference praying over the grave next to Tolkien's: he said that everybody prayed for Tolkien, but probably nobody prayed for his neighbor.

Looks like somebody trimmed the rosemary.

[quote="Merry"I found one of our French colleagues from the conference praying over the grave next to Tolkien's: he said that everybody prayed for Tolkien, but probably nobody prayed for his neighbor.[/quote]

I think that's wonderful, Merry! I'm always careful when visiting graves not to step on anyone else, out of respect, but I've never thought of praying for them. Such a good idea!

Iolanthe, thanks for the rest of your report. At least your sleepless night resulted in two lovely photos of Venus, so not entirely wasted. And you found the trees - hurrah - when we next go to Oxford you'll be able to take us straight to them.

You will be able to, won't you?

Iolanthe! How very, very Elvish of you to pay such beautiful tribute to Venus, i.e., The Morning/Evening Star, i.e., Earendil! As Frodo would say,

Aiya Earendil Elenion Ancalima!

Behold Earendil Star-Man Long-lighted!

A light when all other lights go out . . . marvelous!

What a terrific report! I imagine you were fondly thinking about making some Oliphaunt barbeque at around 2:00 AM. I certainly would have.

I would dearly love to have been there for the Enyalie, if only to hear someone sing the Namarie in Quenya. That must have been just unearthly. What better tribute to the Professor than to have a skilled singer put his beautiful words to music?

Thanks so much for sharing this with us!