Eä Tolkien Society Meeting Notes for May 2019

Dear Friends and fellow Tolkien literature enthusiasts,

Please accept the following notes from last month's meeting of the Eä
Tolkien Society of the Inland Northwest:

***
May 18, 2019
In Attendance: Brian, Hawke, Richard, Corey

1. Brian read notes from April meeting. Our discussion of notes included
the lineage of Eärendil and the Fall of Troy/story of Aeneas as a parallel
of the one spared in the sack of a noble city to do great deeds later.

2. Administrivia: Hawke updated us on a few items. We are no longer on
Meetup. Hawke's other endeavor, RPGRESEARCH, has a new apprentice (Niklas)
who will be helping support the Eä Tolkien Society as well with
organization. Tolkienmoot has been moved to September [editor's update: the
small gaming con "TOLKIENMOOT XV" has been changed to October 19th].

3. Other news discussed:
*Cubicle 7 Games press release:
https://www.cubicle7games.com/cubicle-7-announces-the-one-ring-second-edition/
*Amazon Middle-Earth series update:
https://screenrant.com/lord-rings-tv-show-story-time-period-middle-earth-explained/
*Reviews of the biopic film "Tolkien"... FOR:
https://www.theonering.net/torwp/2019/05/08/106518-torns-second-breakfast-with-dome-karukoski-director-of-tolkien-2/
and AGAINST: https://www.tolkiensociety.org/blog/2019/05/tolkien-the-movie/
*This led to a lively discussion on the possibilities & limitations of such
a film about an author... references made to X-files, Stargate, and
Farscape (see the video of our meeting for the details).

4. Our smial then continued reading Letters of Tolkien 156 (started in
April).
*Comments on Westernesse as a synonym for Numenor
*Tolkien plays with mythical paradigms and his belief system
(intermediaries)

5. We resume reading the early version of *The Fall of Gondolin* (all
taking turns reading):
*Recounts the 11 houses readying for war against Morgoth's minions and
monsters
*The child Eärendil's dream, and the armor he puts on (Q: was this perhaps
the seed for JRRT's later story of the mithril armor worn by Bilbo and
Frodo?)
*Idril's tears over her sense of what will come
*War council
*The attack like a Trojan horse (another Troy parallel)... hollow
dragon-monsters of metal
*The wrath of Tuor on Maeglin's betrayal and Tuor's rescue of Idril and
Eärendil (imagine what would have happened in Tolkien's epic if Eärendil
had been killed at this point?)
*The fight of their lives for the Hidden City
*We stopped reading at "Then Gothmog, Lord of Balrogs..."

6. The next Eä Tolkien Society will meet on June 15 from 1-3 pm at Hawke's
house. Also, tentatively a July 20 meeting is also planned (confirmation
later).

Namárie,
Your Secretary (apologies that I will be absent this Saturday: it's a great
section of the Fall of Gondolin to read, though!)