Welcome to

The

Rivendell Group
of
The Mythopoeic Society.


The Green and Burning Tree
(design & embroidery by Cathy Parlin)

 

For more than twenty years, the Rivendell Group has been meeting regularly on or near the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities campus to study, discuss and enjoy myth, fantasy and imaginative literature in the traditions of J.R.R. Tolkien, George MacDonald, Christina Rossetti, T.H. White, Ursula K. LeGuin, Evangeline Walton, C.S. Lewis, Peter Beagle, Patricia McKillip, Jorge Luis Borges, Marion Zimmer Bradley, John Gardner and Angela Carter (among others). Formerly, we were also the University of Minnesota Mythopoeic Society, a recognized U of MN student organization. Our constitution is on another page.


Joan Marie Verba, Scraps, David Maxine, Ruth Berman
at a discussion of The Patchwork Girl of Oz, by L. Frank Baum


RIP

From the Star-Tribune Obituaries page.

Margaret J. Howes

Howes, Margaret J. Age 80, of Mpls, passed away April 15, 2008. Survived by son, Bruce (Joyce); daughter, Denise; 7 grandchildren; sister, Dorothy (James) and brother, Douglas (LaVern). Funeral Mass Friday, April 18, 2 PM, with visitation 1-2 PM at Annunciation Catholic Church, 509 W. 54th St., Mpls. Cremation Society of MN Mpls 612-825-2435

Published in the Star Tribune on 4/17/2008.

Margaret was one of the original group that gathered together at the invitation of Todd Zuhlsdorf to form the Rivendell discussion group of the Mythopoeic Society.  She and Ruth Berman and I were the only ones from that original gathering, in 1973 or 74 who were still regularly attending.  Margaret had been a member of the Society over the years, off and on, and had attended a Mythcon or three.  She's actually pictured above in the Rivendell photo from the 80s--she is Scraps, the Patchwork Girl of Oz. You can see other pictures of her on her web-page, or further down on this page. She was our guest of honor at Bree Moot 5, after the publication of her novel, The Wrong World, and I have a web-page up for her fan activities at http://www.tc.umn.edu/~d-lena/MargHowes.html

NEXT MEETING: Join us for the discussion!

Saturday Sept. 20, 1 p.m. The annual Bilbo & Frodo Baggins Hobbits' Baggins' Birthday Party.

 

For which Rivendell is joined by the Minnesota Tolkien Society. This will be at an Off-campus location--contact David for an invitation & directions.

 

Saturday, September 20, 1:00 p.m.
 
The Rivendell Group
meets-parties
with The Minnesota Tolkien Society
at a private home in. Fridley, MN 55413.  .
 

You are invited to the The Rivendell Discussion Group celebration of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins' Birthday, this Saturday, September 20.
 
See photos from past years at http://www.tc.umn.edu/~d-lena/Hobbirth.html

And here are some 2005 photos: http://homepage.mac.com/david_lenander/Fantasy_and_SF/PhotoAlbum20.html

 I'm happy to email you a flyer--if you have some place to print and put it up this week, pleae do!


 The Rivendell Group will assemble at a private home to celebrate and talk about things Tolkien, from the original Hobbit to the new films.   We'll be ready for people to arrive about 1:00, and plan to talk or do one thing or another for most of the afternoon (so don't not come if you can't arrive until 3:30 or something).

For a program , I think we'll read one or two of Margaret Howes's short stories in her "Tales Told by the Lonely Mountain."  Margaret died earlier this year, but her stories in this series were probably the best things she wrote.  Three of them appeared in The Tolkien Scrapbook, and I suppose we'll read from those, although it might be nice to hear some of the unpublished ones (I'm not sure how we'd obtain them, however).  After that, I'm asking people to read their Tolkien-inspired poems or sing songs.  Your poem need not be pastiche or "set" in Middle-earth, but if you are responding to or inspired by JRRT, then bring it along.  I have two poems, I know that Ruth has some, I've seen others from various people along the way, and perhaps someone would have songs.  If you have a short story, that might work, or a brief excerpt.  (But we will be reading original stories in December, of course).  David Emerson will accompany us on a singing through of the Donald Swann-composed "Road Goes Ever On" song cycle, based upon Tolkien's Middle-earth poems (and approved by JRRT).
 
Please let me know if you can or can't make it, especially if interested in future meetings. We'll be meeting at local public libraries this fall during October -December. Our October meeting (at least) will be at the Southeast Community Library. Dates & topics to be set, except, of course, we expect that we'll be holding our annual "Readings from Rivendell" in December, probably on the 6th.
 
