35. XXI/2. (July 2024)
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What’s on—Timeline (p. 3.)
A quick overview of Hungarian Tolkien Society events from January to June, followed by news about Hungarian and international publications. In April, the Society’s book collection was made accessible to the public in the National Library of Foreign Literature in Budapest. In May, the Hungarian translation of the 7th volume of HoMe, The Treason of Isengard was published.
What’s on—Stories (pp. 4–11.)
The year started with the Tolkien Birthday Toast, followed by our Cyberpunk-themed Carnival Ball in February. A team of organisers visited the MondoCon in spring to promote our summer camp. Our Tolkien Reading Day event was held in a nice café. The Tolkien Day was in April—we have two reports on it and another two on the Tolkien Mailing Competition. We had our usual Beltaine and Líthas campfire events and a long weekend of the Spring Meeting.
Tolkien Studies: The Emissaries of Mordor (pp. 12–15.)
Luca Tóth-Palásthy’s paper, based on her presentation at our Tolkien Day in 2022, offers an informative survey of the few facts known about nazgûls.
Languages & Letters: Sindarin Dialects (pp. 16–20.)
Gábor Lőrinczi gives a detailed analysis of the evolution and the characteristics of Sindarin dialects through the three ages of Middle-earth.
Interview: Someone Will Carry On (pp. 21–23.)
Our interviewee in this issue is Dániel Sági-Kiss, one of the three co-chairmen of the Hungarian Tolkien Society in the past three years. He shares his views and disappointments connected to their time in office, the too many internal rules of the Society and the challenges of the future.
Riddles (p. 24.)
The first task contains definitions of names and expressions concealed in a table of letters. You may recognise many of these names even without the help of the definitions. In the second task, you get step by step from the names of Elves to the name of a plant: in each line, you should exchange one letter of the previous solution and reorder the remaining letters.
Reviews (pp. 25–33.)
Tamás Bartók-Nagy reviews The Nature of Middle-earth, giving a taste of both the interesting and the exhausting chapters. Szonja Selmeczi tells about her visit to The Headless Chicken, a new Tolkienesque fantasy-themed tavern in Estonia. Bálint Barna sums up all that is worth knowing about the three motion picture productions based on works by Tolkien and expected to be shown soon. Szonja Selmeczi reviews There’s a hole in my bucket, Royd Tolkien’s book on his adventures with the bucket list left for him by his terminally ill brother. Dániel Karakas recommends the card game The War of the Ring. Noémi Holló reports on the Italian travelling exhibition entitled TOLKIEN—Uomo, Professore, Autore, which she saw in Naples while Dániel Kálmán acquaints us with the Tolkien Fandom Oral History Collection, a project by William Fliss at Marquette University.
Literature (pp. 34–35.)
Two creations from among the submissions to the Tolkien Mailing Competition: the journal of a young Númenórean adventurer with their comments on the surprising customs of Middle-earth and a song of Teleri sailors in Quenya.
The Beginner’s Guide to Middle-earth: Tattoolkien (p. 36.)
Many people want to use the fancy Elvish letters for tattoos, engagement rings and other important inscriptions. But be careful, understand your choice fully and be aware of the difference between translation and transcription. Make the transcription and ask an expert to check it.
34. XXI/1. (January 2024)
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What’s on—Timeline (p. 3.)
A quick overview of Hungarian Tolkien Society events and other news from July to December. The Fall of Númenor was published in Hungarian this autumn, and The Treason of Isengard is expected for the spring!
What’s on—Stories (pp. 4–12.)
We bring two reports on our Númenórean summer camp “The Last Ship”: one by an experienced participant and another by a newbie organiser. Read about our autumn programs, Mabon and the Creative Autumn Meeting, as well as about the literary day in the Metropolitan Ervin Szabó Library and the Tolkien exhibition in Rome. Follow our rangers as they continue their hikes along the famous National Blue Trail, and finish with our Christmas celebration.
Languages & Letters: The Goblin Alphabet: Construct Another Alphabet and Blame the Bear! (pp. 13–17.)
Flóra Orthmayr and Tamás Bartók-Nagy analyse the Goblin Alphabet constructed by North Polar Bear in The Father Christmas Letters and recommend a “Hungarian mode”.
Languages & Letters: Like the Twang of Steel Bows: The Adûnaic Language (pp. 18–21.)
Adrienn Deák sums up what is known about the Adûnaic language (don’t get confused: the word Adûni is used here as the Hungarian equivalent of Adûnaic, not as the Westron word for Westron).
Interview: A New Tolkien Society in the Neighbourhood (pp. 22–24.)
Our interviewee in this issue is Mina Lukić Gunner, who has recently announced the founding of a Serbian Tolkien Society: we asked her about their plans, Tolkien fandom and the current corrected translations in Serbia.
Riddles (p. 25.)
The first task challenges the reader to pair places with the food met or eaten there by our favourite hobbits in the course of their adventures: ordering the foods by the place numbers gives you the solution with which you can compete for a Hungarian copy of The Unfinished Tales. The next tasks are a bit of lore-based mathematics and mixed-up names from the Tolkien Mailing Competition.
Reviews (pp. 26–31.)
Anna Mikesy and her family review the biographical children’s book John Ronald’s Dragons by Caroline McAlister. Szonja Selmeczi shares her disappointment with the recent The Lord of the Rings: Gollum computer game. Máté Forgács introduces Moritz Eggert’s musical composition for organ entitled Orck and reports on its world premiere. Anna Regina Sárközy tells about her experience with the Middle-earth-themed edition of the card game Magic: The Gathering. András Lázár recommends Iván Uhrman’s new book, Messages to Middle-Earth, a selection from his previously published studies.
Literature (pp. 32–35.)
Two short stories are chosen from the Tolkien Mailing Competition submissions: in the older one, titled Black Wood, Eva Zahradníková shares how a treasure from Gondor was found in a modern archaeological excavation; while in the more recent piece, the team “Curse-Merchants of Mandos” tells about The Cats’ Invasion of Valinor. In addition, Gergely Tóth imagines a phone call between Tolkien and Unwin about the crazy idea of hobbit calendars.
The Beginner’s Guide to Tolkien: A Tolkienite Tour of Oxford (p. 36.)
This time we walk through the streets of Oxford and try to list as many notable locations as we could cram into one page—his colleges, residences, favourite pubs, and favourite churches, with a glimpse of the museum shop for the best Middle-earth gifts.
33. XX/2. (July 2023)
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What’s on—Timeline (p. 3.)
A quick overview of Hungarian Tolkien Society events and other news from January to June.
What’s on—Stories (pp. 4-11.)
Besides three events of our own (the vampire-themed Carnival ball, the Tolkien Day held on Tolkien Reading Day, and the Tolkien Mailing Competition with its live final in May), we also report other events attended by our members: five of us visited the TolkienCon in Prague; we were invited by the local cultural centre of Tatabánya to teach Tolkienian scripts and organise games at its ‘The World of Elves and Dwarves’ family day; and many of us participated in the Dagor Amon Sûl LARP, organised by the Hetedhét group. We also have a report on the recent activities of the Tolkien Club of Győr.
Tolkien Studies: The Mariner, the Sea, the wife, and all the Red Flags (p. 12-17.)
