Welly-moot #4.6, Report - Galadriel's Gifts

The last Welly-moot of 2015, moot #4.6, was held on Sunday the 29th of November at the Embassy Theatre.

We started with an ‘OMG’ announcement for Welly-mooters. We will post it on this website shortly so keep eye on it. It's pretty awesome, but we have to get the details right before we can announce it properly. Expect something pretty exciting in the next week!



Today though, three new Welly-mooters joined us - Tara & Chad, and Jade. Apart from her many creative skills, Jade also works as a guide at Weta Cave, and turns out to be very knowledgable on all matters Tolkien. Tara and Chad are travelling fans, and are currently visiting (more than a) few Middle-earth locations around New Zealand. Once they were introduced, we continued with the roundtable introductions and some general updates as usual. Great news are Sinead’s new job at Weta Degital, and new documentary project related with Tolkien from Will & Erica - looking forward to offering our assistance when the time comes closer!



The moot's theme was "The gifts from Galadriel". We are sure you know all the gifts, but here is a friendly reminder for you just in case.

Before the parting, the Fellowship members were given Lembas, Elven cloaks, Elven brooches, Elven ropes, and boats.


At the parting, Galadriel presented specific gifts to each member of the Fellowship.

• Aragorn – Elfstone and a sheath for Anduril
• Boromir – his golden belt
• Merry & Pippin – Silver belts
• Legolas – Galadhrim bow with elven hair string, and plenty of arrows
• Sam – a box marked with a silver rune "G for Galadriel". Inside the box was some earth from Galadriel's orchard and a silver nut from a Mallorn tree.
• Gimli – Three strands of Galadriel’s hair
• Frodo - Phial of Galadriel

There followed some interesting discussions;

• Based on the history of the relationship between Elves and Dwarves, Galadriel’s offer to Gimli is unique and remarkable.
• Galadriel had the foresight and so she prepared very special gifts which would be useful on their journey later on.
• The gift from Galadriel who is high-elf, to Legolas who is low(er)-elf.
• How Boromir’s gold belt and Merry & Pippin’s silver belts were used on the story.

It was suggested that in the movie, perhaps Galadriel doesn't give Boromir any personal gifts because with her foresight, she knew that he was portrayed by Sean Bean (who always dies). A good theory!




One sad item of news - one of our longest Welly-moot members, Annabelle, is moving to Hamilton with her two Hobbits. We would like to thank Annabelle for all your contribution to our little group, we will miss you. We wish you the best in your new life and hope we will meet again soon. Remember, you're a member for life!

Our next meeting will be on Sunday 31st January 2016. Keep checking our website for an exciting announcement! Talk to you soon.

  - Alex

Welly-moot #4.6 this month (nov 29th) - Galadriel's Gifts.

This month's meeting (almost) coincides with the date that Samwise remembers about Galadriel's gift to him - the little box of seeds. He uses it to regrow the trees around the Shire, cut down by Saruman during the Raising of the Shire (if you don't remember this bit from the film, you really need to read the book!).

For the theme of the meeting we will share stories about this gift, or any of the others that the Fellowship receive after their stay in Lothlorien. The cloaks, the Lembas bread, Sam's rope, Boromir's golden belt, or Gimli's three golden hairs - they are all incredibly special, and often it's not until you read the other books (Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, etc) that it becomes clear just HOW special they are. Which gift was your favourite? And why?


Come share your stories, or come listen to other people's tales, at the end of the month, on Sunday November 29th, at 2:00pm at the Embassy Cinema. It'll be the last Welly-moot this year, so come and meet the crew one more time!


  - Jack

Welly-moot #4.5, Elrond - report

Our Welly-moot #4.5 meeting was held last Sunday, 27 September at Embassy Theatre.

We started with a roundtable introduction for the new Welly-mooters; Elanor, Ayumi, and Noriko, and longtime absent but now returned Welly-mooter, Ryan. After some general updates from Jack and shared updates, we started talking about today’s theme "Elrond".


Gladly most of members had done some homework of researching about Elrond and we shared what we found. Jack started by presenting a short biography about Elrond; when he was born, his early life, his adult life, and his children. Especially interesting was that Elrond is not exactly half-Elf and half-Human but 9/16 Elf, 3/8 Human, and 1/16 Maiar.


The discussion continued about his parents and his children, especially Arwen about, and how she met Aragorn, and how Elrond felt about it.

The ultimate question posed was “Do you choose mortal life or immortal life? “ Elrond was given a choice and remained as an Elf but his brother Elros became a man.

