Gil-galad or »Star of Radiance«, the name by which Ereinion son of Fingon was afterwards known. After the death of Turgon he became the last High King of the Noldor in Middle-earth and remained in Lindon after the end of the First Age; leader with Elendil of the Last Alliance of Men and Elves and slain with him in combat with Sauron.
(Tolkien, J.R.R. Silmarillion. 1981: 413)
Words in sindarin, the language of the Grey-elves, mean:
gil – star
cal – to shine
calad – light
The Slovenian Tolkien Society Gil-galad is a non-profit-making society for the fans of literary works written by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, a British linguist and a fantasy literature writer. The main purpose of the society is to unite the fans of J.R.R. Tolkien’s works and to spread the interest for his works and fantasy literature among others.
We publish our articles, drawings and poems in the society fanzine called Sijoča zvezda (»The Star of Radiance«) and keep a fairly large library which is piled with Tolkien’s works, works about Tolkien and Middle Earth (mostly in English). Members meet regularly on monthly gatherings in one of Ljubljana's libraries, in summer we organise numerous workshops and once a year a grand annual meeting of the society members is arranged.
Owing to variety of skills of our members we have formatted groups where we take interest in mythology, culinary skill, drawing, hiking, painting, writing poems and short stories, studying writings and languages of Middle-Earth (the high elven Quenya is in the lead); we also study forgotten writings such as Scandinavian runes. Some members train sword fighting and fire breathing. Middle-Age enthusiasts attend medieval performances in Slovenian towns and castles, those talented for music formed a musical group and others a theatre group.
Fanzine Sijoča zvezda
Primary source for our fanzine is numerous articles, translations, and illustrations contributed by the members of the society. It also includes news related to the works of J.R.R. Tolkien and those concerning our society.
Gil-galad through the years:
2007 began with the traditional birthday celebration in honour of Professor. In spring we took part in the presentation of the Slovene book translation of George R. R. Martin's A game of Thrones as well as attended Konfuzija – the first Slovenian days of sci-fi and fantasy in Secovlje. Our medieval section participated at the Path of Venus and the European Heritage Days events in Škofja Loka but was dissolved after that. The 9th Grand Annual Meeting again took place in the forests of Kocevje for the period of remarkable 9 days. We also organised a picnic for members, treating ourselves to some barbecue and a frizball match. In fall we visited our Italian neighbours and their 14th Hobbiton, demonstrated the history of board games at the 5th Festival of Board Games and stayed with the Austrians at their Lasse Lanta and Mar Vanwa Tyalièva events. And an art competition, you ask? Why certainly – The Sorrows of Young Turin confirmed that we are still burning with art zeal.
Celebrating Tolkien's 114th birthday, we entered 2006 in a festive manner. In spring we participated at the 9th Slovenian Book Days, while throughout the year we organised thematically-varied monthly meetings and prepared workshops where we made Middle Earth banners to enrich our society’s inventory. For promotion purposes we held lectures in Maribor and Ljubljana and accompanied the Slovene publication of The Children of Húrin with a short theatrical production about the siege of Húrin. Meanwhile, our medieval section attended the medieval days in Škofja Loka and Celje. Still, the highlight of 2006 was undoubtedly the friendship formed with the Austrian Tolkien Society (Österreichische Tolkiengesellschaft – ÖTG), which resulted in mutual visits that year. They came to our 8th Grand Annual Meeting, which, by the way, found its new location in the woodlands of Kocevje, while we visited them at their spring, fall and winter meeting – making such stays some sort of tradition. We closed the chapter of 2006 with another art competition, entitled My Gil-galad.
Liveliness and entertainment marked 2005 . The first bigger project we devoted our attention to was by all means the 7 th Grand Annual Meeting, which took place at the Rihemberk Castle and attracted more than 40 members. In the week of that meeting various activity groups presented whatever they had been working on throughout the year and most of the meeting participants learned interesting new things. Besides that, we had a big assembly also at the Hobbiton 12. September ended with another art competition finals, this time the title being Moj Srednji svet ('My Middle Earth'). We also presented our society in Celje and displayed our products and delicious lembas bread at Festival iger (’the Festival of Board Games’) in November.
