What I did on my Holidays... Day 3.

[curiouswombat]

So, now we are on Saturday - and I've just realised I am writing up an exact week behind. So where this Saturday I have been shopping for my mother, and with D-d, and helping do refreshments at church this evening for spectators at the Manx Grand Prix, the 'amateur version of the TT', last Saturday was spent very differently! And was more fun....



As on the previous two days I saw inzilbeth_liz in passing - this was to be an ongoing saga... and finally met up with altariel and edge_of_ruin. Gill and I spent much of the morning in the workroom doing more costume stuff. Gill and her young gentleman finished his blue satin number (no - not like that, take your mind out of the gutter...). I helped a little - I assisted pinning up the hem...

I also spent time helping a young lady from Sao Paulo 'remake' a costume. She had brought a pale lavender dress with her, but wanted to change the look. There was a beautiful bodice that would have worked well, especially if she added some braiding to the neck of her dress - and she did try with it - but her heart wasn't in it. She really liked a different one - but it was too big in most places, and the arms were too tight. Eventually I managed to remove the sleeves, laced her into it and pinned it for her to then adjust it so that it fitted. I aimed her at the needles and thread...she looked lost.

"My Grandmother does all the sewing for me," she said, "both this dress and my hobbit costume... I don't know how to..."

So I gave in and sewed it. The fabric was very, very, thick - I could have done with a thimble.

But - as you can see, she did look very good in it!





As Saturday morning drew to a close, we threw costume stuff into boxes and dashed up to the other building to hear the day's major talk by JRRT's grandson Michael Tolkien. Well... he has a wonderfully modulated speaking voice which would be ideal for recording bed-time stories for small children as it is highly soporific - Gill and I sat with Altariel and Edge of Ruin (aka Andria) - and we probably managed 3 of us awake at any one time... probably.

He told us about his writing. It is fanfic. He writes poetry based in the world invented by an obscure children's author whose books were published in the 1920s...

One thing I did note at his talk was how he said his family name. There are people who sat Tolk-ee-in and people who say Tolk-een. I'm one of the latter - but always wondered if the other version was correct, and would I be noted as a fraud amongst geeks for not putting that extra syllable in. But the beautifully spoken Mr T referred to both himself and his grandfather as Tolk-een. So I feel better now!

I don't think I am going to search out his published fanfic about 'not-quite-flower-fairies though, to be honest.

Also on Saturday I heard a proper storyteller at work, and also attended a talk by a gentleman who considered heraldry in the work of Tolkien - for example is there any significance in the way that the good guys use complete emblems tree, horse, swan, whereas the bad guys use a disembodied eye, a severed hand...? Perhaps I should have asked about the Haradi black serpent...

Here is Chloe, the storyteller, although actually I took this picture on Sunday, I think...



Dinner was good - the refectory meals all were perfectly acceptable, and the company was excellent. Then came the Masquerade where brave people performed to display their costumes - and others just attended in theirs. The number of people who were in costume throughout the weekend was a major highlight and an integral part of the whole. The costume made mainly by Gill, from scratch, was finished and displayed!

My photos were not very good - in fact, on the whole, I gave up and just sat and watched and enjoyed the evening. I think Gill has a picture of the blue satin number.

Here, however is a slightly wobbly picture of pellegrina - she was best warg in class at Crufts this year...





There was a torchlight parade which was lovely - I'd missed the one the night before. And there was an enormous cake with Smaugh, his horde, and Bilbo on it. I took over cutting it as the young man wielding the knife really seemed to have no idea... and I hate watching people just chopping blindly at a cake and making a real mess.

Somehow I don't have a picture of the cake.

But here are a few more, rather random, pics to make up for that...

There was an odd sense of redefining the reality/fantasy borders quite often - so we have elves singing, and a passing Gondorian wearing a backpack...



Here is a better look at the back of the dress of that young Elven lady (or, being an Elf, perhaps she is thousands of years old... who knows?).



And, at another table, enjoying the sunshine we have the chief librarian of Minas Tirith...



Well, that's who he said he was, anyway - after all there is no reason why a librarian shouldn't don black leather armour in his spare time...!!



Now to get something to eat - and tomorrow I will post some pics of the Fellowship of the Green Dragon.

Comments

[gamiila.livejournal.com]

I've never really thought about it, but now that you come to mention it...I'm glad I've always pronounced it 'Tolk-een' too, now ;-),

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

We are in the very best of company... :)

[gamiila.livejournal.com]

I've never really thought about it, but now that you come to mention it...I'm glad I've always pronounced it 'Tolk-een' too, now ;-),

[spiced-wine.livejournal.com]

And, at another table, enjoying the sunshine we have the chief librarian of Minas Tirith...