Everyone had different views and opinions, and so the discussion was going on and on. We had good robust moot, indeed!


Sad news is one of our active members Seiko is leaving Wellington and going back to Japan. We originally met her at the Archway Opening Ceremony at Rivendell this year. We enjoyed having her with us, sharing her passion for Middle Earth. We will miss you, Seiko.


Good news is Ryan has come back to Wellington. He had left almost 3 years ago. Ryan, welcome back to New Zealand and we are happy to have you back. Let's hope it is permanent this time!


Next meeting is on Sunday 29th November. We are hoping to have a special guest for the last Welly-moot meeting this year. We will announce as soon as we can.

 Keep checking our website. Talk to you soon.

  - Alex

Headsup - Welly-moot #4.5 ("Elrond") is tomorrow at 2:00pm!

Don't forget, the next Welly-moot will be held tomorrow September 27th, at the Embassy Cinema, at 2:00pm.

The subject will be Elrond, so let's see what interesting facts people can find out about him. Here's one: although Hugo Weaving ended up playing him in Peter Jackson's movies, apparently David Bowie expressed considerable interest in playing him also.


We'll see you there! Usual rules:

New members welcome!
Membership is free, and for life.
Bring money for coffee and/or cake from the Embassy Cafe.


  - Jack

Stansborough Textiles reopens its doors!

Earlier this month, Welly-moot received an invite to the exclusive Grand Opening at Stansborough Textiles on Wednesday September 9th.

Stansborough, the company behind the Fellowship cloaks, has moved to their new venue in Petone, Lower Hutt. Unfortunately Jack was on a business trip in South Island, so one of the fellow Welly-mooters, Cinnamon, joined me (Alex) as representation of the Welly-moot. Cinnamon was a great companion and we met up with some very passionate people for arts and designs. It was a special night.

New gallery

Secret wardrobe

The tour of the hundred year old weaving machines – they are magnificent

Guess who we met! Alex with Daniel Reeve, Caligrapher, who created the maps, Bilbo’s book, and Thorin's contract in the Peter Jackson’s movies, Lord of the Rings and Hobbit.

The Grand Opening for the general public was today (September 13th), so go and check them out, or give them a call to arrange a tour!

  - Alex

Welly-moot #4.5 - Elrond

At the end of this month, on September the 27th,  the next Welly-moot will be held once again at the Embassy Cinema, at the usual time of 2:00 pm.


Since we've reopened Rivendell here in the Wellington region earlier this year, we thought it might be interesting to see who runs the place, and how he got there. Lord Elrond, father of Arwen, is the topic of our discussion this meeting.

So come join us, bring your books (since Elrond has been around for quite a while, he's in quite a lot of the tales), and let's figure out his backstory, his relationship with Gandalf, and let's meet Arwen's mum, her brothers and her uncle.


The meeting will be open to new members again. Membership is still 100% free (although bring money for coffee and/or cake), and membership is for life. Please "Share" this post around your various social media hangouts.


See you all there!

  - Jack

Welly-moot #4.4 Mid-Year Christmas

On Sunday the 26th of July, the Welly-moot was held at the home of myself & Alex. I didn't mention this at the moot, but it was our 30th Tolkien get-together! Rather than a "proper" Tolkien-related theme, it was more of a purely social gathering this time, for existing members to get together and enjoy spending a very pleasant afternoon in each other's company.


Not much to report really; the food was excellent - thank you everyone for your contributions - and the conversation flowed well. A very special thank you to Cathy from Canada (not present at the moot, unfortunately) for providing the most excellent Maple flavoured coffee - I'd been saving it for a special occasion. :)


We all had an opportunity to meet with some of the regular members' less regular partners, which was really nice. I also had a chance to show off some of the more precious things in my collection, which seemed to be enjoyed by the group.


No real news to report this month. I'm still in talks with the relevant people about our special upcoming event (!), and I'm hoping to finally be able to go public on that soon. Keep watching this space!

One item - you may have noticed that the official Welly-moot pins, designed by our own member Annabel, are no longer available in Silver, just in the Bronze. If you don't have yours yet, order one soon! They look fantastic. To place an order, just click the "Add to Cart" button on the right hand side of the Welly-moot.com site.

For the people who had contacted me wanting to join this meeting but where not yet members - the next Welly-moot will be held as a normal meeting, with new members accepted again. Details are on our Calendar page.

I think the last meeting of this year, in November, will be a special one - it will mark the 5th anniversary of the existence of the group. Might have to have some prizedraws for that one!

Also: I'm taking suggestions for our September Welly-moot theme! Email/facebook message me!


  - Jack