We entered 2004 with the last part of the film trilogy. After the Return of the King had stopped running in Slovene cinemas, the number of new members gradually settled down. However such meetings which brought no new Tolkien fan to our society were still rare. With the completion of the trilogy the media attention began to decrease as well but did not vanish completely since we still appeared in occasional newspaper articles and were invited to talk shows.
With our medieval section we participated in a great number of medieval events (Venerina pot (»the Path of Venus«), medieval day at the Ljubljana Castle etc). Of course the end of the summer called for the 6 th Grand Annual Meeting, and some of us also attended Hobbiton 11. We organised a competition entitled Bilbovi spomini(‘Memories of Bilbo’) (concluded in the autumn), which offered an opportunity for bringing forth the talents of the artistically inclined members.
2004 was also the year in which Slovenia joined the EU and that helped acquire the official licence for the use of the Tolkien name.
In January 2003 one of the Slovenian publishing houses published the Slovenian translation of The Silmarillion. We presented its story and background to public on a press conference held at that occasion. We spent most of the summer attending medieval performances all over Slovenia, autumn was marked by the Hobbiton 10 and the 5thGrand Annual Meeting of the Slovene Tolkien Society. That year there was so much interest for it that we had to find a place bigger than the small house in Čepovan. In November we attended Festival iger and at the end of the year realized that was to be the last time we would get a present in a form of the LotR film.
The beginning of 2002 was strongly marked with Tolkien's mythological world and a new Slovenian translation of the LotR. That is why the interest of the public for our society grew and we got many requests for interviews from the media. Meanwhile we have started with a cycle of lectures in libraries, which were based on Tolkien and Middle-earth. After the first part of the trilogy the number of society members rose rapidly and is slowly but constantly growing even today.
In 2002 we also reorganized our internet page, haven't missed the Hobbiton 9, attended a board-game-based festival called Festival iger (t.i. Festival of the Games), some medieval performances and of course we organised the event, which is always the best part of the year - 4th Grand Annual Meeting (this time 30 members came).
Here you can see the trailer from the 4th Grand annual meeting.
The year 2001 was very successful for us. Due to the forthcoming film trilogy the interest for Tolkien, his work the Lord of the Rings and the fantasy world increased rapidly among public. We have collaborated in the representation of the board games based on the book Lord of the Rings and gave interviews to some radio stations, newspapers and magazines. The 3rd Grand Annual Meeting was successfully accomplished, we again participated in the Hobbiton 8, some medieval performances and in the fantasy performance in the Italian town Pordenone. For a little while we helped creating a new (already the second) Slovenian translation of the Lord of the Rings, the book in three parts, which received mixed opinions at its final outcome. During all that time we were anxiously expecting the coming of the Fellowship to our cinemas.
The membership fee was collected for the first time in the year 2000 . Money was spent on photocopying and mailing of the fanzine and making of the society banner. In August 2000 the 2nd Grand annual meeting was held in Čepovan - a village near Nova Gorica. For the second year in a row we had also taken part at the Hobbiton (7th that year) - the Annual Italian Tolkien Society Meeting (Societa Tolkieniana Italiana) and participated on the major medieval performances all over Slovenia.
In the summer of 1999 we organised the 1stGrand Annual Meeting and 11 members attended it.
The beginnings of the society go all the way back to the year 1998. In June of the same year the first fanzine was issued - back then it was only a letter two pages long. The first members met via internet and so the society already had 15 members at its founding. On 8 th August 1998 the first gathering of the Slovenian Tolkien Society was held in Ljubljana (Slovenia’s capital). Almost half of the invited came. Then we have chosen the name of the society: Gil-galad, and by doing so, »given birth« to it on 8th August 1998. We have also chosen the name for the fanzine and the outlook of the coat of arms.
Very soon we made contacts with other Tolkien societies around the world who have been very helpful at the beginning.
You can contact us by e-mail: contact@drustvogil-galad.si
Or by ordinary paper mail:
Slovenian Tolkien Society Gil-galad
Šmartinska 10
1000 Ljubljana
Slovenija
