Eä Tolkien Society Meeting Notes for November 2019

Notes from the Inland Northwest Smial of the Eä Tolkien Society

16th November 2019
Attended in person: Noah, Chris, Brian, Hawke
Attended remotely: John, Sam

1. October Notes read by Brian to the smial, including votes for the theme
of Tolkien Moot XVI (2nd Age, Numenor).

2. Hawke commented on the winning proposal... 3 campaigns spread out over
at least Tolkien Moots (potentially 5-6 year arc).
—Rise of Numenor
—Glory of Numenor
—Fall of Numenor

3. Reference to the Wagner Society infographics
https://wagnersring.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/img_0031.jpg

Available for sale here:
http://nibelungenterprises.com/

4. Thursday Nights—Never Winter Nights (an RPG inspired by Shakespeare’s
Tempest). Building an infographic.

5. How important is knowing about the First Age? First Age is useful but
not necessary to understand the 3rd Age of Middle-earth.

6. Last Thoughts on the *Fall of Gondolin*
—how Turgon handles isolationism vs. globalism (What would be the wiser
choice?)
—Rivendell as a mini-Gondolin
—the 3 Rings
—Relationship of fea and rhoa (difference between elves & men)

7. We took turns reading Letters of Tolkien.
—Letter 161, to Raynor Unwin 1955
* About the map to accompany Lord of the Rings
—Letter 162, Christopher’s map
—Letter 163, to W.H. Auden
* Tolkien wrote the Trilogy as “personal satisfaction”
* interpretations—many different ones of LOTR
* great quote by JRRT about allegory
*“In a larger sense, it is I suppose impossible to write any 'story' that
is not allegorical in proportion as it 'comes to life'; since each of us is
an allegory, embodying in a particular tale and clothed in the garments of
time and place, universal truth and everlasting life.”*
** *the “roots” of LOTR in his imagination
* Hawke’s reference to spiders (JRRT’s South African childhood)
* Tolkien’s friendship with Auden
*Tolkien’s learning of languages—took pleasure esp. in Welsh and Spanish
(Sam pointed out that 1/3 of Spanish vocabulary comes from Arabic
influence, sounds different than other Romance languages)
—Atlantis myth in Tolkien’s legendarium
—according to their own mytho-history, Basques descend from survivors of
Atlantis
—Basque is a language that has no related languages
—John’s question about changes in Elvish (separated = events bring
differences between Quenya, Sindarin, and Silvan Elvish)
—The Finnish epic Kalevala
—The Ring is the link to the Necromancer
—“The Essential Quest”

8. We will next meet on Saturday, December 21, 2019, from 1-3 pm.
Points to follow-up on:
—Kalevala (other stories aside from Kullervo which we’ve already covered in
the past)
—Letter 164
—The friendship of Tolkien and W.H. Auden
—News/Articles from the Amon Hen newsletter
—Updates on the LOTR Prime project

Submitted cheerfully by the Smial Secretary,
Brian Huseland