Meet & greet with the Tolkienist in 2023: Oxford, Ljubljana, Berlin, Tolkien Days in Germany – and Paradise!

Some of you may know that I like nothing more than travelling to fellow Tolkienists’ events, meet-ups, get-togethers, you name it. One of my nicknames is The Travelling Tolkienist* and this year I can say I am going to see quite a few nice places. And have coffee and/or beer with great people. So if you happen to be at any of them do let me know, send me a message, drop a comment – I would love to chat (and have a 🍻!)

Ljubljana – Na Meji Nevidnega (Slovenia) – May 6th

The Tolkienist at (c) NMN

The Tolkienist at (c) NMN

 

Thanks to the generous invitation of the committee of NMN in Ljubljana I will be a Guest of Honour, giving a presentation on being TTT 🤩 (The Travelling Tolkienist) as well as being on a panel on translations of Tolkien’s work.

It is Slovenia’s biggest convention and offers everything a nerd needs – do have a look at their website and if you are up for a lovely weekend in Ljubljana do buy a ticket, jump on a train (that’s what I’ll be doing!) and have fun!

P.S. Quite a few members of the Slovenian Tolkien Society are involved in running the convention so I’m all good.

Official website of NMN


Jena – Your Day in Paradise – (Thuringia, Germany) – May 13th

Now, this is a little joke, in a sense 😅

You can obviously meet me anytime in Jena as I live there. And there is the Tolkien Regulars’ Table of the German Tolkien Society I helped (re-)found on September 22nd, 2021. We have just had our very first public Tolkien Reading Day event ever (absolutely splendiferous!) and we are going to organise the very first Thuringian Tolkien Day(s) on Sept 30th, 2023. And our Middle-earth Gaming Day is happening on April 23rd! Yay!

Jena is an absolutely lovely university city and always worth a visit – so why not hop on the train and say hi? I might even invite you to a pint!

The joke? The largest park in Jena is called the Paradies Park – ‘paradise park’ – and you can see the name at one of the two main railway stations.

YOUR DAY IN PARADISE is an event in Paradise Park with fun and entertainments for the whole family and everyone who is doing anything culturally will be present to promote their work and do some of these entertainments. I volunteered so I’ll definitely be there *g*

Nota bene Where Marcel has his home, there is a Tolkien Regulars’ Table
(true to Cologne (twice); Regensburg; Würzburg, Laacher Klammtisch, Jena).


Tolkien Lecture, Pembroke College – (Oxford, UK) – May 16th

Pembroke College (c) Tolkien Lecture; Maria Dahvana Headley’s (c) Beowulf Sheehan

Pembroke College (c) Tolkien Lecture; Maria Dahvana Headley’s (c) Beowulf Sheehan

I am pretty nuts – what with the costs and all 😭 – but I have been wanting to go the Tolkien Lecture for years now. This time Maria Dahvana Headley is going to be there (I will now seriously need to read her new translation of Beowulf) and I have had it with missing people like Rebecca F. Kuang, Guy Gavriel Kay, V.E. Schwab or Terri Windling. I can also no longer stand the fact that the Lamb & Flag has finally reopened and I haven’t been there yet! So meet me in Oxford for a pint or two and listen to an amazing lecture.


MetropolCon, Berlin – (Berlin, Germany) – May 18-20

This convention is the first serious attempt in many years to come up with a festival that may lead us on the path to an EuroCon in Germany (again). I can say this with absolute conviction as I was involved in its very first stage of existence and I know many of the people in the committee personally – heck, I even was a room-mate to one for a year! Ha!

It is going to be fantastic but all beginnings are difficult and I am keeping fingers crossed for them to achieve their vision.

Anyway, I will be there together with my mates of my German-speaking podcast SmallTolk. We will be ranking “hair styles in Middle-earth.” Yup, we’re THAT serious. 😅

And they have Mary Robinette Kowal! (fan girling starting right now!)


MORE EVENTS COMING UP SOON – post in progress

* The pandemic as well as a number of personal issues as well as the simple fact I am far away from being rich have kept me from visiting fellow Tolkienists as much as I would like to. So I am really happy that a few things are up this year, very much thanks to being invited and/or supported during my stay and the amazing people who decided to become my members at Steady (think Patreon or Substack, just cooler and tons better for me!)

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.