No need to bring anything (though Tolkien memorabilia to show off is always appropriate!  And bring any copies of the Swann/Tolkien Road Goes Ever On and The Middle-earth Song Book--or the like).  I expect to provide tea, coffee and probably other non-alcoholic beverages, and some form of snacks, and at some point I will probably have some more substantial food (in the past we've had lasagna and hot dishes) and you are welcome to bring something if you want to share.  In the past we've had some teenagers, possibly some younger, so bring kids if you like, there's lots of room to run around outside. They've tended to play board games or watch videos.  Any smoking will have to be outside.

If it rains or is too cold, we'll watch more Tolkien-related videos and/or listen to audio recordings, or just talk.  But if it's a fairly nice day, it may be perfect for watching the river flow by and walking around the Banfill Locke grounds, so perhaps some will go for a walk.  In the past we've often had music from such members as Mark Heiman or Greg Bohen, so feel free to bring along your guitar or tin whistle if you want to share your music, which need not be Tolkien inspired.

 

Photo from our September '06 discussion with Katherine Kohman, author of Lembas for the Soul, a joint meeting with The Minnesota Tolkien Society:

and see more photos from this meeting,

and from the July 2005 discussion with the MTS of Tolkien 2005 papers by local members David Emerson and Sharin' Schroeder,

see this web-page:

http://homepage.mac.com/david_lenander/Fantasy_and_SF/PhotoAlbum33.html

David Emerson's paper was: "Tolkien and Moorcock: Achieveing Literary Depth through Vertical and Horizontal Explorations of Time."

Current Meeting Schedule

Meetings are normally on Saturdays at 1:30 p.m. After many years of meeting at the U of MN's Coffman Union we're no longer meeting on-campus at the U of M.

Future topics/discussions:

Upcoming topics should include Andrew Lang's Red Fairy Book (a collection of fairy tales) and possibly a paper by Ruth Berman.  

Then there are conventions every other month or so, it seems, Mars Con (Feb. 29-March 2), Minicon (March 21-23), in June the revived Fourth Street Fantasy Convention, CONvergence in July, and Diversicon in August, and of course Mythcon (the national Mythopoeic Society conference) in Connecticut this August. Various membership deadlines are at hand, by the way:  We've often met at local conventions and openend our meetings to the memberships.  Any suggestions?  .  More possibilities exist!

Recent Rivendell Topics 1997-2008 (this is a link to another page listing our topics back to 1997)

UPCOMING & Recent Twin City LOCAL EVENTS & DATES OF INTEREST
Misc. news:

OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS

For more information, including directions, contact David, at 292-8887; or d-lena@tc.umn.edu

***************

Second Foundation

*Our complementary sister- or daughter- group, Second Foundation, meets regularly to discuss Science Fiction.

Next

FFI: Eric Heideman, eheideman@quest.net

**************

Old news--

Sometime Rivendeller Caroline Stevermer's book, When the King Returns, is now in bookstores as a mass market paperback, along with Peg Kerr's The Wild Swans. Also, P.C. Hodgell's first two novels are reprinted as Dark of the Gods, along with sequel, Seeker's Mask, to be followed by a fourth volume in the series, next summer. Not to mention Margaret Howes' novel, The Wrong World. Check out information on Margaret's page. I'll add more about the novel, Autumn World, which is also in bookstores, by five former or present Rivendellers, soon.

3/28/00. Here's a Rivendell Discussion Report from Joan Marie Verba, which recently appeared in Mythprint.

A U of MN student has put up a pretty successful New Tolkien Movie news page.

check it out at: http://ringbearer.org/

 

For further local events news, call the Minn-stiff hotline: 824-5559.


Although this page has received many little "tweaks" since it came up in March of '96, most of its growth has been incremental. In August of 96, however, I added a Mythcon 24 page which contains a record of the chief achievement of Rivendell's years: The 24th annual Conference of the Mythopoeic Society. I've also recently added quite a bit to the Last Homely Hearth page, put up pages for Joan Marie Verba, Caroline Stevermer, Jack Zipes & Peg Kerr, added to the Ruth Berman page, added a picture to the Tolkien Thoughts page, and added more pictures of Rivendellers on another, attached page. Still coming, pages and/or links for Eric M. Heideman, Michael Levy, P.C. Hodgell, Margaret Howes, Rodney Shewan, Laramie Sasseville, Stephen Prickett, C. Michael Hancher, Sandra Lindow, and maybe such other writers as Phyllis Ann Karr, Sherwood Smith and some of the Scribblies (including novelists Patricia C. Wrede, Steve Brust, Emma Bull, Will Shetterly, Kara Dalkey, Pam Dean). A past member and former officer, Jim Rogers, celebrates his birthday on November 4.
Click for a list of Rivendell discussion topics in the early 1980s years of our activities. There's a bit more about our history in a discussion of On Starting a Mythopoeic Society Discussion Group on the Hermits' Pool page.

Here's a few Discussion Reports.

 

[A photo from a Readings from Rivendell meeting from many years back. Terry Garey, on the right, read some poetry. She has a recent collection on cassette. To her right is Paula Rice Biever (check out her 'zine, Remnants), and to Paula's right is Erik Biever, proprietors, Foont Cellars Brewing & Publishing (publisher of our newsletter), and Sally Morem.]



