The Travelling Tolkienist: The fan screening of “War of the Rohirrim” in Lucerne, Switzerland, was a blast
This is a report of my fairly spontaneous visit to an absolutely lovely event in Lucerne: the fan screening of Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim in Switzerland’s most popular museum, the Verkehrshaus, and the largest cinema screen in the country to boot. Organised by the German Tolkien Society‘s smial or regulars’ table Esgaroth it was quite the adventure.
Wednesday, Dec 11, 2024
It was the morning of Dec 11th, 2024. Me, myself and I as well as quite a bit of luggage and good spirits were part of the travelling crew. As it is my wont I did a live story report on my Instagram account (the German one where I do #BahnfahrtLive, that is, #TravellingByTrainLive) and it was one of the easiest and fastest and basically non-complaining series of posts I ever did.
Truth be told, the German Railways suck and they have been sucking for decades. The quick explanation is that it has been bled dry for profits, neglecting infrastructure and rolling stock up until a point when the system seemed on the verge of collapse. Now that they are reinvesting the future may look bright but it will at least take another decade for anything like normality to kick in. Long distance trains are only on time in ~63% of all cases [source]. Try that in Japan!
Anyway!
The journey itself was rather splendid as I had bought myself a first class ticket. So I had a proper seat, wireless and electricity to boot.
(Just to mention the Deutsche Bahn / German Railways thing again – the ticket to Lucerne was cheaper and I reached my final destination faster even though the distance was longer than my travels to my girlfriend’s place in Germany, that is Jena – Andernach. We are talking something like 500 kms to 700 kms. It took me about 7 1/2 hrs and I can count myself lucky if that works when visiting my girl. Not to mention I have to travel through Frankfurt which is one of the suckiest cities I know… Alright, let’s stop with the complaining! )
One of the reasons why I am probably mentioning the whole train travel issues thingy is the simple fact that one of the biggest and major construction sites the DB had tackled in years was finished on time after five months of a meticulously planned schedule. German engineering can still do it…
BUT: It was finished TWO DAYS AFTER I had been passing through for Lucerne and back! Quel malheur!
Basically, I travelled in style, had a lot of fun, working as I love to do on the train, and looking forward to finally seeing a “Lord of the Rings” film in a cinema again – with tons of fellow Tolkien fans to meet
If that is what you can look forward to then no problems at all could have kept me from being happy on my way there!
Lucerne, 4 pm. Die Frisur hält!
My kind host, Lukas Ritzel of the smial Esgaroth, had sent me a lot of material to have a look at before coming to Lucerne. I had heard of the city, of course, but I had never been there before. Now I know why it is the city with the largest number of visitors in Switzerland – and the reasons for that are quite convincing. More on that later!
After leaving the modern railway station I headed out for a brisk walk past the Kapellbrücke and Lake Lucerne into the Old Town where I had my residence for two night – the Capsule Hotel. As I am a huge fan of all things Japan this particular kind of hostel/ hotel was truly interesting to me and I can only tell you it was one of the most comfortable and easy-going stays I have ever had.
Probably because I slept in Narnia.
Yes, they do theme their hotel according to literary landscapes and even though the Little Prince or Peter Pan were available as well I felt very comfortable with this coincidence. I had not known beforehand what my ‘capsule’ would look like so this was a lovely surprise.
It is targeted at solo travellers, probably of the younger kind, but to me it was just perfect – I had a snug place to sleep in, everything was well kept, you had a free and huge locker to stuff your baggage into and an open ‘kitchen’ you could use all night. Add a vendor with snacks, drinks, and necessities and you are good to go!
After settling in quite happily I quickly left the hotel again as I had realised that Lucerne really knows its tourism: When you are staying at one of the hotels in town you get a free public transport pass – so I could hop on a bus to the Verkehrshaus, the place of the screening, beside Lake Lucerne and do have a quick look around, followed by a walk past the lake. Freezing but glorious!
I came back just in time to be picked up by Lukas – and to welcome a good friend of mine and someone I would love to have as my ‘Doktorvater’ – Prof. Thomas Honegger. Yes, the two people invited as guests of honour to this fan screening both travelled from Jena to Lucerne! If you have not heard of Thomas let me just tell you he is one of the leading scholars – a medievalist by trade – on Tolkien’s life and works out there. And he is also one of the people behind one of the leading – and the very few – specialist publishing houses on Tolkien, Walking Tree Publishers.
We had a most lovely dinner and a great time chatting with Lukas and his wife May at their home. Let me just mention that Lukas’ collection of all things metal and fantasy is quite the spectacle and an original guitar signed by Slash is just one of the memorabilia and collectibles you could find there. Fun was had by all!
And after a very long day I was happy to return to my hotel in the end and get a few hours of sleep.
Thursday, Dec 12, 2024 – the day of the screening
Lukas had promised to do a quick no holds barred tourist tour of Lucerne with me and Thomas and boy, did he deliver!