Botond Pálfi continues the topic he presented at our Tolkien Day this year, discussing the unusually everyday tragedy of the story of Aldarion and Erendis and its parallels in Tolkien’s life and views.
Tolkien Studies: Friendship in Tolkien’s World (pp. 18-21.)
A translation of a paper by Martina Juričková, originally published on the Fellowship & Fairydust page, on the meaning and importance of the word ‘fellowship’ in The Lord of the Rings.
Interview: In my twenties, I took everything very seriously (pp. 22-26.)
Gergely Nagy (Lamorak) is probably the most widely known Hungarian researcher in the international field of Tolkien Studies. He is also a founding member and the first vice-president of the Hungarian Tolkien Society. We asked him about those early days as well as his recent conference experiences.
Interview: Fans and Collectors (pp. 26-28.)
Jeremy Edmonds (Urulókë) is the founder and admin of the Tolkien Collector’s Guide (TCG) which won the Best Online Content Award of the Tolkien Society in 2019. The TCG webpage has plenty of information on Tolkien’s works useful for collectors and non-collectors alike. He shared stories of his own collection and some TCG projects, including the Guide to Tolkien’s Letters, launched on the TCG page in June.
Riddles (p. 29.)
Here we present two tasks from the last Tolkien Mailing Competition: the first requires you to identify some of the battles in Beleriand, while the second asks you to name five Dwarves sitting in line at Bilbo’s place: see the picture with Kili’s notes about them (written in English, with the Anglo-Saxon runes used in The Hobbit).
Reviews (pp. 30-34.)
Three articles discuss publications from 2022: Anna Sárközy recommends the War of the Ring: The Card Game; FélszipókásŐsmoly reviews the Hungarian edition of the sixth volume of the HoMe series, The Return of the Shadow; and Márta Pintér introduces a German book about unnecessary facts for Tolkien-fans by Stefan Servos. The column also includes Gergely Tóth’s pictorial report of The Tolkien Shop in Leiden.
Literature (pp. 35-39.)
The story of Mordred Sharktooth and the naming of the Prancing Pony by Péter Rákos-Zichy finished third in our short story competition in 2020. It is followed by two creative works entered in Tolkien Mailing Competitions: Songs of Power by Eva Zahradníková describes a scene from the making of a Silmarillion movie; Oh, those curly feet! is a Hobbit love song by the Gil-Estel team of this year.
Beginner’s Guide to the MTT: Hungarian Tolkien Society Slang Dictionary (p. 40.)
In the two decades of our society, many abbreviations and code names have become integrated in our inside language. They are probably confusing outsiders when we use them in public communication. Now we explain the stories and meanings underlying some of them.
32. XX/1. (January 2023)
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What’s on—Timeline (p. 3.)
A quick overview of Hungarian Tolkien Society events and other news from July to December. The Hungarian translation of the 6th volume of HoMe, The Return of the Shadow was published in November; the next HoMe volume and The Fall of Númenor are expected to come out before the end of this year.
What’s on—Stories (pp. 4-12.)
Our summer camp, The Way of Eorl, was set in the time when Baldor was lost. The Tolkien Club of Győr closed the summer on the river Danube and discussed The Rings of Power series during the autumn. The latter was also analysed in podcasts and online lectures by our experts. The RangerCommando continued its monthly hikes along the National Blue Trail. The Creative Autumn Meeting was held in Nagykőrös with a Gundabad setting. Creative works were sold at the Handicraft Market in November and given as gifts at the Society Christmas in December. Members of our Society also tell about their experiences abroad, namely the Oxonmoot of The Tolkien Society in the UK and the 20th anniversary of the Austrian Tolkien Society.
Tolkien Studies: Tolkienesque Mythopoesis in Superhero Comics (pp. 13-15.)
Bálint Szántó discusses the superhero comic genre as an example of Tolkienesque mythopoesis in this paper he presented at our Tolkien Conference in 2022. His main question is whether superhero narratives fit Tolkien’s idea of mythopoetic works.
Languages & Letters: Celtic and Sindarin Consonant Mutations (pp. 16-19.)
Welsh is a well-known inspiration for the Sindarin language, and consonant mutations represent one of their shared features. But to what extent are these mutations in Sindarin similar to those in Welsh and other Celtic languages?
Riddles (p. 20.)
The first quiz requires you to pair famous weapons with their owners. The second is a true-or-false about The Lord of the Rings, where correct answers can win for you the new Hungarian edition of The Return of the Shadow. Finally, contestants in the Tolkien Mailing Competition challenge our readers with riddles that could be heard in Middle-earth.
Interview: Search for the first Hungarian Tolkien Society (pp. 21-23.)
Gábor M. Koltai is known primarily as a theatre director, but he is also one of the Hungarian translators of Unfinished Tales and The Monsters and the Critics—a job of love he took on as a teenager when he tried to gather Hungarian Tolkien fans in an association and also launched a fanzine called Elanor.
Reviews (pp. 24-28.)
Lilian Rácz recommends the cookbook Recipes from the World of Tolkien by Robert Tuesley Anderson. The Fall of Númenor, edited by Brian Sibley, is examined by Máté Forgács. There follow two reviews, one critical and the other lenient, of the first season of the Amazon series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power by Krisztina Sárdi and Anna Sárközy, respectively. Szonja Selmeczi introduces The LotR Virtual Challenges of The Conqueror application.
Literature (pp. 29-36.)
This section begins with two short stories produced in our summer camp: a ghost haunts the Golden Hall in The Promise by Gergely Tóth and drunk Hobbits enjoy the cuisine at the Prancing Pony in The Tarragon Stew by Kati Jóba. The Dwarven hymn to Mahal was submitted as a solution during the Tolkien Mailing Competition by the team Underpaid Mordorian Frontier-Guards. The tale Dwarfheart by Lilla Dancsok finished second in our short story competition in 2020. The section is closed and crowned by Zsigmond Kostyál's Tolkien Toast, the winner of our recent poesy competition.
31. XIX/2. (July 2022)
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What’s on—Timeline (p. 3.)
A quick overview of Hungarian Tolkien Society events and other news from January to June.
What’s on—Stories (p. 4.)
Short accounts of various programmes: a Creative Club event for sewing your own textile tote bag; a commemoration on the 100th birth anniversary of Árpád Göncz; our first hybrid Tolkien Day with online lectures and offline activities; the Post-Apocalyptic Party in April instead of the usual Carnival Ball in February; the Tolkien Mailing Competition; and our four-day-long celebration of the 20th anniversary of our Society with a conference, lectures, pub quiz, concert, campfire, games, dances and stage night. The last report by our guests from the Greek Tolkien Society can be read on our website in English.
Tolkien Studies: Dancing bears and other curiosities from Númenor (pp. 10-13.)
This article is a written version of the presentation at our Tolkien Day this year, which collects various interesting facts and some abandoned ideas about Númenor from Unfinished Tales and The Nature of Middle-earth.
Tolkien Studies: Was Tolkien really racist? (pp. 14-15.)
The Hungarian translation of Dimitra Fimi’s award-winning paper, originally published in The Conversation in 2018.
Languages & Letters: Like the Clatter of Pickaxes: The Khuzdul Language (pp. 16-19.)
This article summarizes the little information we have about the language of the Dwarves.
Interview: Translations Should Sound Well (pp. 20-22.)
