The Westron Page

Athelas 14

Dear folks,

Summer has come, the sun is shining from a blue sky and it's time for a new leaf of Athelas.

For those unfortunates of you who don't understand Danish it might be a small comfort to know that we have thought of you, so this issue contains a very humorous review of ICE's Hobbit Boardgame written in English by a Norwegian student who happens to be in Denmark at the moment. And of course, you always have the Westron Page to turn to when you can't make head or tail of that gibberish Danish of ours...

This issue of Athelas is also filled with artwork made by our Ukrainian friend Sergei Iukimov as well as with artwork made by other artists who live abroad. We are very grateful to all of you and hope you will continue making contributions so that we can publish lots and lots of Athelas issues.

In this issue you will also find an article on a great Tolkien event which took place in Copenhagen on 28 April arranged by students of music and rhetoric. The event was arranged as a part of the European Union's theme "Copenhagen European Cultural Capital of the Year" which involves lots and lots of festivals, theater, music, etc., etc. throughout the year. This particular event involved music set to Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, a narrator who told the story in brief and slides of illustrations for the book made by Her Majesty Queen Margrethe II of Denmark. Ditte Hendrichsen also writes of her memories of the Mithlond banquet held in Gothenburg in Sweden in May.

And then we have a very long article on Tolkien's myths, originally made as an exam project by Peter N. Edelberg. Peter makes parallels to Christianity, Norse and Greek mythology and makes three theories on what myths are for and what they can tell us. He has also developed an impressing skill in the art of writing Quenya as he shows in his poems and translations of "Quenya Elessar Arweno" and "Nálmë i híni lómëo".

Finally, we have our news column, quoting a Danish youth magazine for making Tolkien a Godfather (!), and in another magazine we have found a very provoking interview with the Norwegian death metal musician "Count Grishnack" who has been sentenced to 21 years of imprisonment for murder and who still says that Tolkien has been his main inspiration!

Svend Runge Nielsen also tries to start a debate on whether or not role playing material and other people's writings of Middle-earth help strengthening the value of Tolkien's stories, or if publishers have become too commercial and profitminded after his death. Hopefully, we'll get a lot of response to this in next issue. Until then, I remain yours sincerely,

Lars-Terje Lysemose