We had a good number of people turning up, including a few new members. It was a very good meeting, I thought - lot of fun, most people got involved in the discussion, and those that didn't, seemed to be listening intently.
We discussed two main things - briefly I talked about Rivendell (Kaitoke Regional Park), where the Elven Archway is now a permanent and beautiful addition. The official opening will be held on March 7th, and very soon I will be making formal announcements and sending out invitations.
The main event though, was the big discussion of the events immediately following The Hobbit book (and movies), right up to the start of The Lord Of The Rings books (and movies). Most of the afternoon was taken up with a leisurely reading of ROTK Appendix B, The Tale Of Years (from T.A. 2941 through to T.A. 3018). Everyone added extra information as it came to mind, and we diverged on more than a few tangents.
I've written up the main events in a tabular format - it may be useful if you're doing your own investigations.
Some of the sidetracks we took involved things like when does the writing "Sting is my name, I am the spider's Bane" appear on Bilbo's sword - presumably it happens in Rivendell but when? We couldn't find any reference in any of the books brought in (and there was a veritable library brought in by our members), so it appears that was simply
a movie invention then.
The time flew by - before anyone realised, it was close to 5:00pm, and buses were leaving and cars were in danger of being ticketed, so we called the meeting to an end.
Total turnout was 16 people, a good start to the new year! A big welcome to our new members, Sam, and Wilson and Erica. We hope you enjoyed it enough to return - we certainly enjoyed your company!
- Jack
(*) - The spreadsheet link is an experiment using Google Docs - I'd love to get feedback to say if it works or not?
The link, again, is here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/11VfP3zrPnLM_hxqhHOie-BWVascQEG5gAP_kzD0lCzw/edit?usp=sharing
