A note from Vivienne Wilkes, one of the many organizers of the Middle-earth Weekend, with details of next year\u2019s event. This will be held as usual at:<\/p>\n
Sarehole Mill in Birmingham, England
\nand will be open from 11.00am until 5.00pm on
\nSaturday and Sunday
\n15th and 16th May 2010.<\/p>\n
Vivienne is not taking an active role in the organization this year since she is instead following in the footsteps of Rosie Cotton. Rosie\u2019s husband Sam Gamgee as, you will recall, became Mayor of Michael Delving in the years following the Hobbits\u2019 adventures in \u2018The Lord of the Rings\u2019. By strange coincidence Viv is married to this year\u2019s Lord Mayor of Birmingham. Of course a major difference is Michael Wilkes will be Lord Mayor for one year only whereas Sam was Mayor for many, many years. <\/p>\n
One of the numerous privileges of being Lady Mayoress of Birmingham has been seeing the \u2018Staffordshire Hoard\u2019 of Anglo-Saxon warrior artifacts that were on display at Birmingham\u2019s Museum and Art Gallery. <\/p>\n
How delighted Tolkien would have been with this special and extremely important discovery, and as a self-proclaimed Birmingham man, I am sure he would have been thrilled at the plans to keep this find in the West Midlands (or Mercia, to give the area its original Anglo-Saxon name). The golden hoard has now been valued at \u00a33.3 million and the Museum of Birmingham and its companion Museum in Stoke-on-Trent have 4 months to raise funds to keep and display these wonderful Anglo-Saxon artifacts. <\/p>\n
Just think, if all Tolkien\u2019s fans world-over felt able to donate just one English pound each, I am sure the funds would be raised in no time. How wonderful to visit Birmingham at some future date and combine the Middle-earth Weekend with a visit to examine the Staffordshire Hoard itself.<\/p>\n
If you are interested you can find out more via the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery website:<\/p>\n