From Athelas in English, 1994, copyright Imladris - Danmarks Tolkienforening

Beyond Rivendell

The Lord of the Rings was announced as being "the book of the year" in 1993 by the Danish youth magazine Tjeck. The nomination was made in light of a readers' election. 30% of the 3,129 parti-cipants voted for the book ­ Who said that Tolkien is hopelessly outdated!?

Have you ever considered taking a new name? Well, now is your chance! Lars Tjalve, a member of Imladris and vicar in the chapel of Fredensborg Castle, tells us that one of his newly confirmed pupils has had "Frodo" added as his first name. Though not one of the most widespread names, the Danish Ministry of Ecclesiastical Affairs gave its permission, so now the Tolkien Enterprises can no longer claim "Frodo" as being their trade-mark...! In Denmark the most common last name called after Tolkien is still "Kløvedal", the Danish translation of Rivendell, which the members of the commune "Maos Lyst" chose to sym-bolise their fellowship during the 70s.

Who would have believed that a genuine hobbit business could be found nowadays?! Nevertheless, the world-wide advice company Indevo Proudfoot advertises under the harmo-nious slogan: "Individually we are different. Together we make a difference". With 3,000 employees the concern should be able to come up with any solution necessary. The name, however, does not originate from the hobbits' Shire as one could think but more likely from the Native American founder.

In 1979 the famous multi-talented musician Mike Oldfield, then 25, told a journalist at the Danish news paper Aktuelt that his first record Tubular Bells "with a little imagination could sound like a musical version of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, a fairy-land with hobbits and so on. I haven't consciously made it like that but I had just read The Lord of the Rings when I composed Tubular Bells and the books had impressed me so deeply that Tolkien's world still lay in the back of my mind." Tubular Bells, a long rhythmical symphonic dream, hit the world charts and founded the recording company Virgin.

Who does not dream of finding Tol-kien's own handwritten sequel to The Lord of the Rings...!? You have to be lucky of course, but who knows... On 28 March 1958 J.R.R. Tolkien participated in a symposium in Rotterdam. René van Rossenberg, chairman of Unquendor, the Dutch Tolkien Society, has been investigating the matter and has suc-ceeded in finding one of the participants from that time, Mr Cees Baars, who also recorded the symposium speeches on tape! René paid a visit to the elderly man ­ But no, the tape was not to be found. And yet, a few weeks later Mr Baars phoned and told René that he had found an old reel labelled "Tolkien"! This, however, is not the end of the story; when René listened to the old recording, it was not a Tolkien dinner which he heard, but a dinner with the Greek-Dutch friendship society ­ The Tolkien dinner had been deleted! And nevertheless, the story ends happily for when René in his astonishment let the tape roll on and the Greek dinner was over, then the last speech from the symposium started with no other than J.R.R. Tolkien himself! René now intends to publish this remarkable recording and any further results of his research. The participants at the Northern Tolkien Festival can also hear the story from René himself as well as the new found tape which René has promised to bring along.

Hrum, Hoom ­ We are the tree-herds, we old Ents. Few enough of us are left now. Sheep get like shepherd, and shepherds like sheep, it is said; but slowly, and neither have long in the world. It is quicker and closer with trees and Ents, and they walk down the ages together. For Ents are more like Elves: less interested in themselves than Men are, and better at getting inside other things. And yet again Ents are more like Men, more changeable than Elves are, and quicker at taking the colour of the outside, you might say. Or better than both: for they are steadier and keep their minds on things longer ­ and if you do not belive in Ents, you can see for yourself since the Entings, the Ent children, live in the wild flowerbeds in the Danish artist Erik Hjorth Nielsen's garden. And indeed, they are real enough!

Denmark not only has a magazine by the name of Athelas but also an ensemble! The Athelas Ensemble, being a sinfonietta of 14 to 18 persons, grew up in November 1990 as a result of the straitened circumstances of modern classical music in Copen-hagen. The promoters, Hans Peter Stubbe Teglbjærg and Klaus Ib Jørgen-sen, are very fascinated by mythology and not least by Tolkien and his books, but the repertoire, classical and chiefly Danish postwar music, has been very restricted as regards to actually play-ing anything in relation to Tolkien. It is not, however, the wish to do so that restrains them. But the composers who have been writing for the Athelas Ensemble have all been very "anti-mythological", among others the Briton Philip Wilby, as the members of the ensemble chose to express it. In November 1993 the ensemble toured England and Scotland where they gave six concerts. At home their concerts are mainly held in the Danish capital and often broadcast on Danmarks Radio. The Athelas Ensemble has also been co-operating with the Briton Robert Saxton whose piece "Central of the Rainbow" according to the ensemble was composed while he had Rivendell in his thoughts! And when you come to think of the great success the ensemble has had, the name is perhaps not so strange after all ­ the magic herb with the healing powers has had its effect...!

