From the point of view of an oversized hobbit

by Merry (aka Anke Büttner)

I didn't know what to expect from this years Oxonmoot, the first since the release of Peter Jackson's Fellowship of the Ring and the first for which I was not based in Oxford, but instead had a longer route of approach. Pippin (aka Colly) and I arrived at Oxford around lunchtime and made our way to St Antony's College. Wandering around town we spotted many familiar faces, and a kind of Oxonmoot excitement set in, like that which I had experienced before my very first Oxonmoot. Maybe some of it was due to the fact that we had a longer journey to get to Oxford, throughout the duration of which we could look forward to the weekend. But some of it must have been related to the fact that we had offered to put on a program item – Merry and Pippin's Dance Workshop...

On Friday, our Oxonmoot began with an interview for Central News, which was filmed in the pleasantly sunny gardens at St Anthony’s, and, of course, outside the Bird and Baby (Eagle and Child pub). Alex was there, too, and since the TV crew rushed off leaving us outside the pub, the three of us used this as an excuse to imbibe the first drink of the weekend. Inside the pub, we bumped into some Dutch Oxonmooters, and we made a start on Friday night proper: catching up with old and making new friends for the rest of the evening.

The following morning we had to be up early to get into our hobbit outfits - including hairy feet! - before the start of our Dance Workshop. This proved to be much more successful than our wildest dreams especially since it offered an activity which both younger and older Oxonmooters got involved with and seemingly enjoyed. We had not anticipated this particular aspect of the workshop, but were delighted to find it so... and decided to offer it again at Eleventy-One (Oxonmoot 2003)!

While were engaged in vigourous activity, many other Oxonmooters participated in Angie's famous Quiz. Unfortunately as a result of dance-induced exhaustion and injuries due to stepping on a piece of glass, I never found out who won.

The rest of Saturday passed far too rapidly, with many talks and meetings – more than I remember ever having been able to choose from. What a programme! Apart from the talks, slideshows and Dan Timmons' DVD showing, there was also a fantastic Artshow to visit, once again beautifully organised by Valerie, with pictures by Ted Nasmith, Anke Eissmann and many other artistic members' pieces: embroidery, paintings, drawings, silk ties, stained glass, dioramas... all inspired by the Professor's works. And once again the Dealers' room was full of interesting merchandise and eager buyers.

The Lunch - as usual - was a highlight, with almost all Oxonmooters assembled in one place. It was wonderful to see so many new and old faces gathered together to celebrate Tolkien's life and works in true style: with food and drink! I also was particularly moved by the official 'Thank you' expressed to Lyn who will always be inextricably linked in my mind with the great Oxonmoots at St Anthony's.

The afternoon saw more talks and meetings, before finally there was a little lull before the Party, this year held in St Anthony's dining hall. With practically superhuman efforts the tech team managed to sort out a number of unforeseen technical hitches so well that many an Oxonmooter would not even have noticed that there had been a problem at all by the time the party started. Three cheers, tech team!

And what a party it was! The Cambridge Tolkien Society performed the Reduced Silmarillion, which was very funny and had many members of a large audience in fits of laughter. There were songs and sketches, storytelling and more songs and there was, of course, the Masquerade. I don't think I have ever seen such a great show ot costumes by so many old and new Oxonmooters! There were so many entries - beautiful costumes, spectacular ideas and so much variety ranging from a fantastic professionally commissioned set of costumes presented by the Belgian Tolkien Society to a brilliantly conceptualised Shelob. There was the beautiful family of Finarfin, a sister of Legolas and a peasant woman of Ithilien, a wizard and gentleman in blue velvet, and an Elfmaid in green velvet, a couple of cleaning maids from Minas Tirith, a Galadriel to rival Cate Blanchett, Merry and Pippin in warrior gear (we were tremendously pleased with how well our costumes were received by the audience-thank you all! Does anyone have any good pictures of us? We don't have any...). There was also young Elrond, and the warden of the Citadel, with the white tree embroidered on his surcoat with Anariel, a maid of Rohan, and there was a Connecticut Yankee in King Ulmo's court... I did not envy the judges their task, but Maggie and Lorloth rose to the occasion by making the decision to award a prize to each and every costume. Presumably to provide the rest of us with an excuse to see (and show off!) all those great costumes again.

It was hard to believe that by that stage it was already after bar closing time and the party had to be tidied up...

On Sunday morning people appeared again in various stages of liveliness and many Oxonmooters took the coaches to the cemetery at Wolvercote for Enyalië, which was very moving-Denis had also made it there in time to sing Namarié, without which Enyalië would just not be the same.

Then we headed back to the college for Dead Orcs and slowly people began to drift off in the four directions of the compass, having exchanged addresses and promises to meet again, if possible, at next Oxonmoot...

Eventually we found ourselves on our (late) train on the way back home and felt just a little sad that it was all over ... but only until September 2003!

Thanks, Oxonmoot subcommittees past and present for having made this Oxonmoot such a wonderful weekend! We look forward to the next one.