Judit Gálvölgyi is the Hungarian translator of The Silmarillion (1991), The Children of Húrin (2008) and The Fall of Gondolin (2019). In this interview she talked about her first job at the circus, her love for Middle-earth, and the most annoying books she had to translate.
Interview: 20 years, 20 members, 20 stories (pp. 23-25.)
For the 20th anniversary we have asked 20 members of our community who found their way to us each in another year, to choose and answer one from a long list of questions like “Which was the first photograph taken of you with us?” or “Which was your favourite summer camp stage role?”.
Riddles (p. 26.)
This time our second quiz is not about Middle-earth, but rather the history of our own Society. The first one is a common crossword puzzle where definitions use no other vowel but “e”.
Reviews (pp. 27-32.)
Milán Vágusz reviews the Hungarian translation of The Lost Road and Other Writings. Szonja Selmeczi introduces two TV film series (one Finnish and one Swedish), both inspired by The Lord of the Rings. Bálint Barna familiarizes us with the second edition of the roleplaying game called The One Ring. Szilárd Csermely examines The Lord of the Rings: The Living Card Game.
Literature (pp. 33-34.)
Rían and Morwen is a scene by Zsuzsanna Ürmössy written in our summer camp of 2009 which shows the two women preparing to their weddings in a very different, but equally characteristic mood: Rían vows not to live on without her husband, and Morwen, to stay strong, whatever comes.
In Memoriam (p. 35.)
This section is devoted to the memory of Priscilla Mary Anne Reuel Tolkien (1929–2022).
Beginner’s Guide to Tolkien: Who can make Tolkien adaptations? (p. 36.)
A summary of the complex history of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings adaptation rights and licenses.
30. XIX/1. (January 2022)
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What’s on—Timeline (p. 3.)
A quick overview of Hungarian Tolkien Society events and other news from July to December. During the summer and autumn months we could participate in offline events again, and besides the usual Tolkien Mailing Competition and Tolkien Lectures only the Christmas Meeting had to go online. The Lost Road and Other Writings was finally published in Hungarian on the 9th of November. As to the future: our Society celebrates its 20th anniversary in June 2022, and we hope you will join its programme!
What’s on—Stories (pp. 4-10.)
The three main events during the past six months were the hobbit-themed Summer Camp, the live RPG “Azanulbizar”, and the Creative Autumn Meeting in Zirc (see the pictures in the colour pages). Reports on programme series like the Creative Club events, the Ranger Commando hikes and the online Tolkien Academy lectures are followed by two short pieces on the organisers' financial training and the first MTT community market.
Tolkien Studies: Melkor, the Defeated (pp. 11-15.)
This paper by Zoltán Hunor Miklós is based on his thesis submitted to the Faculty of Theology at Károli Gáspár University. He presents Ilúvatar's words to Melkor as Tolkien's Gospel, and compares the role and history of Morgoth to that of Satan.
Languages & Letters: The Valarin language: like the glitter of swords (pp. 16-17.)
Tolkien changed his concept regarding the language of the Valar many times, and for a good reason—he had to create a language used solely by angelic spirits, majestic, grandiose and divine. Botond Pálfi uncovers the many devices Tolkien used in the creation of this unique language and its relation to other tongues of Arda.
Interview: Cover-inspirations and map-techniques (pp. 18-20.)
In this interview we have asked Győző Vida about his work on the first Hungarian edition of The Lord of the Rings which included paintings for the dustjackets, the redrawn maps and the coats of arms at the beginning of each of the six books. His story about the assignment, his inspirations and the techniques tells a lot about the work of illustrators in the 1980s.
A Russian History (pp. 21-23.)
Svetlana Likhacheva is the Russian translator of many books by Tolkien, including The Lays of Beleriand and several other parts of The History of Middle-earth series, of which the fifth volume has just been published in Russian. On this occasion, she tells us about the difficulties entailed by translating Tolkien's poems and about her enthusiasm for these challenges.
Riddles (p. 24.)
The first easy task provides an opportunity to win the Hungarian edition of The Worlds of J. R. R. Tolkien. The second is made of Tolkien Mailing Competition solutions, and the third is compiled from earlier “odd-two-out” tasks devised for the same competition.
Reviews (pp. 25-30.)
András Lázár reviews the Hungarian translation of Alexandre Sargos’ book about Tolkien’s youth (J.R.R. Tolkien à 20 ans). Adam Ardens Dora (Peredhil) examines the new Ainur album (War of the Jewels) of 2021. Szonja Selmeczi discusses Switzerland in Tolkien’s Middle-earth by M. S. Monsch and the alleged connections between certain imaginary places in Tolkien’s legendarium and real places in Switzerland. The fourth article introduces The Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-Earth, a board game of application-assisted role-play.
Literature (pp. 31-35.)
A short story and a poem take us back to the hobbitry of the summer. The next story, A Lesson by the Monster of Lórien (which came in third in our literary competition of 2020) tells about the friendship and hunting cooperation of two outcasts in a wood of refined Elves. The final poem presents the last days of Númenor.
Beginner’s Guide to Tolkien: Tolkien but not Middle-earth (p. 36.)
A summary of those works by Tolkien which were published in Hungary but are not directly related to Middle-earth.
29. XVIII/2. (July 2021)
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What’s on—Timeline (p. 3.)
A quick overview of Hungarian Tolkien Society events and other news from January to June: we held meetings and lectures online through May and celebrated our 19th anniversary already offline in June. Our new Chair for the next three years was elected in May. The Worlds of J. R. R. Tolkien and The Young Tolkien were published in Hungarian this spring.
What’s on—Stories (pp. 4-9.)
Short accounts of various online events of this spring, both Hungarian and international: besides the Tolkien Toast, our Tolkien Reading Day and Online Tolkien Clubs, the TS’s Tolkien Seminar in February, the Prancing Pony Podcast Moot in May and Unquendor’s Lustrum Day in June are also featured here. Longer articles report about our ‘Tolkien Days’ event, the online Annual General Meeting and the Tolkien Mailing Competition.
Tolkien Studies: Historiographical aspects in Tolkien's works (pp. 10-12.)
Adrienn Deák’s paper compares European views on history with those of the inhabitants of Middle-earth, inferred from the way Tolkien composed their annals and chronicles.
Tolkien Studies: The Music of Tolkien (pp. 13-14.)
Anna Mikesy discusses the importance of music and songs in the life of J. R. R. Tolkien and in the world he created.
Languages & Letters: Certhas Daeron for Hungarian (pp. 15-17.)
Adapting the Tengwar and Angerthas writing systems for different modern languages is common enough. But how can one indicate the changes between the early Sindarin and the later Dwarvish versions of the same rune alphabet while using it for another language? Viktória Fehér faced this challenge in the course of her preparation for our summer camp in 2019.
Interview: Tales and Worlds of Tolkien (pp. 18-19.)
Our guest is Anikó Németh, the Hungarian translator of The Worlds of J. R. R. Tolkien by John Garth. She has also translated some writings of Tolkien’s published in 1994-1996.
Riddles (p. 20.)
The first task asks you to pair some Sindarin names with their Quenya originals. The crossword puzzle focuses on dwarves and dragons.
Reviews (pp. 21-28.)
