Middle Earth Weekend goes down a storm

Fantasy fans had a magical weekend in a Birmingham suburb transformed into a scene from Middle Earth to celebrate author JRR Tolkien. About 5,000 of them went along to the tenth Middle Earth Weekend at Sarehole Mill, in Hall Green, a former childhood haunt of Tolkien, who once lived in Wake Green Road.

They enjoyed costume parades, poetry, music, Viking re-enactment, a village fair, the Moseley Farmers’ Market, medieval crafts, a falconry display and adventure games. Excerpts from The Lord of the Rings were performed and visitors could try their hand at Elvish writing.

A 30ft climbing wall was specially modified for the event with one of the book’s character’s Shelob the spider at the top for the young climbers to reach.

Tours were also running to the Oratory Church, in Edgbaston, which Tolkien attended, and Moseley Bog, another of his boyhood playgrounds.

Tolkien was three when his mother Mabel brought him and his younger brother Hilary back from where they were living in South Africa to visit their grandparents at 9 Ashfield Road, Kings Heath. His father, who had stayed in Africa died shortly afterwards.

In 1896 Mabel Tolkien and her two young sons settled at 5 Gracewell, now 264 Wake Green Road, a cottage in Sarehole village. Sarehole and the surrounding area with its meadows, ponds and mills provided much of the inspiration for the Shire.

Source: Birmingham Mail

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born on 3 January 1892 in Bloemfontein, capital of the Orange Free State in South Africa. The Lord of the Rings was completed in 1949, but publication was further delayed while Tolkien tried to find a publisher who would agree to publish both The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion. When this proved impossible, Tolkien allowed Allen and Unwin to publish The Lord of the Rings on its own. The book was divided into three separately titled volumes (somewhat to Tolkien’s annoyance, since the work was not intended as a trilogy). The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers were published in 1954 and The Return of the King in 1955.

Posted: May 18th, 2009
Author: Floresiensis
Categories: JRR Tolkien

Comments

Vin

The Middle Earth Weekend was a great event despite the weather. Well done to everybody who organised it and took part…..hope it returns next year. Found some good pictures of some of the happenings at http://www.clickityworld.co.uk/moseley they give a sense of the fun that was going on.

Date: May 28th, 2009

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