By Tommy Silverros
From Athelas in English 1994. Copyright Imladris - Danmarks Tolkienforening
A short historic flashback
An invitation to attend a Danish Tolkien Society meeting in Copenhagen on 13 November 1993 brought back memories well hidden in the back of my head. On a visit to Fantask, the well-known fantasy book shop in Copenhagen in the summer of 1980, my eyes suddenly fixed on a notice written by some teenagers in Herlev who wished to come in contact with persons interested in forming a Danish Tolkien society. As I was already a member of several Tolkien societies at this time, I quickly got in touch with them and attended their first meeting. Rules and modus oprandi were discussed, and a incredibly gifted member, Niels Petersen, had already put out a magazine which he wrote, made all the drawings for, edited and printed himself. I was very impressed by his deep interest in Tolkien. Not much happened at these meetings. I showed them how to play role playing games, and we listened to the Caedmon LP box of The Hobbit as read by Nicol Williamson. We also listened to soundtrack recordings from adven-ture movies like Ben-hur, The Ten Commandments, Spartacus and Indiana Jones. Sad to say but the society never took themselves seriously enough and the lack of activites and ideas brought it all to an early end. I'm sure Niels gladly tells about all this in a more correct way! If the Danish Tolkien Society ever plans to have more honorary members, I would strongly recommend Niels Petersen and his two great magazines The Book of Mazarbul and The Mirror of Galadriel. I was quite convinced that this was the end of Tolkien fandom in Denmark. Till now!
13 November 1993
I grabbed my camera and 250 slides and took the hydrofoil cross the water to wonderful Copenhagen and went straight to Fantask. Here I finally met the chairman, Lars-Terje. We shook hands and went straight to the S-trains and travelled on to the secretary of the society, Inge, who lives in a suburb of Copenhagen. Surrounded by trolls, she lives in a truly cozy hobbit-hole filled with charm and hospitality. I promised myself to write a certain rune on her frontdoor the next time I came for a visit!
We stepped on a new train and then a bus and went directly to the village of Holte, where we teamed up with other members at a huge mansion which housed a museum exhibition of works by H.M. Queen Margrethe II. The exhibition was carefully displayed and proved once and for all what a remarkable artist the queen is.
Oil paintings of Sicilian windows in France and blow-ups of roses mixed with theatre costume studies, and magnificent mass-vestments and cloaks filled with imagination and fantasy. Only three watercolour paintings with Tolkien motifs were present this time but being from "The Book of Lost Tales" they showed beautiful Scandinavian landscapes and an aura of sensual beauty. Bravo!
We also sneaked into another exhi-bition and had a look at the oldest findings of man in Denmark. Indeed a highly cultivated afternoon!
The Tolkien Society meeting
Afterwards, we travelled back to Copenhagen and had a marvellous dinner at RizRaz. We toasted the memory of Tolkien, the Danish Tolkien Society and absent friends, and I gave a little lecture about toasting cere-monies in other Tolkien societies.
Waldemar, a noted composer in the society, proved to be a very entertaining and friendly man. We all ate like hobbits who won't see food again until next week!
Our final destination of the evening was Inge's hobbit-hole. We listened to some of Waldemar's songs on tape and had a great book discussion. I even managed to sell a couple of the books I had brought along.
While I was preparing for my slide show, Inge made tea and presented us with a truly scrumptious blueberry pie. Eglerio!
A harem of nine men eagerly waited upon the arrival of our busy host Inge in her bedroom, filled with desire for... slides!
I introduced the Angmar Malmö Tolkiensällskap, "my" own society, and our activities, especially the 16th annual "Beech-woods", which is a Middle-earth weekend in the dark Swedish woods, with about 100 persons from different Tolkien societies all over Scandinavia all dressed up in Tolkien costumes. We have a marketplace, quizshows, goblin-huntings (live role playing), a treasure hunt, theatre plays, a song and poem writing competition, a grand banquet evening with reception and majestic ceremonies and singalong by the fireside. It always takes place the last weekend in July.
Kim Hansen presented a copy of his Danish Tolkien Bibliography to Angmar. Eglerio!
The rest of the night was spent discussing the future of the Danish Tolkien Society. Some of the topics of the discussion were about getting more publicity and more members, starting up local groups with their own meetings, and the importance of Athelas, since the magazine currently is the only form of communication in the society. And of course, the Northern Tolkien Festival!!!
A diplomatic alliance between Angmar and the Danish Tolkien Society will hopefully take place during the Spring, at the Angmar Spring Banquet on 5 March 1994.
At 4.30 in the morning we decided to try to rest our eyes and minds for a while.
I woke up 8.30 and said goodbye to Lars-Terje. Inge drove him to the station and then brought back freshly baked bread and pastry. What a hob-bit-girl! We had breakfast and then it was time to begin the journey home.
The sincere wish to make something of the Danish Tolkien Society among the participants this weekend was so strong that it moved me, and I'm sure we all have happy memories of this gathering of Tolkiens fans. I especiallly wish to thank Inge and the hard-working Lars-Terje for their invitation and co-operation.
Elen silá lumenn' omentielvo!