There are games (The Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game and The Lord of the Rings Online), music (the band Summoning), and strange objects from the grey past (Khraniteli, the Soviet LotR adaptation and The Home of the Gods, a short-lived, illegally published Hungarian fanfic version of The Silmarillion) is also introduced in this column, as well as The Worlds of J. R. R. Tolkien.
Literature (pp. 29-31.)
Balázs Kalla’s short story, Dear Diary (which came in second in our literary competition of 2020) tells about the fall of Sauron from the unexpected viewpoint of a Mannish slave. Kati Jóba’s acrostic entitled The Secret of Success won the Tolkien Days poetry competition this year.
In Memoriam (pp. 32-35.)
The Hungarian translation of The Lord of the Rings was published forty years ago, in the summer of 1981. Besides the story of the publication, we are remembering its three translators: the first eleven chapters and the appendices are the work of Ádám Réz, and after his early death Árpád Göncz continued with the prose, while Dezső Tandori translated the remaining Poems.
Beginner’s Guide to MTT: The Recipe of the Creative Autumn Meeting (p. 36.)
Szonja Selmeczi summarises the history of our autumn meetings by listing the ‘ingredients’ we habitually all expect of such events by now: a small town, a school building, creative workshops, stage night and parties, foreign guests and, of course, a bit of Middle-earth.
28. XVIII/1. (January 2021)
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What’s on—Timeline (p. 3.)
A quick overview of Hungarian Tolkien Society events from June to December, and some hints for the future: our Tolkien Day is planned for March, and the Hungarian publication of The Worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien and The Lost Road and Other Writings is also expected in 2021.
What’s on—Stories (pp. 4-10.)
Two series of spring events lasted until June: the online lectures of the Tolkien Academy and the discussions of the Heren Nolmion Endórëo, the last occasion of which could be held offline in a pub. There were no summer camps, but we had a Hobbit Style Cooking Contest in August, and the RangerCommando spent whole weekends in the woods. A new “smial” in the town of Győr held two IRL meetings during the autumn. The Creative Autumn Meeting and the Christmas Party took place online and met with unexpected success.
Tolkien Studies: The Creation in the Bible and in The Silmarillion (pp. 11-14.)
Zoltán Hunor Miklós’s paper is the first part of his thesis submitted to the Faculty of Theology at Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church. The author introduces the various definitions and categories of creation myths in general and then applies them to the Ainulindalë.
Tolkien Studies: Magic and Sub-creation (pp. 15-18.)
Dániel Karakas discusses the different words and concepts for witchcraft and wizardry Tolkien used in his works. What does sub-creation mean, and does it count as magic?
Languages & Letters: Elvish Word-Pairing (p. 19.)
Contrary to the long essay in the previous issue, this column is half-way to the riddles. A short introduction, followed by half-filled tables of words, acquaints the reader with the regular sound correspondences between the Sindarin and Quenya languages and with their descent from their common ancestors, Primitive Quendian and Common Eldarin.
Riddles (p. 20.)
You can try your hand at the first task since it does not require a knowledge of Hungarian: name places on the map of Númenor. To the right three LotR characters are concealed in haiku riddles. Finally, there is a crossword puzzle: one lucky reader who send us the right solution will win the recently published Hungarian edition of The Shaping of Middle-Earth.
Reviews (pp. 21-27.)
Simon Hornyánszky (FélszipókásŐsmoly) reviews the Hungarian translation of The Shaping of Middle-Earth. Szonja Selmeczi (Níniel-Nienor) introduces the Horn of Gondor, a Czech fan film about how the relationship between Gondor and the Eorlingas began. Tamás Bartók-Nagy (Toma) analyses the annotated version of The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, edited by Christina Scull & Wayne G. Hammond. Dániel Karakas writes about the animated film adaptation of The Return of the King from 1980, while Bálint Barna (Gandalf) summarizes the news of the upcoming Amazon Prime series.
Literature (pp. 28-35.)
These two short stories, The Keeper of the Dam by Szabolcs Angyal and The Tale of Autumn by Szilvia Matola (Hemhet) came in first in the two categories of the competition that had been announced in our previous issue. The winners of the competition are also listed in this column.
Beginner’s Guide to Tolkien: Where should I start? (p. 36.)
A recommended reading order and short description of those Middle-earth books by Tolkien which have been already published in Hungarian.
27. XVII/2. (July 2020)
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What’s on—Timeline (p. 3.)
A quick overview of Hungarian Tolkien Society events from December to May, also some international news and the announcement of the Hungarian publication of The Shaping of Middle-earth.
What’s on—Stories (pp. 4-13.)
Although it looks like we had a period of cancelled events, we have a lot of stories to tell: about the Tolkien Day and the “Slavic Madness” Carnival Ball in February, the Tolkien Mailing Competition, a live RPG in early March with a story after the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, the hikes of the RangerCommando and, finally, the Hungarian and the international Online Tolkien Reading Day events.
Interview: Gandalf Strolls Aimlessly, Bilbo Goes East (pp. 14-16.)
Back in 1997, Róbert Olessák wrote an “interactive fiction” (text-based adventure game) from The Hobbit and submitted it as his B.Sc. thesis at a college of informatics. While influenced by the official Melbourne House game, his version allows players to control not only Bilbo and Thorin, but also the other twelve dwarves—and all that in Hungarian, which is much more difficult for an automatic interpreter.
Interview: The Researcher of Tolkien Ancestry (pp. 17-18.)
Today Ryszard Derdziński (Galadhorn) is perhaps best known for his Tolkien Ancestry project, but we also asked him about much else: his linguistic projects from the Prussian pages of The Hobbit to his webpage for Elvish languages; the Elendili forum, the Tolkien Trips and several further activities of the Polish tolkienites.
Languages & Letters: TengWar: Conflicts around the Hungarian Modes (pp. 19-25.)
Like most languages, Hungarian has its own Tengwar modes, too. Two of such modes are quite well known in our Society: this paper by Flóra Orthmayr (Metaflora) and Tamás Bartók-Nagy (Toma) analyses the choices made by the designers of these modes, in particular concerning the consonants /͡ts/ and /d ͡z/, and vowels /y/ and /ø/.
Riddles (p. 26.)
Here we start with a story told by a young hobbit in the Prancing Pony—full of mistakes to be found. To solve the second riddle you do not need to know Hungarian, only a little of the Elvish languages and you can guess the names defined by pictograms. The third task mostly relies on the original terminology as well: pair the names recognised from the letters mixed together.
Reviews (pp. 27-31.)
This section starts with music: Máté Forgács (Hirannor) persuasively recommends the Return to Middle Earth symphony by Johan de Meij, Kornél Nagy does the same for the progressive rock album Bilbo composed by Pär Lindh and Björn Johansson. Szonja Selmeczi tells about her first experience of David Day: An Atlas of Tolkien. Csaba Péter Simon (fqqdk) introduces the Extra Credits YouTube channel and their Tolkien-related videos and Ágnes Muhi (Sakura) invites us to a cozy hobbitish café called Mr. Sam in Taiwan.
Literature (pp. 32-33.)
These two poems were awarded the first and third prizes of the Art Competition on the Tolkien Day. One tells about the charge of the Rohirrim on Pelennor Fields, the other about the sad events in Alqualondë.
In Memoriam (p. 34.)
This special section is devoted to the memory of Christopher John Reuel Tolkien.
