The Tolkien Society of Kansas City

At the recent September meeting, we discussed The Fellowship of the Ring, Book Two Chapters III - VI.  One of our main topics of discussion was the evil agency of Caradhras, and The Misty Mountains in general.  Since the mountains were raised up by Morgoth himself, we agreed that it wasn't surprising that they would work against the Fellowship.  Also, we noticed that Frodo seemed to have some heightened senses, in his noticing the footsteps of, presumably, Gollum following them through Moria. We'll be holding our next meeting on Wednesday, October 22 6:30, at Cardboard Corner Cafe, at 9240 Metcalf Ave, Overland Park, KS.  We'll be in the Sci-Fi Room this time. We'll be discussing the final four chapters of The Fellowship of the Ring, Book Two Chapters VII - X. Please note, we've made some schedule adjustments for our last two meetings of the year, in order to work around the holidays.  We'll be meeting on the third Wednesdays of the month in both November and De...

At the recent August meeting, we discussed The Fellowship of the Ring, Book One Chapters XI and XII, and Book Two Chapters I and II. Please Note! There were no available rooms for our usual meeting night this month, so we've had to shift our meeting to Thursday ! We'll be holding our next meeting on Thursday, September 25 6:30, at Cardboard Corner Cafe, at 9240 Metcalf Ave, Overland Park, KS.  We'll be in the Sci-Fi Room this time. We'll be discussing the next four chapters of The Fellowship of the Ring, Book Two Chapters III - VI.

At the recent July meeting, we discussed chapters VII-X of The Fellowship of the Ring.   We had 14 people there, probably the biggest crowd we've had post-lockdown!  Several new people were in attendance. We'll be holding our next meeting on Wednesday, August 27, at 6:30, at Cardboard Corner Cafe, at 9240 Metcalf Ave, Overland Park, KS.  We'll be in the Fantasy Room this time. We'll be discussing the next four chapters of The Fellowship of the Ring, Book One Chapters XI and XII, and Book Two Chapters I and II.

At the recent June meeting, we discussed chapters 4-6 of The Fellowship of the Ring.   We had a full house, with ten people in attendance. We'll be holding our next meeting on Wednesday, July 23, at 6:30, at Cardboard Corner Cafe, at 9240 Metcalf Ave, Overland Park, KS.  We'll be in the Sci-Fi Room this time, as the Fantasy Room was not available.  And we're upping our reading game, we'll be discussing the next four chapters of The Fellowship of the Ring, chapters 7-10.  

by Elizabeth Perico So, it begins A little over a year ago, I met with what was to become the ‘Council of the West’, as we began discussing and planning the first ever Tolkien Society event in the USA, which became Westmoot. Today, it is already more than a month since the event took place, and I can truly say it met, and even exceeded all our hopes! What goes into holding a moot? When you attend one, especially the more established ones such as Oxonmoot or Mythmoot, they typically run like clockwork, and rarely do attendees see the rudders spinning furiously under the water. (Or at least you hope they don’t!) The more established events will normally have a regular venue, and vendors, and equipment that they are used to working with. For Westmoot, EVERYTHING was new! We did not have the budget to purchase A/V equipment, so the good Professor Olsen brought his own gear he used for Signum moots, and did much of the set up for recording presentations, showing slides, and making sure micr...

At the recent May meeting, we discussed the first three chapters of The Fellowship of the Ring.   We had a full house, with ten people in attendance, including some first-timers.  We had a great discussion. We'll be holding our next meeting on Wednesday, June 25, at 6:30, at Cardboard Corner Cafe, at 9240 Metcalf Ave, Overland Park, KS.  We'll be in the Fantasy room.  We'll be discussing the next three chapters of The Fellowship of the Ring, chapters 4-6. 

By Chase Spears What do you mean the barrel scene from Peter Jackson’s film adaptation of The Hobbit isn’t anything li ke what’s portrayed in the book? This was one of many points of entertaining co nversation between me and Lori during our evening walks as I read through Tolkien’s 1937 adventure , along with the Kansas City Tolkien Society over the last few months. Though a longtime fan of Tolkien’s works conveyed through film, I’m still cutting my teeth as a newbie when it comes to ta king in his actual writing . I’m learning much about middle earth, now in my middle age. But th e thing stands out in grandest fashion is the development of Bilbo Baggins as a strategic character in the plot . If put into a lineup with those who more looked the part of soldier , few would likely pick him to fill the role of stealthy warrior on a quest with infinitesimal odds of success or even survivability. Yet he was the essential man for the task . In my office hang s a painting by John Paul...