A new Danish orchestral work of The Lord of the Rings had its first performance on 20 April 1994 at the City Hall of Frederiksberg in Copen-hagen. The work, which is 17 minutes long, was commissioned for the Danish State Music Council and Ishøj Music School in an attempt to bridge audience and new classical composi-tion music as well as amateurs and professional musicians. The work is composed for the Symphony Orches-tra of Sjælland (Zeeland) but also embraces the participation of more than 50 children from the local music schools. The young Danish composer Ejnar Kanding, who graduated from the Royal Danish Academy of Music in 1993, has composed the music which he calls "absolute music", mean-ing that it can be heard without any previous acquaintance with Tolkien.

Norway, a country no longer only associated with snowy mountains, running rivers, fiords and salmon, was last year ravaged by a certain "Count Grishnackh" (sic). The name, being taken from Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, is now upon everybody's lips. In short, the sad story is about a 20-year-old Black Metal musician who is charged with having set fire to two old stave churches and also with having killed another musician. The "Count" has released an album called Burzum (Black Speech for darkness) and the successors of his band now advertise under the name of "Gorgoroth". "Count Grishnackh" does not try to hide the connection to Tolkien, actually he won't be called anything else and has completely identifyed with the captain of the Mordor orcs, calling himself a Satanist. However, we are glad to tell you that despite a lot of press attention, the name of Tolkien has not suffered any damage in the deplorable affair. The Norwegians have not set off with a crusade against Tolkien as might have been feared.

Watch out! A computer virus called "Frodo" has recently been discovered. The virus is activated on Bilbo and Frodo's birthday, 22 September, and causes among other things a frozen screen with the text: "Frodo lives". Not everybody who has read The Lord of the Rings has good intentions!

While your humble servant was in Barcelona he also found a tavern by the name of "Radagast". The innkeeper, however, did not know anything about Tolkien or Middle-earth but had named his public house after an ancient Rumanian God! No doubt, Tolkien knew about this religion when he chose to use the name for the nature-loving brown wizard...

The first performance in Denmark of the Dutch composer Johan de Meji's Symphony nr. 1 The Lord of the Rings was given in the Tivoli Concert Hall in Copenhagen on 28 May 1993. With 150 musicians, dancers, actors and technical assistants, the concert is said to have been very successful. Later two concerts were given in Norway on 24 July.

The Danish Radio Theatre has for some time considered producing a Danish dramatisation of The Lord of the Rings. Inspired by the successful adaptions made by the BBC and the two German radio stations Südwestfunk and Westdeutsche Rundfunk, it was the intention of Danmarks Radio to make a 13 part play. However, at present the production has been left in abeyance as a result of lack of funding. Hopefully, they will be found some day...

A Danish edition of Iron Crown Enterprises' Middle-earth Role Playing game was supposed to see the day of light at Christmas 1993. Your humble servant was one of the promoters having translated most of the text but at present the publishers' plan is still unknown.

A Finnish TV series of The Lord of the Rings was shown in Finnish TV during the Spring of 1993 based on the Ryhmäteatteris play which was performed at Sveaborg in 1988 and 89. The music is composed by Tony Edelmann, a Guest of Honour at the Northern Tolkien Festival, and is very beautifully made. Unfortunately, the series will not be shown outside Finland. The Tolkien Enterprises have forbidden any distribution abroad.

Minas Tirith is not just the name of the capital of Gondor but also the name of a Danish Heavy Metal band whose prime mover, Erik Ravn Christensen, is also a member of the Danish Tolkien Society. The band was founded in 1989 at Hareskov School by some "rather agressive young men" at the time (to quote Erik) and was "quite primitive" in the beginning. The texts were originally "very political" but the messages became eventually more fairy-like when Erik read Tolkien's books. In 1992 the band released their first demo tape: Tales from the woods. It was recorded over two nights in a cellar in Hareskov and contains six numbers: "Gather ye wild", "The road goes ever on", "A tale from the woods", "So long ago", "3.7.9.1.", and "The wanderer's farewell". The readers of Athelas can judge the relation to Tolkien themselves ­ you can acquire a copy from the editor (75 DKK sent thoughout the world). The band has had some turnover in members but now consists of 6 musicians of whom two have been participating from the very beginning. From being very melodious Speed Metal, "Minas Tirith" has become more Heavy with the entrance of new members, and, have added a grain of Irish folk music as well as an "amateur opera singer" ­ the music is now supreme! Two members of the band have recently returned from a tour in Malmö, just across the Sound of Copenhagen, where they played some Irish folk music on acoustic guitars for our kinsmen in Angmar, the Tolkien Society of Malmö. And the prospects are promising indeed. In a few months time we'll probably see a new CD album.

­ News collected by Lars-Terje Lysemose