English edition XIV Mereth Aderthad
Mae Govannen!
Welcome to the electronic page of the XIV annual meeting of the Spanish Tolkien Society (Sociedad Tolkien Española), known as Mereth Aderthad, or plainly, EstelCon. This year it is organized by the Smial (local delegation) of Hammo (city of Madrid) at Salamanca, and is, as usual, opened both for members of the STE and for the general public.
What is a Mereth?
In Sindarin –one of the elvish languages invented by J.R.R. Tolkien-, mereth literally means “meeting”; the plural is merith, and in the STE we use it to designate a very common activity of our smials: to gather with other members for one or more days to share and enjoy multiple activities around Tolkien’s work. Usually, a mereth is organised by a particular smial, and lasts a weekend. During these days, we make round-table meetings, attend to conferences, play games, and almost anything that the organizing smial may imagine. Two things that never fail are a story-telling night and a dressed up or “gala” dinner. This last one gets its name from the habit in the STE of making beautiful dresses inspired in the works of Tolkien, and to wear them for dinner. Obviously, this is not compulsory, and many people don’t wear any special clothes.
However, once a year, there is a very special mereth that gathers a lot of members from the STE, and during which the annual General Meeting of the association is usually held. It receives always the same name: Mereth Aderthad, or "Feast of Reuniting". Each year a different smial is in charge of organizing it.
The Mereth Aderthad
Also called EstelCon (meaning “Convention of the Estel”), it is a meeting held once a year, that usually lasts for four days, and in which all the society participates, because although it’s prepared by a particular smial –and the hard work is done by them-, activities are developed by members of the entire STE, or by the committees, or by other smials.
The Mereth Aderthad is the greatest gathering of all members of the Sociedad Tolkien Española (plus any person who wants to join in), in order to spend a few days immersed in a world of fantasy, humor, friendship and culture in multiple forms… doing what we all love to do: reading Tolkien, telling stories based in his work, listening at conferences, performing theatre plays representing passages of it, singing and listening to songs narrating great loves and heroic deeds, reading literary works in quenya with sublime voices, participating in diverse workshops (from dressmaking to pipe smoking), or learning hobbit dances and music; even watching to videos created by members themselves. And, over all, listening to real scholars demonstrating that Tolkien is far more than one of many fantasy writers; he is one of the greatest writers in History, unfairly forgotten by some experts, who are unable to perceive his deep thoughts about human being impregnating his works. If there is a single thing we all agree in a Mereth Aderthad, is the need of claiming for Tolkien’s place in History.
Every EstelCon usually has a topic guiding the general plot, and driving the special activities prepared by the organizing smial.
One thing that we must never forget in every mereth are those small presents called "mathoms". In the Lord of the Rings: About the Hobbits, J.R.R. Tolkien defines "mathoms" as: «...items that Hobbits had no particular use for but could not bear to throw away...»
The habit in every mereth is that the organizing smial gives one mathom to every attending person; the more original, the better. But also, the attending smials usually give a mathom to the organizing one, as a way to thank them for the hard work done.
The Theme
It’s our tradition that each annual convention goes around one plot or general concept.
In this case, the smial that is coordinating the setup and execution –Hammo- has decided to drive the Mereth Aderthad towards the works considered "lesser" in Tolkien. This is partly due to “Hammo” is the name given to a village in one of those short tales, of amusing and sarcastic tone; on the other hand, it’s a good counterpoint to the traditional model based in “big” works like The Silmarilion o The Lord of the Rings.
It will be very nice that we all walk for three days by the roads that connect Hammo and Father Christmas office; or watch traditional sword duels between the craftsmen of Wootton Major and the Draconarii Knights. It will be a real luxury to be able to chat with Niggle, and that he’ll tell us what does he think while he is painting his leaves, with such minoucious details.
The works on which we have based the XIV Mereth Aderthad are: Leaf by Niggle, Farmer Giles of Ham, The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, Smith of Wootton Major, The Father Christmas Letters, Roverandom and Mr. Bliss.
