From Athelas no. 3, 1993, copyright Imladris - Danmarks Tolkienforening

The Westron Page

My dear people (Bilbo began),

Time flies and in your hand you are now holding the third issue of Athelas, the magazine of the Danish Tolkien Society. Since last issue we have had a new Tolkien wave in Denmark starting with the publishing of Athelas 2 and (so far) endning with the current issue. In the intervening period and after the merging with Tolkiens Følge our membership has increased to about 70 and we have left a meeting behind us. Our society has also (once again) had a lot of press attention ranking from small newspaper notices to large articles, two radio features and a TV programme! And recently, Danish television also broadcast a feature on one of the Swedish Tolkien societies. But the growing enthusiasm is perhaps not so strange after all. In a country with only 5.2 million inhabitants, the works of Tolkien's have sold more than 265,000 copies - and been illustrated by a queen! Still, we hope to have new members to share our common interest with and would, of course, also like to continue our well-established co-operation with the international Tolkien community. Unfortunately, producing a magazine like Athelas is a very expensive affair, and we have consequently been forced to end some of our exchange agreements with other magazines. We deeply regret this but hope that you will understand our financial situation. However, we still intend to publish an issue including translations of the best Athelas ingredients, and this English issue will probably be out in time for the great Tolkien event in the northern corncer of ours: The Tolkien days of the North which are to be held on 17 to 20 June 1994 in Sweden. Further information is to be published in future issues of Athelas. Yours under the stars,

Lars-Terje Lysemose

Contents in this issue (Danish titles translated into English):

I wish to make an ANNOUNCEMENT! (society news) 4-5

Information on Northern Tolkien Festival '94 - Tolkien days of the North 6

News from Bree (newspaper articles and the editor's comments) 7-11

Once upon a time there was a meeting... (minutes from Viborg) 12-13

Bogskogen 1993 (report from Angmar in Sweden) 14-15

On Kalevala and Tolkien (influence from Finnish mythology) 16-19

Beyond Rivendell (the news section - e.g. a Danish comic Hobbit !) 20

Seven Melodies for the Works of Tolkien's (notes by Danish composer) 21-27

Letters to Athelas (in Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, German and English) 28-36 Reviews of fanzines (due to limited place this will be cut down in future issues) 37-38

Quenya for beginners, lesson 1 (published in English as Basic Quenya) 39-44

Hero of the Town, Saviour of the Town (poem in Swedish) 45

Tolkien in Translation (on place-names, continued from Athelas 1) 46-47

Crossword puzzle (in English - send in the anser and you may win a 1994 calendar) 48