Tolkien 2019 in Birmingham: day 2, a report

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New Street 86, Birmingham, where Hilary Tolkien worked in 1912
New Street 86, Birmingham, where Hilary Tolkien worked in 1912

The Tolkien Society is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a party of special magnificence: Tolkien 2019 is happening in Birmingham from August 7 – 11, 2019, and I have the honour and pleasure of being a speaker, a panelist, and part of a comedy show (à la surprise!) in the town Tolkien grew up in. This is my Day 2 Report!

I came in rather late, past 10 in the morning, and snuck in the History of the Tolkien Society panel. Directly afterwards one of the most looked for publications ever, Tolkien’s Library, was presented by the author Oronzo Cilli, accompanied by warm words from Tom Shippey. A must have for any Tolkien fan as it encompasses all the books Tolkien used to have, has read and/or used and many other pieces of useful information.

After nipping quickly into the very funny ‘A Question of Tolkien’ show I then headed off to the most charming Brian Sibley and his Klatch. I allowed myself a short break afterwards and was treated to this fun picture.

One of the highlights so far happened in the afternoon with John Garth demolishing the Two Towers (folly) which saved me a lot of time and effort!

Alan Lee did a splendid presentation of this work; directly afterwards I hopped off to the Bacchus, then back to the hotel and from ten p.m. the Open Mic session entertained well into the new day. Now I need even more sleep!

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Marcel R. Bülles

Marcel R. Bülles is the author of thetolkienist.com, a specialist blog centering on worldwide Tolkien fandom, geekdom and research. He works as a freelance translator, journalist and writer and is the founder of the German Tolkien Society as well as a co-founder to RingCon, Europe's formerly biggest fantasy film convention. You can find him in cafés all over the world sipping an espresso blogging, writing, reading. At one point he was married to an extremely lovely French lady by the nickname of Sauron. Yes, that Sauron. He is also active with the International Tolkien Fellowship on Facebook and the Tolkien Folk on Instagram.