26. XVII/1. (January 2020)
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What’s on—Timeline (p. 3.)
A quick overview of Hungarian Tolkien Society events from June to November, completed with some news from other parts of the world and information about programmes expected for 2020.
What’s on—Stories (pp. 4-9.)
Here you can read more about the events listed in the previous section. Our summer camp is presented from the viewpoint of Dóri Lakatos, a seasoned ex (and to be) organiser and Tibor Skobrák, a newcomer. Zsuzsanna Kaszab, the guide of the RangerCommando describes one of the most picturesque hikes of this September. Regarding the Creative Autumn Meeting, first Julcsi Csikós tells about what it is like to participate with two little children, then Anna Kőszeghy shows the preparations of a beginner art workshop leader.
Interview: The Battle of Six Armies (pp. 10-12.)
In the last two decades 700-900 people gathered every year in the woods near Doksy to participate in the Battle of Five Armies which is one of the oldest, and definitely the largest of the many live action role-playing game (LARP) events organised frequently in the Czech Republic. We asked Ondřej Janovský about this and other LARP and Tolkienite events in his country.
Tolkien Studies: ‘Something Has Gone Crack’: Trauma and Loss in the Works of Tolkien (pp. 13-18.)
In this article Anna Alexandrov investigates from a psychological viewpoint how his traumatic experiences and the loss of his close friends affected the writings of J. R. R. Tolkien: how his method of processing his experiences is similar to, or different from, that of his contemporaries.
Riddles (p. 19.)
The usual trivia quiz (with a chance to win participation fee coupon for Hungarian Tolkien Society events) is followed by a task of finding pairs: characters from the books are to be linked to their epithets.
Reviews (pp. 20-24.)
Tamás Bartók-Nagy tells about the two Hungarian editions of The Father Christmas Letters; our Quenya expert, Róbert Rácsai recommends the Elvish Lexicon webpage Eldamo.org; Áron Árpád Sós introduces the reader to the War of the Ring board game; Márta Pintér shares her impressions about reading The Lord of the Rings in German translation; and Anna Mikesy describes the Czech Tolkien music page Songsofmiddleearth.net.
Literature (pp. 25-27.)
The column starts with a short story written for the international Quendi category of the Tolkien Mailing Competition (TLV) in 2014: the English original can be read online in the TLV Blog. The following pages are devoted to poems and songs written for our summer camp Mereth Aderthad: telling mostly about the pain of the Elves for all they have lost—but there is also a more positive slam about the camp feeling.
Beginners’ Guide to MTT: Fun Facts about the Summer Camps (p. 28.)
The Hungarian Tolkien Society organises at least one summer camp every year since 2003. In this article Kincső Kiss presents a few surprising statistics about the camps, and also lists the real world and Middle-earth dates and places for each.
25. XVI/2. (July 2019)
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What’s on—Timeline (p. 3.)
A quick overview of our events from the beginning of the year to the end of May—completed with news of books in Hungary and exhibitions abroad.
What’s on—Stories (pp. 4-8.)
Our Tolkien Day this year was named after The History of Middle-earth and the Carnival Ball was all about antiquity. In March experienced and aspiring organisers spent a weekend with training and discussion. Two aspects of the 13th Tolkien Mailing Competition are presented separately: an Italian participant reports of the five e-mail rounds, while the Live Final is described by one of the organisers. In the last piece a recently joining hiker tells about her experience with our RangerCommando.
Interview: The Success of the Dragon's Lair (pp. 9-10.)
Already before it has opened, the AIST’s La Tana del Drago Studies Centre in Dozza became internationally known thanks to their successful crowdfunding campaign. Here we asked Gianpaolo Canzonieri (one of the two “Responsible for International Relations” the AIST does not have) about the beginnings and prospects of the project.
Interview: Adventures in Quenya (pp. 11-13.)
Róbert Rácsai (Alcar) has given lectures on Quenya at the events of the Hungarian Tolkien Society for many years. He has also compiled a Quenya–Hungarian Dictionary and a Quenya course booklet for Hungarian readers, based on the works of Helge K. Fauskanger. Here he shares his experiences with writing and translating poems, using Quenya for online conversation, and answering confused requests concerning tattoo inscriptions.
Tolkien Studies: The Lost Road (pp. 14-17.)
Johanna Rákos-Zichy’s paper is the written version of her introductory lecture held at our Tolkien Day this January. She compares the different versions of the Fall of Númenor story throughout the works of Tolkien. These are not confined to the age of legends: strange memories of this Atlantis of Middle-earth and of the unknown language of its people haunt characters in modern times.
Tolkien Studies: Meals in Middle-earth (pp. 18-21.)
Another introductory lecture from the Tolkien Day by János Schreiner collects the various descriptions of eating and drinking in the well-known stories. While common foods in Middle-earth are quite the same as those consumed in historical times before the debut of the fridge and the microwave, there were also some strange substances: from Ents to Orcs everybody had their own secret recipes for special drinks or snacks.
Tolkien Studies: Orcs of Middle-earth from the Viewpoint of the Sociolinguist (pp. 22-23.)
This short essay by Iida Virtanen takes up the idea of poor Orcs losing their own language and culture in a hostile world, where every language seems superior to their own. The analysis is based on the much more abundant use of Orcish in The Hobbit films than in The Lord of the Rings.
Riddles (p. 24.)
A true or false quiz is followed by a bit of “Middle-earth mathematics”: basic arithmetic tasks with numbers described in a way to be understood only by experts of Tolkien trivia.
Reviews (pp. 25-29.)
Current topics and old favourites follow each other, storylines from the First Age up to modern days. Eszter Kovács (our correspondent in Scotland) describes the Tolkien biopic, Gerardo J. Mercado from Puerto Rico reviews The Fall of Gondolin. In the shorter pieces Tímea Erdei recommends the music of the band Clamavi De Profundis, while Mihály Prikoszovich describes the board game Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation. Finally, Barna Bálint summarizes recent news of the upcoming Amazon Prime series.
Literature (pp. 30-31.)
A short story and two poems written by participants of the Tolkien Mailing Competition and a member of our society.
Beginners’ Guide to MTT: What Do We Mean by HNE? (p. 32.)
In the early years of our society “Heren Nolmion Endórëo” (The Order of the Researchers of Middle-earth) was the name of a group dealing with Tolkien Studies in interactive workshops. The original meaning has faded, but the mysterious abbreviation stayed with us, and is occasionally used for series of lectures or discussions.
24. XVI/1. (January 2019)
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What’s on—Timeline (p. 3.)
A quick overview of our events (and the events abroad visited by our members) from the last days of June to the end of the year 2018—completed with news of recently published Tolkien-related books.
What’s on—Stories (pp. 4-9.)
Participants tell their stories about some of the events listed in the previous column: curiously enough, the only account about a Hungarian event by a Hungarian author is an entirely in-character story about the Gondorian setting of our summer camp. Other reports are on our members’ visits abroad (at the exhibition in Oxford, the VLS of the Gil-galad Society in Slovenia and the Settling of Rohan LARP camp in Lithuania) and on our Slovakian friends’ impressions of our Creative Autumn Meeting they attended.
Interview: About the Hungarian translation of the HoME series (pp. 10-13.)
The third volume of The History of Middle-earth was recently published in Hungarian. In this interview about the challenges and tricks of the translation we asked five of those involved in the project: Zsuzsanna Ürmössy, who worked on the poems of The Book of Lost Tales; Mau Zsófia Ábrahám and Andrea Nagy, translators of the lays in the third volume; and Gabriella Büki and Ágnes Bonácz who worked on the prose texts.
Tolkien Studies: Sarati mode for Hungarian (pp. 14-16.)
The Sarati of Rúmil was the first writing system of Arda—a predecessor of the much better known tengwar system both in the history of the Elves and the works of Tolkien. While the tengwar is used by many people for many languages, the sarati seems to be quite forgotten. However, it has the same flexibility as the later system, and can also be adapted to different languages—this is exactly what Helga Agócs attempts to do for Hungarian in this article.
Tolkien Studies: Everything about Dwarves (pp. 17-20.)
Anna Mikesy’s paper is the written version of her introductory lecture at our Tolkien Day of 2017. She summarises the history of the Dwarves from their awakening and first meeting with the Elves to the glory and tragedy of their different kingdoms. Special emphasis is given to the few details we know (or can guess) about how they have received and lost their Rings of Power.
Riddles (p. 21.)
Just like in the previous issue, the second puzzle in this column consists entirely of names, so no language barrier prevents you from solving it: ‘Feketemágus’ is Hungarian for Necromancer, everything else should be familiar! The task is to group the names by their bearers. The quiz-type first task is quite easy for those who understand Hungarian: it tests the readers’ knowledge about Hobbits.
Reviews (pp. 22-24.)
Reviews include an article by Miklós Tuska on redesigning the Sami board game ‘tablut’ into a game about Frodo’s adventure; and a critique by Tamás Bartók-Nagy on the Hungarian edition of The Lays of Beleriand.
Literature (pp. 25-27.)
This column presents works produced during three of our programmes: Hobbit songs from the Tolkien Mailing Competition; a short story entitled The Curse of the Captain and written in our summer camp about the decline of Umbar; and a parody of fantasy clichés produced in a workshop at our Creative Autumn Meeting.
Beginners’ Guide to MTT: Music in the Hungarian Tolkien Society (p. 28.)
What would a Tolkien society do without songs? This article by Kincső Kiss tells the story of the musical groups of our society from the first translated and re-written Tolkien-themed songs through the not so strictly thematic but somewhat more professional choirs to more recent music projects like the MTT Tolkien Tribute Band and The Heroes of Gondor musical of 2014.
23. XV/2. (August 2018)
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What’s on—Timeline (p. 3.)
A quick overview of our events from the beginning of the year to the middle of June—completed with further Tolkien-related news.
What’s on—Stories (pp. 4-7.)
Participants tell their own stories about the events listed in the previous column. After our own Tolkien Day entitled ‘The Bad Guys of Middle-Earth’, we visited the TolkienCon in Prague. The Carnival Ball of this year was all about videogames—from Super Mario to the Witcher. The Spring Meeting was lazy and comfortable with no obligations but a lot of different lectures, workshops and other activities to choose from. The longest account is about the longest lasting program: the five e-mail rounds and the Live Final of the 12th Tolkien Mailing Competition. Finally, one of the organisers reports on the five club meetings of the Tolkien Circle.
Interview (pp. 8-11.)
Everyday Magic Mónica Sanz Rodríguez (Elanor Findûriel) is the president of the Imladris smial of Sociedad Tolkien Española (STE), the Tolkien Society of Spain. In this interview we asked her mainly about the structure and history of the STE but then the discussion of HoME translations also led to the discovery of the Irreverent Translations Department of the Autonomous University of Númenor.
Tolkien Studies: Why have the Elves gone to the West? (pp. 12-14.)
Johanna Rákos-Zichy’s paper is the written version of her introductory lecture on this year’s Tolkien Day. First, she explains what ‘death’ means for an Elf in Tolkien’s world. Then she discusses the ‘special cases’ of Elves, Men, Hobbits and one single Dwarf who all diverged in some extent from the fate of their own kind.
Tolkien Studies: A Study of Orc Souls (pp. 15-18.)
Gergely Tóth continues the discussion of souls and fates. By summarizing and analysing Tolkien’s different theories about the creation, everyday life and possible independence of the Orcs he shows why the question ‘Do Orcs have a soul?’ has become one of the commonplace Middle-earth mysteries.
Riddles (p. 19.)
The second puzzle in this column consists entirely of names, so no language barrier prevents you from solving it: ‘Fullánk’ is Hungarian for Sting, everything else should be familiar! The task is to connect weapons with their owners (do not expect simple pairing). The crossword-like first task uses a bit more of our own language: the described characters should be sorted by their year of birth.
Reviews (pp. 20-24.)
Reviews include an article by Tamás Bartók Nagy on the Hungarian edition of Beren and Lúthien; updates about the Hungarian RPG supplement Sword and Subcreation and news about the Amazon series by Bálint Barna; and a review of the 1977 animated movie, The Hobbit by Szilvia Szarvas.
Literature (pp. 25-27.)
A poem about the Battle of Five Armies and another in which Tar-Aldarion laments the death of Erendis were solutions for the creative tasks of the Tolkien Mailing Competition—as well as the two funny ‘advertisements’. The short story was written in our summer camp of 2017 as the prose predecessor of the ballad published in the previous issue.
Beginners’ Guide to MTT: New Medium-Term Strategy (2018-2021) (p. 28.)
This May the General Meeting of the Hungarian Tolkien Society elected its officials for the following three years: among others one co-chairman and two co-chairwomen. The candidates for these positions had to submit a medium-term strategy as part of their application. This article tells about the newly accepted strategy and how such plans can actually have an impact on the activities of our community.
22. XV/1. (January 2018)
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What’s on—Timeline (p. 3.)
A quick overview of our events from the end of June to the end of the year—completed with some other Tolkien-related news of this period.
What’s on—Stories (pp. 4-10.)
Participants and organisers tell their own stories about the events listed in the previous column. The summer camp for schoolchildren entitled ‘The Birth of the Rings’ was followed both in story and in real time by our main summer camp with the theme ‘The Temptation of the Rings’. In October we had our regular creative autumn meeting named ‘Guard the Light!’ During the year there were also many smaller events in woods and pubs—the leader of our RangerCommando gives a general report on these, while a participant tells about her first ‘Líthas’ meeting.
Interview: A Long-expected History (pp. 11-13.)
Tamás Füzessy (Ankalimon), co-chairman of the Hungarian Tolkien Society has been cooperating with the Hungarian publishers of Tolkien for many years. In this interview he tells about the legal and editorial difficulties regarding the translation and publication of the whole History of Middle-earth series in Hungarian which is now more likely to be realised than ever before.
Interview: Gandalf on a Motorcycle (pp. 14-15.)
Eva Zahradníková (Mirach) is a Slovakian Tolkienite artist and writer (and botanist and historical fencer) who won our first international Tolkien Mailing Competition (TLV) with amazing results and now joined the organisers’ team. She tells about her activities in many fan art and fan fiction communities and challenges, and also about how one of her TLV solutions, the ‘One Donut’ went on to have its own life on the internet.
Tolkien Studies: Where Has the Apocalypse Gone? (pp. 16-19.)
