Heads-up: Welly-moot #4.1 is this Sunday, January 25th!

Look sharp, people - the Tolkien group meets this Sunday (25/1) at the Embassy Cinema, at 2:00pm. Theme for the afternoon is "What happened after 'The Hobbit'?".

Full details can be found on the Welly-moot website:

http://www.welly-moot.com/2015/01/welly-moot-41-january-25th-at-embassy.html

So make sure you read up on your Lost tales and Unfinished Tales lore. Also, ROTK's appendices are very useful.

We will also be discussing the March 7th official opening of the Rivendell Archway.


If you're not yet a Welly-moot member, come join us - it's free and fun. Make sure you bring a few bucks for coffee or cake. Or coffee and cake.

As always - just attend one meeting, and you'll be a member for life!



See you all there!

  - Jack

Welly-moot Event - Hobbit Costume Trail

A small group of Welly-mooters had a great day today - we managed to start and complete the Wellington Hobbit Costume Trail. Originally we thought we could do it in a few hours, that proved to be more like 5 hours instead, mostly because we were pretty relaxed about life in general.

Daniel, Jack, Cinnamon, Sarah, Alex, and Alistair posing in front of a display at Te Papa.

The day started at 11:00am, in front of the Wellington Railway Station. From there we walked to the Rydges Hotel, for Thorin's costume.Rather than walking you through the whole day (should have joined us!), I'll let the photos tell the story.

Thorin at the Rydges Hotel

Gloin at the Ibis Hotel

Bilbo at the Kircaldie & Stains shopping complex

Bilbo's Mithril coat

Dwalin at the James Cook Hotel

Gandalf at the Intercontinental Hotel

Gandalf's staff, with some secret marks

Tauriel at the iSite Information Centre

Balin at the Westplaza Hotel

Legolas at Wharewaka Boathouse

Azog at Te Papa Museum

Elf Lieutenant at Te Papa Museum

Elf Soldier at Te Papa Museum

Radagast at the Museum Hotel

Radagast's got two mismatched shoes

Oin at the CQ Hotel

Oin's warm knitted gloves

Bombur at the Embassy Cinema

Bifur at the Embassy Cinema

Bofur at the Embassy Cinema

Bard at the Copthorne Oriental Hotel

Kili (& scale Kili) at the Airport

Fili at the Airport

Gandalf on an eagle at the Airport

Gollum at the Airport

Smaug at the Airport

Dori at the Roxy Cinema

Nori at the Roxy Cinema

Ori at the Roxy Cinema

Weapons on the wall at the Roxy Cinema

Dale Market Flags at the Roxy Cinema

Welly-moot activity - Hobbit Costume Trail this Saturday! Come join us!

In honour of the completion of Wellington's trip to Middle-earth in the last fifteen years or so, the City Council has got together with a number of hotels and other venues around town, and the studios, and have hidden a number of original costumes from the Hobbit movies.

Alex and I have decided we are going to find all the costumes hidden around the Wellington CBD this Saturday.

If anyone wants to join us, we will meet in front of the Wellington Railway Station on January 10th, at 10:50am, and we'll start walking towards the Embassy end of town, hitting all the costumes along the way. You don't need to RSVP, but we will leave at 11:00am sharp, so if you're not there and start late, drop me an email (I always have my smart phone with me), and I'll let you know where to run to.

My email address is "jack@welly-moot.com".


Get your free maps from the Wellington iSite, and a few other places as well, or download them from their website.


Hope to see a few of you there!

  - Jack & Alex

Welly-moot #4.1 - January 25th at Embassy

Topic: What happened after The Hobbit, eh?

Happy 2015, all! We finished 2014 with that most splendid Unexpected "Battle of the Five Armies" Premiere Party at the Roxy Cinema on December 2. Could we have ever imagined enjoying such an ending to The Hobbit film trilogy? It has been wonderful to share in that journey together - and the journey goes on.

Bilbo's main part in the story, as told in The Hobbit: There and Back Again, ends in the Third Age 2942. It will be 76 years, T.A 3018, before Frodo sets out to begin his part of the tale in The Fellowship of the Ring. Our topic for the next meeting will be "What was going on in Middle-earth from the day Bilbo arrived home to find the contents of Bag End being auctioned until the day Frodo leaves with Sam, Merry and Pippin?"  Film verse is different from book verse, and we can compare the two, if you like, but shall we first review what Professor Tolkien had in mind? I've made an index from Appendices A, B, and C at the end of Return of the King for those years so we can each read up on it before and then discuss.  

Appendix B 

- The Third Age: There is a chronology of this age, which includes all our stories. Begin in 2942 when Bilbo returns to the Shire. End in 3018 when Frodo sets off on September 23.

Appendix A

- Gondor and the Heirs of Anárion:        A. I. iv approx. pages 9-12

- The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen:          A. I. v approx. pages 1-5

- The House of Eorl - Rohan:                 A. II

The last paragraph is about Saruman.  

"The Kings of the Mark": Second Line  16. Thengel; 17. Théoden; Third Line - Eomer and Eowyn

- Durin's Folk         A. III. approx. pages 7-8

The death of Thorin; the Kingship of Dáin; King Bard of Dale

Appendix C

- Hobbit family trees

Bring up any other bits you remember recorded in the stories themselves.

And don't forget the last two pages of The Hobbit !

Bring your books and your appetites to the Embassy cafe upstairs. 

The journey continues!

- Kristi

NB - Complete Welly-moot Calendar Update!

Just a quick warning - due to various circumstances, we've completely revamped the 2015 Welly-moot dates. Please double check that you have the correct dates in your calendars, since they're almost ALL changed as of today.

The next Welly-moot (#4.1) will be held at the Embassy Cinema (note also the change in venue) at the end of this month, on January the 25th.

The complete, updated calendar for 2015 is listed on its own page now.


This change was decided at an impromptu committee meeting today. Our apologies for any confusion, and we hope to see you all there!

  - Jack

Welly-moot #3.6 cancelled

Due to a very disappointing number of RSVP's from people planning to come to the end-of-year meeting/party on Dec 28 (ie, one person has responded), we've decided to cancel, or at least postpone the moot.

If you were thinking of attending on December 28th, please email me; I'll let you know alternative dates if we decide to have it later.

  - Jack

Welly-moot Mailing List now active (testing phase)

I've managed to get a Mailing List thing working - if anyone's interested in getting an email everytime I post a blog entry here, please click on the picture of the envelope on the right hand side of every blog page.

As an aside, the other icons there also allow you to follow the blog in easy ways - follow us on Facebook, Twitter, RSS-Feed, or on Google+ as well; whatever is easiest for you. They all work.


The mailing list is still in "test" phase, but it should work ok. I've had a report saying that on some computers the resulting emails take a little while to open but I haven't been able to duplicate that yet (so more testers would be appreciated!).

I promise not to send loads of spam your way, and at the bottom of every message there's instructions on how to Unsubscribe again as well. Keep in mind it's all a manual system so I'll be adding and removing the entries myself, when I have time to do it (so please be patient with me!).

So, hit that magic envelope button! We have operators standing by!

  - Jack