The conference puts in focus the individual and society in Tolkien's work and in our real world. The three keynote speakers will be Thomas Honegger and Allan Turner of the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, and Tamás Füzessy, co-chairman of the Hungarian Tolkien Society and lecturer at Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest. The conference will touch upon several aspects of Tolkien's work in six sessions. Scholars of Tolkien from Hungary and abroad will discuss his work in the theoretical frameworks of political theory, mythology and psychoanalysis as well as literary criticism, for example, by examining the role of silence and sounds within the hobbit community.

(Click here for the Hungarian version of this article.)

Conference venue: the Sophianum building in the Budapest campus of Pázmány Péter Catholic University.
Address: 1088 Budapest, Mikszáth Kálmán tér 1. (Click here for Google Maps view.)

The official languages of the conference are English and Hungarian. Four of the six sessions will be exclusively in English. Translation will not be provided in the two Hungarian sessions. The sessions begin at 10 a.m., with the English sessions starting at 1 p.m. on Thursday and 10 a.m. on Friday.

The schedule of the conference can be downloaded here.
The program of the English-speaking sessions is also included at the end of this post.

Full registration (also recommended for admission to all English-speaking sessions) is 1200 HUF, admission to one session is 400 HUF each.
Participation fees are to be paid in Hungarian forints at the conference venue. Please pre-register here (only from abroad).

For updates about the Conference, follow this website and/or the Facebook event. If you have any questions, write to konferencia-at-tolkien-dot-hu.

Travel and stay

The venue is near the Kálvin tér station of the green metro line M4 and the blue line M3 but also within walking distance from the Astoria station of the red line M2.
The Hungarian Tolkien Society is looking forward to welcoming members of the numerous other Tolkien societies among the audience of the conference. Beside the academic programme, we would like if you could meet our community and also see more of our beautiful capital. If needed, members of a Tolkien society/community can apply to our Society for a small financial aid to reduce their travel costs.* For those who prefer accommodation with friends to hostels we will try to find hosts among the members of our community.

*We can offer a financial support of 30 euros to partially cover the travel expenses of only those participants who are in connection with a (local or international) Tolkien society. You do not have to be a registered member, it is enough if an official of the society sends us an e-mail stating that you belong to their community. You can apply for this financial aid on the pre-registration form before the 15th of August. The number of persons we can support is, unfortunately, limited. The financial support will be paid on presenting a copy of your ticket.

Schedule of the English-speaking sessions

Thursday, September 3

INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS
13:00-13:30    LÁSZLÓ, Gabriella: The Role of Interpersonal Relationships in The Lord of the Rings
13:30-14:00    PAGLIERI, Luisa: Boromir and Faramir
14:00-14:30    NAGY, Andrea: Interpersonal Relationships in Sellic Spell – The Transformation of Unferth

CHARACTERS IN MIDDLE-EARTH
15:00-15:30    PARIS, Antoine: Why Does Frodo Have to Leave Middle-earth? The Otherworld on the Borders of Society at the End of The Lord of the Rings
15:30-16:00    SANGUINETI, Barbara: Eöl – History of a Voluntary Outcast
16:00-16:30    MILE, Andrew: Sacrality in the House of Tom Bombadil – Echoes and Images of Catholic Liturgical and Spiritual Life
Keynote speech
17:00-18:00    HONEGGER, Thomas: Between Individual Glory and Service to the Community – Towards a Typology of Hero-Figures in Tolkien’s Works

Friday, September 4

THEORIES OF COMMUNITY
10:00-10:30    ZEJLENOVIĆ, Marko: Sound and Silence in the Hobbit-Community – A Sonic Approach to Tolkien's Fiction
10:30-11:00    TARCSAY-DEÁK, Tibor: The Role of Mythos in a Logos-Based World
11:00-11:30    MARINO, Ana: Women of Middle-Earth – An Approach to the Role of Women in The Lord of the Rings
Keynote speech
12:00-13:00    TURNER, Allan: The Lord of the Rings – A ‘Mythology for England’ or ‘Weltliteratur’?

LANGUAGE AND COMMUNITY
14:00-14:30    FURKÓ, Péter: Tolkien’s Sociolinguistic Awareness – Communities of Practice in The Hobbit and the LOTR Trilogy
14:30-15:00    PŐDÖR, Dóra: “But the language is that of Mordor, which I will not utter here” (FR 66) – Attitudes to Language in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit