Welly-moot 2.5 report (somewhat belatedly)

NB - Due to all the excitement around the Live Fan Event earlier this month, it looks like I never hit the "Publish" button on this report. My apologies, so here it is. Some of the items are somewhat late but better late than never, right? ;)

The Welly-moot group met on 27th October. As usual, we started with catch-ups between members, and we exchanged some news and updates.

From left front, clockwise: Kris, Jack, Martyn, Wayne, Annabel, Francine (hands only), and Cinnamon. As usual, Alex, managed to avoid the camera by taking the pictures. Also present were Annabel's two hobbits.

Jack talked about the Hobbit Fan Event on 5th November at the Embassy Theatre. The Welly-moot group has been invited to attend by the organisers RoadShow Distributors. There will be further announcement on this website in the next few days..


The was a report about the Auckland Armageddon fantasy convention from Cinnamom. Also, we have a new member; Franziska, from Germany. She has always loved Tolkien's stories and has finally made it to New Zealand, which was a childhood dream of hers.

Cinnamon and Franziska

The main discussion today was about King Thranduil's history (Legolas’ father). We had interesting discussions about him. Who is he? How did he get to Mirkwood? Where is Legolas's mother?


Everyone brought their books and we took turn to read the parts related to Thranduil, or to his father Oropher. The skant information available about them makes this a fascinating part of the histories.

Martyn and Wayne

Jack had scoured the net for some more information about Legolas' mother, but nothing concrete was found. He did stumble on a Yahoo Q/A, where someone named "Celtic Druidess" had this to say (slightly paraphrased):

Who is Legolas’ mother / Thranduil’s wife?

Tolkien never really created a full family tree for Legolas. We can trace his lineage back on his father's side to his grandfather, but no further.

It is possible that Thranduil’s wife was one of the Silvan Elves (Thranduil being a Sindarin elf), which is made clear in in the History of Galadriel and Celeborn (in Unfinished Tales), where there's a brief account of the arrival of Thranduil's father Oropher among the Silvan Elves of Greenwood the Great.
It's made obvious there that Oropher and his small band of Sindar merged themselves completely with the Silvan people of the Wood, leaving behind their Sindarin inheritance. By this time, Thranduil had already been born, and in order to link themselves to the Silvan elves, it is likely that Thranduil had been married to one of them. But this is never dwelled upon, and so is just an educated guess.

The extended discussions were about the "real world" Kings in England, The Netherlands, Germany and Sweden. In the real life, the kings are not exactly blood line, however in Tolkien’s world the Kings are totally blood lines ("blue blood???"). Aragorn was an exile and eventually becomes the King, merely because of the blood in his veins.


After the Tolkien discussions, we returned to the Hobbit 2 movie release. We have agreed what we would like to do something in December when the Hobbit 2 (Desolation of Smaug) will be released. We will contact to the Embassy Theatre to watch Hobbit 1 on 12th December evening, then we will watch the Hobbit 2. We also have of a party on 12th at the Embassy if we can. We will announce the details on this Website. It can be a costume party as well.

We will update this blog about the Event on 5th November. Keep your eyes open!


  - Alex & Jack

IMPORTANT! Fan Event Announcement at Welly-moot 2.5!!!

Hopefully everybody's heard about Peter Jackson's announcement about the Live Fan Event.

I guess everybody is trying to get some of the free tickets that TheOneRing.net is giving away. It looks like Welly-mooters won't need to worry about those...
 

If you're a member of Wellington's Tolkien group, please make sure you come to the meeting this Sunday the 27th, since I have a special announcement to make there, which will affect all Welly-moot members in the Wellington region during the event.


If you're not already a member, this would be an EXCELLENT meeting to attend and become a member. Membership is STILL free, but you do have to attend a meeting.


I'm not able to make any promises at this stage, but things are looking very good right now. Come to the meeting to find out more.

Sunday 27th of October, 2013, at 2:00pm.

Embassy Cinema, Upstairs at the Cafe.

Come one, come all!

And please feel free to email/retweet/facebook-post this link to anyone else who needs to see this in the next 17 hours.


  - Jack

Next Welly-moot theme: Thranduil, father of Legolas (moot 2.5)

The next Welly-moot isn't far away, it's time we had a theme for it! With the second Hobbit movie not far away, we're focussing on one of the characters from it - Legolas' father King Thranduil of the Woodlands Domain. Who is he, how did he get to Mirkwood (or Greenwood the Great, as it was called in the olden days), and why haven't we met Mrs Thranduil?

Reading material (if you feel enthusiastic) will be from The Hobbit; the last part of the chapter "Flies and Spiders", and the first half of "Barrels out of Bond". If you have any other material relating to him, please bring it.


The meeting is at the usual place and time - Sunday the 27th of October, at 2:00pm, upstairs at the Embassy Cinema. Bring coffee money.

See you all there, and bring a friend!