[More Rivendellers, left to right: (Terry Garey's arm), Eleanor Arnason, Joan Marie Verba, Sandra Unerman, Ruth Berman and Margaret Howes. Probably the "Readings From Rivendell meeting in 1990 or 1991.]

[Still more Rivendellers at the same meeting: Eric M. Heideman, Polly Peterson, Marianne Hageman, Mike Dorn, Peg Kerr Ihinger and Brian Neurauter.]

For more pix, of more Rivendellers, at the discussion of Steve Brust's The Sun, The Moon and The Stars in an artist's studio, click here.

Click for some reflections on reading Tolkien by David Lenander that were intended for the Mythlore Tolkien memorial issue, but which were never used, and which included an account of Rivendell activities from years ago. As of 7/27/97, I've added some more scanned photographs.

Rivendell is affiliated with The Mythopoeic Society, headquartered in California--but membership in the national society is not required, and most local members are not members. There are another dozen or more similar groups located in scattered geographic locations about the U.S.A. For more information, see the Activity Calendar, where upcoming Rivendell activities are also listed.

Our local activity calendars are free through campus mail, via e-mail or available for the cost of postage through U.S. mail. Besides our monthly discussions, we have occasionally sponsored other programs, such as readings of new, original tales by such local writers (and members) as P.C. Hodgell and Eleanor Arnason, or lectures by professors like Stephen Prickett (U of Sussex, England, author of Victorian Fantasy), or U of MN students like Mike Levy, or SF & Fantasy novelists like C.J. Cherryh, Ben Bova, Gordon Dickson and Phyllis Ann Karr. We have also participated in the Mpls. S.F. Convention ("Minicon"), held annually during Easter weekend, the Fourth Street Fantasy Convention, SF Minnesota's Diversicon, Arcana, and acted as organizing committee for the 24th annual Conference of the Mythopoeic Society in 1993, and other activities. With some of these other organizations, and especially with our "offspring," the local C.S. Lewis Society and Second Foundation, a group that regularly meets to discuss SF, we have often held joint meetings, worked together on publicity or cross-listed our events in newsletters, etc. We are generally listed in the local MN-Stf organization (Minnesota Science Fiction Society) calendar, Einblatt. To read the recent Einblatts, go to http://www.mnstf.org/mnstf/einblatt/ and in the related pages you can also read about other Twin Cities area fan activities, including Minicon and Minn-StF meetings http://www.ddb.com/Minn-StF/

A recent local event of particular interest was the 30th anniversary commemorative Tolkien Conference, put on by some students at Mankato State University. Ruth Berman, Steve Deyo, David Lenander and Louisa Smith attended from Rivendell.

We also hosted a followup to this and to the recent "BREE MOOT" conferences in the midwest (previously, Iowa and Missouri) in May of '97, coinciding with the revival of the Children's Theater Company's production of The Hobbit. A Bree Moot con report should be added to this page, soon.

We're particularly proud of the creative and scholarly productions of some of our members, and especially of our annual December "Readings from Rivendell" program, where our members have read many stories and poems that were much enjoyed by all listeners--and in many cases, by later readers when these were published.

Our occasional newsletter over the years is Last Homely Hearth. I plan to add a number of past articles here. See here for the early history of the Rivendell Group. See also the Eleanor Arnason page for some reproduced material from LHH.

Here's a list of some mythopoeic writers about whom I'll be adding some more discussion, information, etc. Here's a similar list, of Minnesota and SF & F-related writers, from David Dyer-Bennet, http://www.ddb.com/sf/Minnesota-authors.shtml


May '95 Rivendell discussion of the "Enchanted Forest" books with the author,

Patricia

C.

Wrede.

 

 



from left:

Riawa Smith, Alexandra Howes, Steve Glennon, Margaret Howes, Patricia C. Wrede
photo by David Lenander

For a number of years I was unable to complete the caption on the above photograph--I wasn't sure of the identity of the young woman between Riawa and Steve. This past August I received the following note: Dear Mr. Lenander,

I was browsing the internet with regards to information on my grandmother, Margaret Howes, and came across The Rivendell Group`s webpage. As I scrolled down to look at your pictures I found one of the group that met with Patricia C. Wrede. You have everyone`s names listed [but] mine. I am the young girl second from the left with the long hair and glasses. My name is Alexandra Howes, and my grandmother, Margaret, used to take me to meetings when I was growing up.

It was a pleasure to chance upon your site and to see myself when I was still a young teenager! I am currently 24 and still writing; as my grandmother always encouraged and inspired me to do. Perhaps you could update with my name and surprise a few people who might know me.

Best regards to you and The Rivendell Group!

~Alexandra Howes

For latest update to this page, see updates page.



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