Activities
The activity schedule is not closed yet, but we already have confirmed almost ten conferences, three workshops, four plays (musical, drama, etc.) one music contest, two exhibitions, one concert, and also several demonstrations of the different projects currently being developed by people from the STE, directly related to Tolkien’s works; all thus leading to a wide range of possibilities for the different tastes of all our visitors: we have a conference about the application of Tolkien’s writings for high school; an analysis of the Mythopoeia poem; a review of the ‘initiation journey’ myth in Tolkien; the context of the Silmarilion; a study of the scripts of the film’s soundtrack; an approach to Tolkien’s poetry through “Leaf by Niggle”; how is the “True Love” concept treated in Tolkien’s work (and life), and more...
The Working Committees from the STE will present their latest works and encourage us to participate: the Music and Dance Committee will make a singing workshop, an exhibit of its achievements during the last years and a concert; the Craftwork Committee will show us a selection of its creations and will make a handicraft workshop (we’ll build our own Girabbit!); we will also emulate Niggle by making our own Leaf...
We will be able to learn or improve our bow shooting; practice the miniature painting; take us a photo with the real Crisophilax; we will sing, firstly guided by our Bards in the workshop and then in the musical contest of Tolkiendili songs
We will see a selection of some projects that members from the STE are carrying out now: the digitalization of the main magazine of the society (the “Estel”); the creation of the audio-book of The Hobbit; future projects of the magazine about tolkiendili studies "Nolmë"
There will be theatrical plays (about Aegidius and about Arda), musical plays… and, of course, we’ll have the traditional story-telling night, this magical moment during which we share with our mates those passages that touched our heart at some moment in our lives.
Useful Info
Where: The XIV Mereth Aderthad is going to be held at the "Residencia de los Padres Paúles", located in the town of Santa Marta de Tormes, Salamanca. More precisely, it’s placed at the Road to Madrid, 14. It can be reached via the town bus that links Salamanca with Santa Marta de Tormes, with a stop in front of the shopping centre near the residence, the "Tormes". With a frequency of 15 minutes on working days, and 30 minutes on holidays, you can take it at the Gran Vía of Salamanca, nearby the train station.
To go to Salamanca there are multiple options, depending of the transport you use: there are regular bus routes from Madrid, Valladolid or Segovia; the train network is also quite complete, and RENFE offers trips from the main cities of Spain, like Madrid, Barcelona or Zaragoza. Also, the city of Salamanca has an airport with regular flights from Barcelona, Málaga and Mallorca.
When: On october the 16 th, 17 th, 18 th and 19th.
How: Attending and enjoying the Estelcon 2008 is as easy as to go to the feast and enter the conferences, sign up to the workshops or talk with people about the works of the Professor in general, or the tales in which this mereth in particular is based.
Is our objective to promote activities of any kind performed by any member. All the initiatives are welcome; and if they are related with the plot, even better. This is the perfect chance to read again Professor’s books and become impregnated of the true spirit of Faerië. Don’t leave any book out!
How to sign up: Write an e-mail to info[at]estelcon2008[dot]org and we’ll contact you as soon as possible.
Pricing:
- The whole Mereth: 140€
- From Thursday supper to Friday dinner: 35€
- From Friday supper to Saturday dinner: 35€
- From Saturday (gala) supper to Sunday dinner: 70€
It’s also important to note the refunding policy for cases of cancellation, that –exceptions apart– will be:
- Until september 16th: full refund
- From 09/16 until 09/23: refund of 75% of the payment
- From 09/23 until 09/30: refund of 50% of the payment
- From 09/30 until 10/08: refund of 25% of the payment
- From 10/08 on, there will be no refund.
So, you know: if you want to participate and organize something, but you still don’t know what; if you want to do the best of you for some project, but you don’t know which one will better help the Estelcon; write and tell us what do you want. We’ll be pleased to offer you some help, and give you several ideas for you to develop at your will.