Hahaha. True; even a librarian must have other hobbies. :D. Just likes to hang out in lots of black leather :)

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I kind of expected him to be heading towards orc-hood - and so I was most amused when he told Anke (in charge of the Masquerade) that he was the chief librarian of Minas Tirith.

[kathyh]

she was best warg in class at Crufts this year...

Bwahaha...with the current popularity of werewolves in film and TV this could catch on.

Gorgeous pics of some stunning costumes. I particularly love the armoured Librarian. Possibly the armour is necessary to protect him from the books!

For the record I've always said Tolk-een too :)

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Wasn't her costume good? She is a very sweet warg!

The black leather clad librarian amused me greatly. There were some excellent costumes all around us - probably about 10% of those attending wore costume.

[shirebound]

I'm sure that young lady from Sao Paulo will never forget your kindness!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

As she sometimes dresses as a hobbit I rather felt I was now a hobbit's adopted grandma!

And how amazing that she came all the way from Brazil!

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

Tol-keen all the way!

Those costumes are incredibly wonderful!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I have some pictures of more people in costume that I will post tomorrow. Did you see my post a couple of days ago (http://curiouswombat.livejournal.com/323347.html#cutid1) that featured a young Finnish gentleman in Elven banded armour?

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

I was away for a week so no, I didn't see it.
Off to look now!
:)

[chaotic-binky.livejournal.com]

The irony of Tolkien's grandson writing fanfic made me smile :D

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Of course he didn't actually call it that - but he set his epic poetry in this lady's world, and (I paraphrase) sometimes showed her characters in a slightly different light, whilst also inventing his own characters to inhabit her world as well. So, yep, fan-fic.

[myrhiann.livejournal.com]

I'm greatly enjoying the pics. The costumes are amazing. And...I always have pronounced it Tolkeen too.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I have some more costume pics to post later today - they tended to draw my camera...

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

I'm always said "Tol-keen" so glad to know I apparently say it correctly!

If that's the chief librarian, I bet there are very few overdue books!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

There do seem to be quite a lot of very well educated Brits who put that third syllable in - and it only occurred to me about the third time he said it that the person who most certainly would do so if it was correct, didn't.

As for the librarian - I rather think you are right!

[clodia-metelli.livejournal.com]

That looks like a whole lot of fun. I love all the costumes.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

It really was great fun - there were streams looking at music, dance, at art (all including practical sessions) lessons in Sindarin and Quenya, and so much more.

But there was some very serious stuff going on as well - for example, on Saturday there was a panel considering 'The Presence ofIluvatar in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings: Active, Passive or Absent?', followed by 'Cyclic cataclysms, Semitic stereotypes and religious reforms: a classicist's Numenor'.

But I went to hear the storyteller discussing dragons...

[ellynn-ithilwen.livejournal.com]

I want this last dress! :)

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Me too! Wasn't it wonderful?

[hhimring]

That clearly was some experience! I'm glad you got a picture of your armoured elf, but the others are spectacular as well.
There is an interview with Jay Johnstone on TORn, but having talked with the man himself, you probably don't need that.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I have a few pictures of the Company of the Green Dragon to post today - they lived in their costumes throughout - and also in their own settlement - no sneaking off to a hotel room in the evening for them!

I will go and read the interview later too - even though I spent quite a lot of time chatting to Jay.

[bojojoti.livejournal.com]

Often there are words one sees and never hears. I'm guilty of saying "Tolk-en." Guess I'll have to reform!

You're the person I'm always looking for when I'm given the task of cake cutting!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

To be perfectly honest it was one of the few things that I remembered from his talk... :(

My mother gets very annoyed if anyone just hacks lumps off a cake - her catering background, of course. And so I know just how to cut the right width and then cut it into slices or fingers depending on how much cake there is to recipients. However the inability to tolerate young men waving a knife vaguely at the cake without just taking it off them and doing it properly has clearly been inherited alongside the lessons!

[engarian.livejournal.com]

I've always been in the Tol-key-in category. I guess I'll have to alter my pronunciation immediately. It's good to know these things :-)

I love the pictures you have. You may not have all of what you saw, but you've shared and that's so very nice of you.

- Erulisse (one L)

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Thank you - sharing the pictures is one of the pleasure, I think.

[inzilbeth-liz.livejournal.com]

I've always said the latter too and it looks like we're right! Weren't the torchlight things fun! The 'librarian' btw is a real fan - he owns a castle in Switzerland that houses his vast private Tolkien museum!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I did see the gentleman with the long wispy beard (who has a Welsh name - I've seen his pictures on Flickr), holding his torch so close to said beard that I got a bit worried...

And how cool is that about the gentleman in the black armour?