2025 in retrospect: fifteen notable events

The new year has come and gone and I am in a pensive mood. I am tired and in pain, by the by, but that is not going to keep me from my my plan to write about all of my years as a Tolkienist in reverse chronological order. It is as much documentation as it is the collection about the equivalent of about five books full of reports and notes and opinions that I simply never wrote down due to a crippling attempt at perfectionism¹.

Given that a lot of lovely people have pestered me over the years to finally start this tiny little wee project of mine I have recently started a page at the Tolkienist to have a quick overview of the years I have been an active volunteer, organiser, (co-)creator and supporter of all things Tolkienian – and a total of events I participated in. I am expecting the number to be in excess of 500 but we will see…

So, let’s give this a try. 2025. Not too bad a year, all things Tolkienian considered.

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A quick list of what’s in this post

1. Events I participated in, in reverse chronological order, with…
2. Reports and notes missing (and maybe why)
3. Some thoughts on this year
4. On a more personal note

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1. Events I participated in… as well as: 2. Reports and notes missing (and maybe why)

October. 31. Hobbit Halloween. Co-organiser.

My regulars’ table in Jena, the Tolkien Stammtisch Jena aka die Jenfährt:innen, does organise a number of smaller events throughout the year, with the main event being the Tolkien Tage (see below.) I am doing this together with my buddy Hannes and this year we had Thuringwethil and Annatar as guests, among others 🧛

October. 16. Frankfurt Book Fair. Speaker with German Tolkien publisher Hobbitpresse, including a chat with Tad Williams. [IG]

I wrote about this: Celebrating the latest German ‘Hobbit’ edition, illustrated by Tove Jansson, at Frankfurt Book Fair. Fun side-effect: I wrote the title page for the German publishers’ annual magazine, the Tolkien Times.

September. 27. Thuringian Tolkien Day. Volunteer & panelist. Prosecc-aggadon. [IG]

As the founder of the German Tolkien Society and all-round volunteer whiz in fandom I also came up with the different kinds of events and publications the society has – and one of those wonderful events is the Tolkien Tag, now in its Jena version. This year I did not have to do any organisational chores, so I simply participated in one of the podcast panels and did the intros to our speakers. Unfortunately, the Strandschleicher strand bar had an incredibly tasty prosecco on tap and I, well, had too many glasses of those. Lucky for me my girl Susi took care of me and took me home in one piece 😅

September 14-16. Visit to Lauterbrunnen on behalf of Lauterbrunnen Tourist Authority; asked to be a consultant for sustainable Tolkien tourism. [Post in the making]

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August 13. Tolkien regulars’ table, Jena. [founder; FB]

When I moved to Jena in 2021 – following a break-up after fourteen years of relationship, including seven years of marriage, I needed to find new people in a new town. And my recipe for this is founding a Tolkien Regulars’ Table – or smial, if you like – and that is what I did. So we met up for the time on Sept 22, 2021, as it should be! And this is the first photo we published on April 13, 2022, with Instagram. [P.S. I think I founded seven smials by now.]

June 27. Steady Growth Day, Düsseldorf, Germany. [My crowdfunding site, bringing together German Medienmacher:innen]

A free to participate event run by Steady, the European crowdfunding option you should consider moving to – we had some amazing, on-the-spot run workshops by volunteers in barcamp style, on all things social media, networking, community etc. I did one on newsletters and how to use them to leverage communication and interaction with your communities. I definitely promoted the Tolkien fandom 🤓

July 18-20. Tolkien Thing, German Tolkien Society [founder of the society and the event; official website]

I still need to properly write down how the GTS came into being but then, ah, well… The annual meeting of our society is always a pleasure and has been taking place in the woods out there, in Thuringia, called Rittergut Lützensömmern, for many years. I did a short review of this via Instagram.

June 13-16. Tolkien Tage (Tolkien Days), German Tolkien Society. [founder of the society and the event; official website; largest Tolkien-centred event in the world; speaker and podcast coordinator]

The Tolkien Days in Geldern have gone from strength to strength and seem to be closing in pretty quickly on something like 20,000 visitors soon… It is quite the experience and spectacle and me and my girl Susi have been organising the podcast’ cabin for some years now. I am also usually a speaker, and at the moment I am introducing one of the shorter stories every year – like Roverandom or Farmer Giles of Ham.

June 7. Visit to Tolkien regulars’ table in Paderborn, Germany. [IG]

Visiting and staying with old friends, this was a first-time visit to one of the ‘younger’ smials. It did revamp a room in its favourite pub and turned it into a home for any of the Rohirrim turning up.

May 10. Visit to Tolkien Tapestries’ exhibition in Paris, also graves of the Famille Sauron. [my report]

March 29. Visit to Leipzig Book Fair; guest to German Tolkien publisher Hobbitpresse [Eolian Club; IG; resident Tolkienist]

The German publisher Hobbitpresse are very kind and a fun team to boot… always great to be there!

March 25. Tolkien Reading Day at Tillis Boardgaming Café, Jena, run by Tolkien regulars’ table [IG; speaker]

March 22. Happening of the most successful German-speaking Tolkien podcast, Tollkühn. [quasi speaker; guest]

March 13-16. Tolkien Tagung ( Conference), Zürich [guest; social media helper; my report]

Jan 3. Tolkien Birthday Toast, Jena. [IG; participant]

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3. Some thoughts on this year

Listing these events does show me that I did have quite some fun, met some extraordinary people, and did spend my time in the company of family and friends.

Unfortunately, I had to give up my career of 20+ years as a freelance translator as I can no longer earn a living with it. That simple fact and the debts I have accrued over years never really earning enough – I may be a half-way decent translator but I was never good with money – meant I had to take on a part-time job to be able to pay the rent. Nothing wrong with that, it is just not the job I had appreciated and loved for so many years.

Generally speaking, 2025 was among the top three worst years of my life, all things considered. Many wonderful things, a loving partner and a wonderful family, but those were the exceptions to an otherwise bleak twelve months.

On a more personal note

It is rather tough to find the good things in life right now but I am trying my best. And I am hoping that 2026 will be better.

If you feel like supporting me in my ventures you can always become a member with my Steady page. Or invite me to a cuppa at any of the events you might see me this year. Anything is highly appreciated. Looking forward to it.

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1. I have had quite a bit of therapy over the years and finished a long term one in summer of 2025. It is time I no longer cared for my insecurities. Work in progress, though. ↩︎