BREE MOOT 5.
The Fellowship of Tolkien:
Exploring Tolkien’s collaborations with his fellow Inklings, and his interactions with the literary traditions he taught and studied; emulating his examples in the fellowship of the readers’ discussion group and writers’ workshop known as the Inklings, in order to enjoy his fiction, ideas and create new works and understandings, or bring his ideas to life.
Guest of Honor
Margaret Howes
April 27-28, 2001, St. Paul, MN
Bree Moot 5 is being held in tandem with the University of St. Thomas English Department Tolkien Conference:
CONCERNING HOBBITS & OTHER MATTERS: TOLKIEN ACROSS THE DISCIPLINES
a one-day academic conference on Thursday, April 26, 2001 in St. Paul, MN
Registration in the Concerning Hobbits conference is now $30, same as at the door.
Tim has posted the conference program, so check out the list of papers and presenters!
The following couple of days, Friday and Saturday, April 27- 28, will be a great time for our more “fannish” Bree Moot. We expect to hold most of the activities on the St. Thomas campus, but in any case, let us know if you’re interested–we’re still interested in more program items/suggestions, and volunteer help.
Conference Membership: $25, there will also be a one-day rate of $15 at the door.
Note that this does NOT include the banquet on Saturday night, and is separate and additional to the $30 rate for the Concerning Hobbits conference on Thursday, April 26 (of course you can attend either without attending the other).
Room & board–for Bree Moot you’re on your own, but you can register at the hotels suggested on the CONCERNING HOBBITS web-page, at the St. Thomas conference rate. There are other hotels in St. Paul and Minneapolis, including at least two which are closer to St. Thomas campus. There is a cafeteria in the building we’ll be in (the student center), and a number of nearby restaurants and fast-food options.
–David Lenander, d-lena@umn.edu
TOLKIEN SCHOLARS AND HOBBIT FANS CONVERGE
Tolkien scholars and hobbit fans will gather at two conferences at The University of St. Thomas over April 26-28, 2001.
Concerning Hobbits and Other Matters: Tolkien Across the Disciplines, on Thursday, April 26, will feature a number of formal presentations by scholars from around the country, under sponsorship of the St. Thomas English Department.
Bree Moot 5, over the next two days, will celebrate the works and worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien in more reader-oriented activities, including both individual and group presentations and informal interactions. The Bree Moot theme is “The Fellowship of Tolkien,” broadly interpreted to include approaches to fantasy literature inspired or modeled by Tolkien in his fabulously popular fantasy works, including The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings (now being filmed for a major film release next December by New Line Cinema) and in his scholarly works and teaching. The local Rivendell Group of The Mythopoeic Society is devoted to the example of Tolkien’s discussion group in the 30s and 40s, The Inklings (which also included noted writer/scholar/professor C.S. Lewis), which met regularly to discuss books and the great literary tradition as well as to workshop the members’ own works-in-progress.
Margaret Howes, Bree Moot guest of honor, exemplifies this approach: She published a “fan” article in the mid-60s Tolkien Journal, at the height of the Tolkien campus craze, and went on to derive inspiration from Tolkien in writing (and later performing) her “Tales Told by the Lonely Mountain,” some of which were published in The Tolkien Scrapbook. After helping found and participating in the Rivendell discussion group for many years, she last year published her first novel, The Wrong World, and this year is publishing Autumn World, a novel jointly written by five current and former members of the Rivendell Group.
Other program features at Bree Moot will include
author/critic Ruth Berman presenting slides on dragon illustration,
presentations by Canadian scholar-professor William Sarjeant (a.k.a. fantasy author “Antony Swithin”) on “The Shire: Its bounds, food and farming” and “Geology of Middle-earth,”
musician David Emerson on the Tolkien-Donald Swann collaboration, “The Road Goes Ever On” song cycle, and
presentations on the Children’s Theatre Company dramatizations of The Hobbit and on the forthcoming New Line Cinema films.
Other activities include panel discussions, filk-singing, and some displays of fan publications and memorabilia. This is the second time that Bree Moot has come to Minnesota. Previously, Bree Moot 3 was held at the University of Minnesota in 1997. (See additions below, as of 4/15/01).
For more information, contact (612)292-8887, 293 Selby Ave., St. Paul, MN 55102-1811 or d-lena@umn.edu. The Rivendell Group, which is co-sponsoring the conference, along with the Tolkien fan newsletter, Beyond Bree, is a chartered discussion group of The Mythopoeic Society and has also been a recognized student organization at the University for the past two decades, studying and discussing fantasy in the Tolkien tradition each month.
THE TOLKIEN SEMINAR
Leading up to the upcoming Bree Moot 5/Concerning Hobbits and Minicon
conferences in April, there will be a series of programs held around the
Twin Cities approaching our themes on a smaller scale.
The first of these was on April 7, at the Southdale Public Library (7001 York Ave. S. Edina, MN 55435 952-847-5900), 1:30 p.m. a panel discussion featuring experts on and writers of children’s fantasy.
FROM HOBBITS TO HARRY POTTER: Children’s Fantasy since Tolkien
Panelists were:
Peg Kerr, author of the VOYA-reviewed novels Emerald House Rising and The Wild Swans. Peg has also taught at the University of Minnesota.
Laura Krentz, a Hennepin County children’s librarian and coordinator of the Children’s Fantasy bi-monthly correspondence circular, Once Upon a Time.
Claire Lenander, an 11-year-old member of the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award committee.
Caroline Stevermer, author of River Rats and several other novels, including her latest book, When the King Comes Home.
This program was co-sponsored by the Southdale Public Library, the Rivendell Group of the Mythopoeic Society and The Minnesota Science Fiction Society (Minn-Stf).
The second program was Wednesday, April 18th, 12 noon Andersen Library, room 120B:
VISIONS OF TOLKIEN’S MIDDLE-EARTH
a slide-lecture by Ruth Berman.
Recent Bree Moot 5 Developments–
Gary Hunnewell (“Hildifons Took”) will be attending, and providing several additional program items. Besides leading the Golfimbul games, he’s planning to provide the first complete reading of his Middle-earth astronomy paper.
Author Peg Kerr (author of The Wild Swans and Emerald House Rising) will be joining programming on Friday evening. She had so many interesting things to say about Harry Potter at the “From Hobbits to Harry Potter” panel a couple of weeks ago that I wonder if we should have a discussion of those books while she’s with us.
Author/editor Eric Heideman will be presiding over our hospitality, and hopefully participating in some programming, especially in a panel on writerly collaboration or mutual
influence, a la the Inklings.
Besides goh Margaret Howes, several of the co-writers of the new novel, Autumn World, including Deb Jones, Joan Marie Verba and Ruth Berman, will hopefully be on a panel discussion/reading.
Here’s info about Bree Moot 4, which was combined with the Mythopoeic Society’s larger Mythcon, held in the summer of 1999 in Milwaukee, WI.
Or, you might want to check out the reports on Bree Moot 3, which is probably a closer model to the expectations for Bree Moot 5, since it won’t be combined with the larger Mythcon: Bree Moot 3 occurred in May of ’97 in Minneapolis, MN.
Bree Moot was started by readers of Beyond Bree, a monthly newsletter for Tolkien fans.
contact david_lenander@icloud.com
