curiouswombat | What I Did on My Holidays part 2...

On Friday morning Gill and I worked up an appetite for breakfast by walking the immensely long corridor to get to it at something like the crack of dawn. Then we drove over to the main part of campus so that we could take a lot of stuff into the workshop for a costume session later in the morning.

We were so careful to not be late doing this and managed to get to a long session by a lovely man called Bob Blackham at exactly 9.00am - but he was so enthusiastic he had started early - this was to be something of a pattern as so many of the speakers were very enthusiastic. This gentleman gave us a Photographic Tour of Tolkien's childhood, and then his time in Oxford, and finally his wartime experiences, all illustrated with contemporary pictures - it was fascinating.

Gill had offered to help with the costume workshop for the rest of the morning and I drifted in that way too. We both spent some of our time there over the next two days and had a ball - Gill helped one young man make a costume from scratch out of about an acre of shiny blue silk, we helped people adjust and change costumes, and put a couple together out of all the spare bits the wonderful Anke (who was in charge) had brought. I pinned, tacked a bit, made a cloak fastener and tootled around - Gill did some serious sewing... Here she is helping the young man, sitting, whose costume was made from scratch - and another young man who I think might have been another Fin - it was a very international gathering!

We also spent time over the weekend assisting a small boy glue sequins onto fabric to help make a Chinese-style dragon - whilst others were doing very academic stuff somewhere else!

I also did something very naughty - without realising... A lovely lady, who I later discovered to be

muuranker had shown me, on Thursday whilst Gill was at a talk, how to find the back door of the building to make it easier to carry in a box of fabric and a sewing machine. Coming in that way on Friday morning meant that I didn't notice the sign on the proper entrance saying there was no photography in the exhibition area.

Although clearly the exhibitors didn't notice either, as the photo yesterday of Simo in his armour was taken by one of them... I would never have taken close-ups of the art work anyway - this was just to give an impression -

And here are some of the banners hanging from the balcony;

You can just see, on the first one, the jewellery stall - one of my favourite places. I bought myself some steam-punk stuff, and then solved the problem of what to get for my sister's birthday by buying her some lovely pieces made from blue goldstone.

Here is a beautiful artwork called Telperion which was on display - I'm afraid I didn't note down the artist's name.

And some wonderful beadwork by a lady called Laura Taylor; Siamese cats in Mordor...

(In Letter 219 Tolkien expressed his fear that Siamese cats belong amongst the fauna of Mordor!)

Crebain: a murder of Ravens;

And, most gloriously, a Warg Collar. (Sekrit Note to

pellegrina - very you...!)

One of my favourite talks was on Friday afternoon - a lawyer called Murray Smith who discussed Contract Law and the arrangements between Bilbo and the Dwarves in The Hobbit - it appears it would make an excellent teaching tool to explain the basis of English Nineteenth Century Contract Law!

The two highlights of Friday, however, were Charlie Ross performing a one-man Lord of the Rings in an hour, and Tom Shippey talking about leadership styles as shown in the works of Tolkien - and as shown by various Professors (in the British sense) and other academics he had known!

There was a ceilidh after dinner - but I fear Gill and I, having been on the go non-stop for over 12 hours at that point, made our way back to Burleigh Court bar and checked our e-mails...

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: Not Rohan