Starting at 7.30 in the morning we visited several places worth the visit in a rapid fire succession. However, we started out with a rather lovely breakfast at Hotel Château Gütsch, offering an amazing view on Lake Lucerne and the city. The five star hotel is quite the sight with an interesting history as well; the Restaurant Lumières we were invited to had a fantastic breakfast buffet on offer.
Following that and travelling via the Gütsch Funicular – the Swiss are just plain hilarious when it come to steep inclines! – we drove down to the lake for a walk past the Kapellbrücke and the water tower.
Lukas was telling us anecdotes about life & history in Lucerne, making things even more interesting and enjoyable.
Basically, you would need a couple of days to actually get the fuller picture to Lucerne. It is not only a beautiful as it is today but its history, particularly its place in the wider history of Switzerland is absolutely fascinating.
One of the fabulous places we visited was the Bourbaki Panorama. If you do not know what these panoramas are do have a look at places you can still find them – the “originals” of this particular artistic medium are a sight to behold.
Essentially, a whole French army sought refuge in neutral Switzerland after being defeated during the Franco-Prussian war. And the Red Cross and the local population helped them for six weeks so they would not suffer even more – and often way more due to illness and malnutrition – casualties. And this point in time is depicted in a circular panoramic painting, giving the illusion of being inside the painting. Awesome!
We also had to stop at the Lion Monument, of course, another place of historic importance to Swiss history – in this case the Swiss Guards massacred at the Tuileries during the French revolution. The Glacier Garden and its museum was a hoot, do visit if you can!
Really, Lukas pulled out all the stops you could possibly find in only a few hours of time.
To cut a long story short – we saw a lot of wonderful places and spaces in Lucerne thanks to our kind host. And some time past lunchtime Lukas had to leave for the cinema to take care of the preparations with his fellow smiallers.
The fan screening at the Verkehrshaus
Now, you need to understand that this place is the most popular museum in Switzerland and that is most certainly true for a number of reasons. When I walked past it the evening before I saw a locomotive and a plane – yes, a Swissair plane! – standing outside of this place. I mean, they are serious on major exhibits. I mean, HUGE items to be exhibited.
The Swiss Museum of Transport – that is the translation of Verkehrshaus – is a sight to behold. Unfortunately, there was no time for me to actually visit it. My train loving heart nearly broke but I had a lovely thing to distract me – Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim.
And fans from all over Switzerland. It was glorious.
But let’s do things in order.
After having returned to my capsule hotel to rest a little and do a little make-up – kidding! – I proceeded to the Filmtheater. It used to be the first Swiss IMAX theatre but has since changed its moniker. Upgraded in 2020, it is up to date on cinema technology and offers 342 seats with an amazingly huge screen.
The smial had outdone itself on presenting Tolkien, the German Tolkien Society, the regulars’ table and anything you could wish for to appreciate the Rohirrim we would soon be seeing on the big screen. It was absolutely lovely to have a chat with people from all over Switzerland and in one case even seeing a fellow German Tolkienist again who I hadn’t talked to in years. It was as splendid and lovely as it could be and the atmosphere was positively buzzing with people looking forward to see a Tolkien-inspired film for the first time in a cinema – ever in some cases.
The film then happened, much to the delight of the audience, as far as I could tell. And yes, I liked it, too. It might be that I liked it thanks to the event that was bookending it or because I wanted to see something that was better than the so-called Hobbit film trilogy which was disappointing on many levels but generally speaking I liked it. No, I am not going to nitpick in this report because that may be for some other time…
Anyway, the film happened and then me and Thomas did a Q&A with some truly enlightening questions. A group of medievalists and Thomas noted that there were a number of references to Tolkien’s beloved Beowulf and I stressed that the anime and its style were an obvious hommage to Bakshi and the films of the 70s… to which a number of people in the audience concurred.
And then it was over, much too fast, I have to say. I went to have a pint or two with a charming Swiss gentleman but as the pubs were closing fairly early and we both did not know the spots where you could possiby drink ’till sunrise we soon headed home.
Friday, Dec 13, 2024 – a walk through town and heading home
On the next day I had breakfast in my hotel, took the opportunity of visiting parts of the old town walls and walking around the city before returning to Jena. Again, my travels were absolutely easy and comfortable and I had no issues at all. I should probably travel to Switzerland more often!
I have tons of photos to show and will probably do this via Instagram. The moment I do this I will add a link below so you can get an even better idea about this amazing event.
[This is the Instagram link!]
My thanks go out to Lukas and May for their tremendous hospitality, to Stefan and all the other members of Esgaroth for putting this event together, the Verkehrshaus for hosting it and everyone else involved who made this happen and I have not named yet.
If any of you people out there do something like this and you need a speaker for a Q&A and/ or an introduction – let me know. I’m game!
P.S. And yes, I even made it into the local news. *grin*