 At the recent April meeting, we discussed "Cirion and Eorl and the Friendship of Gondor and Rohan" from Unfinished Tales. We'll be holding our next meeting on Wednesday, May 28, at 6:30, at Cardboard Corner Cafe, at 9240 Metcalf Ave, Overland Park, KS.  We'll be in the Fantasy room.  We'll be discussing the first three chapters of The Fellowship of the Ring.  That's right, we're launching into the big one! 

At the recent March meeting, we discussed Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and we heard updates from many members who attended Planet ComicCon, and also from one member who recently went to New Zealand and visited the LOTR movie sites there. There was not much news about Westmoot, but the Museum is having another trivia night on the 8th, the day before the Moot. We'll be holding our next meeting on Wednesday, April 23, at Cardboard Corner Cafe, at 9240 Metcalf Ave, Overland Park, KS.  We'll be in the Fantasy room.  We'll be discussing CIRION AND EORL AND THE FRIENDSHIP OF GONDOR AND ROHAN from Unfinished Tales. 

At the recent February meeting, we discussed the final chapter of The Hobbit, which is chapter 19 as well as The Quest for Erebor. We'll be holding our next meeting on Wednesday, March 26, at Cardboard Corner Cafe, at 9240 Metcalf Ave, Overland Park, KS.  We'll be in the Fantasy room.  We'll be discussing Tolkien's translation of  Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,  an Arthurian tale translated from the Middle English. Also, our Soundscape sample has had to be postponed several times, and is still upcoming on Monday, March 10, at 6:30 PM, in the Party Tree channel of our Discord server, in conjunction with our Hobbit Happy Hour.

As many of you may know, I am a bookbinder doing primarily restoration work. A couple of years ago, one of my clients asked me if I could rebind his first edition, first printing set of The Lord of the Rings into a leather binding? I replied that his idea looked like an interesting project and said "yes". He sent me the 3 books along with the endpapers and headbands he wanted to use on the books and I would order the leather that had to be shipped from the UK. The books as they arrived: The first step was to strip the old cloth covers off and then with any corrective issues with the book boards.  The spines for each book had to be cleaned of their old material and new material applied. The 3 books ready for the new leather covers: The leather was measured for each book and then trimmed around the edges for the turn-ins when eventually put on the book. The 3 new leather covers were sent out to have a custom gold stamped design on each book spine and then the covers were re...

 Tolkien is a brilliant writer that inspires me with hope and positivity. His works have a persistent theme of hopefulness, which can be found in some significant quotes from his wonderful book, The Hobbit. I wanted to share my thoughts on these quotes, and how they have motivated me. I hope that these reflections can bring some light or joy to your life, and maybe you can find something of yourself in my thoughts and musings. --- "While there's life, there's hope!" - Bilbo, The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien pg. 214 Sitting in an adamantine darkness, unsure of what chance they have, and trapped between a rock and a dragon, the dwarves had begun to lose hope. Bilbo, as he does often throughout the journey, rises to the occasion and rouses the dwarves into action. This led to Bilbo and the dwarves finding their long-desired hoard of gold and, more importantly, their escape from the dragon-reeking caverns of Erebor.  Everyone goes through dread periods and tumultuous times in t...

At the recent January meeting, we discussed chapters 15 - 17 of The Hobbit, and then took turns reading aloud chapter 18.  Nine members were in attendance, including one new person! We'll be holding our next meeting on Wednesday, February 26, at Cardboard Corner Cafe, at 9240 Metcalf Ave, Overland Park, KS.  We'll be in the Sci-Fi room, the more appropriate Fantasy Room being unavailable once again!  We'll be discussing the final chapter of The Hobbit, which is chapter 19 as well as The Quest for Erebor, which is available in Unfinished Tales, and also in The Annotated Hobbit. We also made lots of plans for future events: (I stole heavily from Elizabeth's Discord post for the following!) We talked about Westmoot, and having our folks involved volunteering as Stewards. Elizabeth will be organizing volunteers soon, email tolkiensocietykc@gmail.com for details. We decided to start doing Hobbit Happy hour again, 2nd Mondays at 6:30pm - meeting virtually in the Party Tree ch...

We'll be holding our January meeting on Wednesday, January 22, at Cardboard Corner Cafe, at 9240 Metcalf Ave, Overland Park, KS.  We'll be in the Sci-Fi room, the more appropriate Fantasy Room being unavailable! At the recent holiday party, even though everyone was making rather merry, we were able to discuss the chapters assigned, so this month's discussion will be on chapters 15-17 of The Hobbit!