Our friend Ian at the Tolkien Society writes in that this year, Oxonmoot is longer! Oxonmoot has been extended one day and will run from Thursday, September 25th to Sunday, September 28th. Oxonmoot: or a Moot in Oxford is a long-running weekend event and features a number of activities including an art show, sales room, hospitality room, two days of events and the party on the Saturday evening in the “Harry Potter” dining hall. On Sunday morning there will be the remembrance ceremony, Enyalië, at Professor Tolkien’s grave in Wolvercote Cemetery. For booking enquiries, email bookings@tolkiensociety.org, and those interested in giving a paper can email osc.dte@tolkiensociety.org. Read More
Month: May 2008
According to the Times Online, Christopher Lee will make British History next month when he becomes one of the first living non-royals to be portrayed on a British stamp:
“The 85-year-old actor will appear as Dracula on a set of commemorative stamps next month marking the 50th anniversary of the Hammer horror and Carry On films. The stamps, which break more than 80 years of convention, will be released on June 10. Buckingham Palace said new designs were personally approved by the Queen.”
Thanks to message board member diedye for the scoop. Read More
Our favorite Dwarf turns 64 today! The fans at TORn send along our wishes for a very happy day!!
Message board member Modtheow has this alert: Unlike the Tolkien conference in Vermont that some of us attended a few weeks ago, which is a small conference concentrated into one day and focused on one major theme, the Tolkien at Kalamazoo sessions are part of a huge academic conference of about 3,000 participants, mostly medievalists, who swarm the University of Western Michigan every year at this time for the International Congress on Medieval Studies. Out of the 602 sessions ( and that’s not including open bars, the Saturday night dance, lunch meetings, and entertainments), there’s plenty of stuff for those interested in Tolkien. Read More
Stories of dragons are as old as the written word and probably a lot older. To keep things inside the J.R.R. Tolkien realm, “Beowulf”, one of the oldest written stories of Europe features not only the monstrous Grendel but his serpentine Mother. Ancient biblical writings allude to the great serpent or dragon while global mythology has oversized lizard creatures popping up so consistently that some have suggested there must be some common shared memory or primitive survival instinct built into humanity to cause us to tell our tribal stories about such a monstrosity. Continue reading “The Dragon Problem: What challenges await GDT and WETA?”
Or Why It All Depends on How You Look at Things
Last week, I was going to pursue that Flat Earth theme, but got distracted (again). I had a visit from a friend. My high-school buddy Harold stopped over on a trek through Europe, hot on the trail of Goethe. He told me a story from back west. Here it is. Continue reading “John Howe’s Journal: COYOTE”