From Athelas no. 1, 1993, copyright Imladris - Danmarks Tolkienforening

The Westron Page

Dear friends of Tolkien!

This page is for those of you who don't speak a word of the Scandi-navian tongues. It is intended to be an informal page telling you what is going on in Denmark, and indeed in what Mikael Ahlström (chairman of the Finnish Tolkien Society) calls "the European Tolkien Community"(!). This page will be written in English, being the lingua franca among all Tolkien enthusiasts - by some of you perhaps even better known under the name of Westron, the Common Speech in which most ofThe Lord of the Rings was written (when you discount the many other languages used among the peoples of Middle-earth). It will not, however, be any summary, but rather a column of its own due to the fact that summaries in general are boring, especially when you take into consideration that those of you reading it won't be able to read the actual articles to which it refers. Thus, the Westron Page will be independent from the rest of Athelas, the herb of healing power, and also the name chosen for the fanzine of the Danish Tolkien Society. However, once a year the Society will publish an anniversary issue including the best Athelas ingredients of the year, and this issue will be entirely in English, so that our ideas can spread and reach also those who are abroad.

Danmarks Tolkienforening - The Danish Tolkien Society - was founded on Sunday the third of January 1993 to celebrate the 101st anniversary of Professor John Ronald Reuel Tolkien. Previous to the foundation had been a year characterized by the Tolkien Centenary - and for myself a year which had opened a world all new to me. I am not thinking of Middle-earth since that marvellous place did I discover as a child, but rather on the many enthusiasts who I came to know during this year. It all started with a school paper I was going to write on Tolkien. In The Annotated Hobbit (by Douglas A. Anderson) I happened to find an address to The Tolkien Society of Britain, and as my curiousity grew I wrote a letter to have some more information - And I soon realised that every country with just a little respect for itself had a Tolkien society of its own! Piles of letters were written and received from all over the world! To be more precise: by the end of 1992 I had received no more than 111 letters - after such an expression, I felt ready to go off just like Bilbo on his eleventy-first birthday...!

The foundation took place in Copenhagen and was very enthusiastic. What had been scheduled to approximately a couple of hours turned out to take all day! Nevertheless, the Danish Tolkien Society is now a reality and it is with great pleasure that I can now quote Treebeard the Ent (a little paraphrased): maybe we don't like to be hasty, but when we are roused, nothing can hold us back! We are in it 100% -root and twig! The day after the foundation we entered Danmarks Radio (the national Danish public service radio). And we certainly did come to feel their public service, since we were going to listen to some old recordings of theirs. Among these were e.g. a reading of Hobbitten (The Hobbit) by the Danish actor Ove Sprogøe who really knows how to do such things! It was marvellous! We also heard a BBC programme with Denis Gueroult interviewing J.R.R. Tolkien himself! To some of us, I reckon, hearing the voice of Tolkien was a great shock!!!

The next meeting for the Danish Tolkien Society has been planned to take place at Lars Physant's studio on 8 May 1993. Lars Physant is a professional artist who has illustrated the Danish edition of Tree and Leaf (very poetically!) and we are honoured to have him as a very enthusiastic member.

We would still be delighted to hear what is going on out there in the big Tolkien world. So keep on writing!

Best wishes from all of us to all of you Lars-Terje Lysemose

- at your service!

This issue contains the following articles (Danish titles translated into English):

Quite Unexpected! By Inge Søbæk Lie-Olesen 5-13

I wish to make an ANNOUNCEMENT 14-15

Strange as news from Bree. By Lars-Terje Øland Lysemose 16-21

Beyond Rivendell. By Lars-Terje Øland Lysemose 22-26

Reviews. By Lars-Terje Øland Lysemose 27-28

There and Back Again. By Klaus Jørgensen 29-33

Letters from the Centenary 34-49

The Three Companions and Their Adventures in the Trollshaws.

By Lars-Terje Øland Lysemose 50-57

Tolkien in Translation. By Lars-Terje Øland Lysemose 58-61