Flóra Orthmayr’s paper is the written version of the introductory lecture that she gave on the Tolkien Day in 2017. It collects the references to the Great End in Tolkien’s writings pointing to the ‘Second Prophecy of Mandos’ in The History of Middle-earth. The argument is concluded by conjectures as to Tolkien’s final intention regarding the prophecy.
Tolkien Studies: The Power of Musicality in Tolkien’s Mythology (pp. 20-23.)
In this article—originally an assignment for our university course—Péter Kun investigates the importance of music for the peoples of Middle-earth. He writes about the role of songs in the everyday lives of Elves, Dwarves, Ents, Hobbits, Men—and even of evil creatures.
Riddles (p. 24.)
As recently many of our events had a theme connected to the ‘dark side of Middle-earth’, readers can find here a quiz focused on this topic. They can learn whether they know all the details well enough to disguise themselves as a dragon or remain stuck on the level of a cave troll.
Reviews (pp. 25-27.)
Reviews include an article by Sándor Hujber on the content and background of The Story of Kullervo (published in Hungarian in 2016); a critique of the new Shadow of War game by Crișan Ioan-Andrei, translated from English; and the rumours about the forthcoming Tolkien biopic, summarized by Bálint Barna.
Literature (pp. 28-31.)
A poem and a short story written as ‘masterpieces’ in the main summer camp of 2017.
Beginners’ Guide to MTT (p. 32.)
As many other similar clubs and charities around the world, the Hungarian Tolkien Society (MTT) is run entirely by volunteers and the team is always looking forward to have new members. The different events are organised by independent groups of volunteers—only the list of the main organisers, the general concept and the budget have to be approved by the board of the society.
21. XIV/1. (2016–2017)
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What’s on—Timeline (pp. 3-4.)
Most of our regular programmes—summer camps, autumn and spring meetings, RangerCommando hikes and the Tolkien Mailing Competition—are going on. Our yearly Tolkien Day returned to the style of the movieless years, but continued to be popular and successful. We held our 5th (and so far most international) Tolkien Conference in 2015 and an Erasmus+ funded international summer camp in 2016.
What’s on—Stories (pp. 5-15.)
Participants and organisers tell their own stories about the Tolkien Day of 2016 and 2017, respectively; the three summer camps of last year (the regular camp for hundred and fifty people; another one specially for schoolchildren; and of course the international camp with Lithuanian and Finnish tolkienites); the creative meetings and costume balls of spring and autumn; the Live Final of the mailing competition; the adventures of the RangerCommando; and, finally, our visiting the TolkienCon in Prague.
Interview (pp. 16-18.)
The founder of the Silmarillion Writers’ Guild community for fan fiction and research, Dawn Walls-Thumma is also active as an author in both fields that turn out to be much closer to each other than it would seem at first glance. The original English interview will be available on the Tolkien.hu website.
Tolkien Studies: Funeral Rites (pp. 19-20.)
In this article—originally an assignment for our university course—archaeology student Anna Mikesy compares the known burial sites and customs of Númenor, Arnor, Gondor and Rohan. She finds that, in contrast to the European custom in Antiquity and the Middle Ages, funeral rites in Middle-Earth correspond to the moral of the people rather than the political constellation.
Tolkien Studies: The genesis of The Hobbit (pp. 21-22.)
Zsuzsanna Kaszab’s paper is the written version of one of her introductory lectures that she regularly gives at our events for the public. It tells how the well-known story of Mr Baggins evolved from the early fragments in the tales Tolkien told his children, and how it got into the hands of a publisher and his son, and how readers welcomed it.
Tolkien Interactive: ‘Sword and Subcreation’: The Story of a Creative RPG Supplement (pp. 23-24.)
The ‘Sword and Subcreation’ is a Middle-Earth themed supplement to a Hungarian RPG system called ‘Sword and Magic’. In this interview its creator Bálint Barna, a member of our community, dubs it the ‘fried Snickers of RPG’. His idea was to follow the example of the ‘Adventures in Middle-Earth’ (the official D&D5-compatible conversion of ‘The One Ring’) by inserting the world of his favourite Tolkien-based RPG into a well-known Hungarian system in order to make it available to non-English speaking players.
Riddles (p. 25.)
This column follows the format of the quizzes of the Tolkien Mailing Competition. In the first puzzle, readers should pair objects with their owners. The second quiz is an odd-one-out, slightly complicated by the fact that it is actually an ‘odd-two-out’ with two non-fitting words in each line.
Poems (pp. 26-27.)
These poems were written in the summer camp of 2016, that is, in Riddermark in T.A. 2759. The first is a funny alliterative narrative on how Breca the Blunt became Breca the Bright. The others respond to the frame story of the camp, telling about King Fréaláf and the struggles against the Dunlendings.
Beginners’ Guide to MTT (p. 28.)
The official membership system of the Hungarian Tolkien Society has never been too simple. In the course of the past two years it underwent several changes complying with new law on NGOs. Here we try to explain the differences between the new membership types and how they evolved from the old ones.
20. XIII/2. (August 2015)
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What’s on—Timeline (p. 3.)
The first months of 2015 were strong in Tolkien lectures: the usual Tolkien Day was followed by an “After-meeting” where some of the most popular presentations were repeated; and many students and visitors attended our university course this semester. We continued hiking in the forests (RangerCommando), thinking about our community (GoMuncs) and being playful and creative (Tolkien Club). We walked Budapest in costumes on the Tolkien Reading Day, on Children’s Day and during the charity cooking for our children’s camp. After our summer camps (children were invited to Rohan in July, while grown-ups and families to the Shire in August) autumn comes and with it our 5th Tolkien Conference where you are all very welcome.
What’s on—Stories (pp. 4–9.)
Organisers tell their stories about the Tolkien Reading Day, the “Bear Garlic Weekend” of the Ranger Commando and the Live Final of the Tolkien Mailing Competition. Participants share their experiences about the “After-meeting” of the Tolkien Day, the “magic forest”-themed Carnival Ball and the dwarves-oriented Spring Meeting. Tolkien Day itself is described from both viewpoints. The last piece is an account of our collaboration with the Woodrescuers Foundation.
Interview (pp. 10–11.)
Thomas M. Honegger, professor of English Medieval Studies at the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena will be keynote speaker at our Conference in September. We asked him about fans, researchers and promising new areas in Tolkien Studies. Another keynote speaker will be professor Allan Turner, an interview with him can be read on the Tolkien.hu website.
Tolkien Studies: A movie adaptation of The Silmarillion? (pp. 12–13.)
This essay by Eva Zahradníková (written for the Tolkien Mailing Competition) is in English.
Tolkien Studies: But which five armies? (pp. 14–16.)
Since there are more than five races involved in the Battle of the Five Armies according to The Hobbit book, it is somewhat difficult to tell which five armies are commemorated in that name. And Peter Jackson added further creatures in the movie version. How should we count five armies in the book and in the movie?
Riddles (pp. 17–18.)
These puzzles are typical tasks from the quiz of the Tolkien Mailing Competition: ordering the listed events by date, pairing Hungarian words with their tengwar transcriptions, and finding in a jungle of letters names of foods and drinks consumed by the dwarves during their visit at Bag End.
Tolkien Interactive: The One Ring Roleplaying Game (pp. 19–20.)
