Tigerlily, how was the Gathering? I hope you have time to tell us a bit about it!
I'll be attending the German Tolkien Society meeting this coming weekend, and there are definitely echoes of Birmingham involved: Alan Lee as guest of honor; the Greek Tolkien Society as guests (remember their wonderful tragic play?!); and renewing my aquaintance with German Society members I met in Birmingham last year. Unfortunately, Brian Sibley, who was to come as well, is ill and can't be there.
Another very nice detail - the young German artist Anke Eissmann, who displayed her paintings in Birmingham last summer, designed a T-shirt print for the occasion. Here it is:
T-shirt
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'Mercy!' cried Gandalf. 'If the giving of information is to be the cure of your inquisitiveness, I shall spend all the rest of my days in answering you. What more do you want to know?' 'The whole history of Middle-earth..
.'