The second edition of The One Ring Roleplaying Game came out in 2014. There are many minor corrections and two major changes in the rules. There are also two new supplements: Rivendell expands the map of the game to the eastern parts of Eriador, while Ruins of the North offers six adventures in this new setting.
Creative Writing (pp. 21–23.)
Tales – whether in festive rhymes or light prose – take the spirit on a journey through time and space. Some prefer pathos and heroism, others tasty food, slowly rising smoke and the noise of rustling leaves. Here is a poem for the former group and two short stories for the latter. The English poem and the second short story were written for the Tolkien Mailing Competition.
MTT for Dummies (p. 24.)
An interview with two secretaries of the Hungarian Tolkien Society.
19. XIII/1. (January 2015)
(This issue in not available for download, contact the Editors for a copy of any article you are interested in.)
What’s on—Timeline (p. 3.)
Our regular programmes—Tolkien Clubs, university lectures, RangerCommando hikes and Tolkien Mailing Competition—are going on. We joined the Woodrescuers’ activities and helped with the Legolas Greenleaf Archery Competition in Borsodnádasd. Our international plans for 2015 include the Restoring the Shire camp in summer and the 5th International Tolkien Conference in September.
What’s on—Stories (pp. 4–6.)
Participants tell their own stories about the Peace of Gondor children camp, the Creative Autumn Art Meeting, and the Legolas Greenleaf Archery Competition. The Glory of Gondor summer camp is described from two different viewpoints: that of an organiser and of a participant who has experienced several camps already, but never before with a little baby to take care of.
Interview (pp. 7–8.)
Gergely Báthori is an orc- and Aragorn-cosplayer in the Hungarian Gyűrűk Ura Cosplay Club founded in 2013. We asked him about the designing and making of his costumes and the club as a community.
Tolkien Studies: 25 minutes longer through the Wilderland (pp. 9–10.)
In this elaborate article, Bálint Barna discusses the changes in the extended release of The Desolation of Smaug, including changes in the original cut, additional scenes, Hungarian subtitles, and the speculations surrounding the final episode, The Battle of the Five Armies.
Tolkien Studies: The narrative function of dragons in Beowulf and J. R. R. Tolkien’s works (pp. 11–13.)
This work by Máté Varga is written in English.
Riddles (pp. 14–15.)
In the first puzzle you have 10 questions and you have to search for the answers hidden in the jungle of letters. The second quiz comes from the Nolda category of the Tolkien Mailing Competiton, and the task is to find the odd-one-out in each line. The last task is based on the relationships between the characters of Tolkien’s world.
Tolkien Interactive: Boardgames (pp. 16–19.)
In the second part of the Gates to the World of Tolkien series, we discuss boardgames issued 1970 to 1976. Most of the games are wargames, representing specific battles on Middle-Earth, where two players compete, representing the Shadow and the Free Folks. Other games follow the main storyline of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
Tolkien Interactive: Shadow of Mordor (pp. 20–22.)
WB Games has just released an action packed game set in Middle-Earth. The brutal fighting game has some gems, like the extraordinary uruk warchiefs as well as a fluid, interesting combat system, however, it is far from the values pleaded for by the Professor. You can find a detailed review of the title and help to find and dig Middle-Earth related information from the game.
Creative Writing (pp. 23–27.)
The first short story was originally a solution for a task of last year’s Tolkien Mailing Competition by the winner of the Nolda for individuals category. The second was written in—and, in a way, about—the Glory of Gondor summer camp.
MTT for Dummies (p. 28.)
Here you can read the short history of our monthly meetings, the Tolkien Club, including the changes from the early club events to the present, the basic objectives, and the most popular programs and activities visitors can join. How did it begin? What were the ups and downs? How was it revived after long years of silence? What is the future and new mission of the Tolkien Club?
18. XII/2. (August 2014)
(This issue in not available for download, contact the Editors for a copy of any article you are interested in.)
What’s on—Timeline (p. 3.)
Our main events in the first half of 2014 were the Tolkien Day in January, the Carnival Ball in February, the live final of the Tolkien Mailing Competition and the Spring Meeting in April. We had monthly Tolkien Clubs and the hikings of the Ranger Commando. Our summer camps in July and August are the Peace of Gondor for children and the Glory of Gondor for everybody. For the autumn, besides the Autumn Meeting, we also plan a discussion of the Hungarian modes for Tengwar.
What’s on—Stories (pp. 4–6.)
In this column organisers and participants of our events tell about their personal experiences regarding these programs: the grandiose Tolkien Day, the Bear’s Garlic Weekend of the Ranger Commando, and the Spring Meeting in Zebegény.
Interview (pp. 7–8.)
In our interview with Marcel Aubron-Bulles, The Tolkienist, founder of the German Tolkien Society, we asked him about his way from his first meeting with Tolkien’s works to the communities and events he visited and organised. Besides his thoughts of voluntary work, he also spoke about too many Nazgûl smoking in the snow on a dark night.
Tolkien Studies: The Indo-European side of Eärendil (pp. 9–11.)
The article by Tibor Tarcsay explores the way Eärendil, one of Tolkien’s most important characters, embodies Indo-European archetypes (Germanic, Graeco-Roman, Celtic, Vedic, etc.). From the known Anglo-Saxon source, reverse-engineering the Germanic heroes who are the immediate sources of Eärendil, the article presents the universal typology and significance of the character, and looks at Tolkien’s special Christian interpretation and use of archetypes.
Tolkien Studies: There and Back Again or Battle of the Five Armies – About the title-changes of the movies (pp. 12–13.)
An article by Bálint Barna about how The Hobbit – There and Back Again became The Hobbit – (the) Battle of the Five Armies. Pros and cons, interesting facts and Peter Jackson’s working methods.
Riddles (pp. 14–15.)
The quiz is about the differences between books and movies. The other puzzles are based on the Tolkien Mailing Competition: the one with runes is a task from the Hobbit category of 2012 and not being actually in Hungarian, you can give it a go, too: the names of the thirteen dwarves are hidden in it, written in Angerthas.
Tolkien Interactive: Glory of Gondor – Devising the Camp’s Games (pp. 16–18.)
Zsolt Varga and Zsigmond Mihály as organisers tell about the development steps of the games made for this year’s summer camp, the Glory of Gondor. These games are the conqueror-type camp game for the teams, the solo card game for the participants and the “capture the flag”-descendant war game.
That’s how we write (pp. 19–23.)
You can read two pieces of fiction here that are related to the summer camp’s background story. The first tells the tale of how the main five characters met in Minas Tirith, five years ago. The other tells the same story... or not? One night in Gondor and the world is your oyster.
MTT for Dummies: The Tolkien Mailing Competition (p. 24.)
An article about the eight year long history of the TLV, it’s roots, beginnings, challenges and blooming, the evolution of the rules and categories, and about the unique atmosphere of the grand final in the beautiful neo-baroque building of the Metropolitan Ervin Szabó Library.
English Summaries were included in the issues of Lassi Laurië since August 2014. For the previous issues only the Hungarian titles of the articles are available online. See the general table of contents of all issues in Hungarian here.
Four articles and an introduction from the March 2009 (VIII/1) issue were translated to English at the time of the publication, you can read these in PDF format here.
For more details about the Lassi Laurië, see our English introduction page here.
If you have any questions, you can contact the current editors at lassi[dot]szerkesztoseg[at]tolkien[dot]hu.
