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Where should Ring Con Be?


Ring Con  

210 members have voted

  1. 1. Where should Ring Con Be?

    • Birmingham - Tolkien's Home Town
      80
    • Cardiff
      8
    • London
      70
    • Manchester
      19
    • Edinburgh
      3
    • Bournemouth
      12
    • Other - Please State
      18


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Birmingham - no contest! It is the home JRRT moved to after his family left South Africa. He was brought up there and so many of the sites that inspired him are still intact - including the (one Sunday a month!) working Sarehole Mill - still grinding flour after so many years!

 

A little piece of the Shire remains - not to mention the inspirations for the Two Towers and even Mordor...just take a drive along the M6 at dusk!

 

The hotel and conference facilities, the transport links, the prices...cheapest pubs I have known as a Southerner! - oh...and even at least two of the pubs the ole man drank in are still there too!

 

As someone said to me last time I was there (and immortalised on my leather jacket)...

 

"BRUM TO THE MAX!!!"

 

:wub:

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Birmingham it is for me too, it is where JRR grew up, they have Sarhole Mill and the Moseley Bog there and of course...the newly named Shire Park( for anyone interested, the tolkien weekend is held there in May, well worth going to!!).And...the Two Towers!

 

Ring Con UK would be really cool!

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I really hope it's not in London.

to be honest, i'd agree with that - london's transport links aren't the best, and it can certainly be difficult to find out where you should be and when... and i'm sure delays/suspended services don't help either :dance:

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Oxford... And not cos it's where I live, cos I won't live there by the time ring con UK is organised!! But because Tolkien lived more of his life there than in Birmingham... because he's buried there, because he WROTE Lord of the Rings there... because the tree that inspired Ents is there... because of the Bird and Baby being there... all manner of reasons!!!

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Oxford... And not cos it's where I live, cos I won't live there by the time ring con UK is organised!! But because Tolkien lived more of his life there than in Birmingham... because he's buried there, because he WROTE Lord of the Rings there... because the tree that inspired Ents is there... because of the Bird and Baby being there... all manner of reasons!!!

 

actually the tree(s) that inspired the ents he saw as a child while living in Birmingham and are included on the tour around the area which we attended 2 years ago on the Tolkien weekend..please do check out the pictures on our website.

 

Yes he WROTE Lord of the Rings in oxford..but theres nothing historical around oxford that he used as references for the book. All inspirations came from his childhood memories of Birmingham and where he used to play as a child. The two Towers..the university clock tower face (which became the eye of sauron)..The woods he played in where u see trees that appear to have faces (check pics on website).. etc, I could go on.

Edited by DisneyDude78
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Oxford... And not cos it's where I live, cos I won't live there by the time ring con UK is organised!! But because Tolkien lived more of his life there than in Birmingham... because he's buried there, because he WROTE Lord of the Rings there... because the tree that inspired Ents is there... because of the Bird and Baby being there... all manner of reasons!!!

 

actually the tree(s) that inspired the ents he saw as a child while living in Birmingham and are included on the tour around the area which we attended 2 years ago on the Tolkien weekend..please do check out the pictures on our website.

 

Yes he WROTE Lord of the Rings in oxford..but theres nothing historical around oxford that he used as references for the book. All inspirations came from his childhood memories of Birmingham and where he used to play as a child. The two Towers..the university clock tower face (which became the eye of sauron)..The woods he played in where u see trees that appear to have faces (check pics on website).. etc, I could go on.

 

Yes of course. I obviously know NOTHING about LOTR... and As I've SEEN the tree in question, in the Botanic Gardens in Oxford, which ACTUALLY has a face on it, and has been admitted to by Tolkien himself, then clearly I must be wrong. So the real question is this - How much do you remember of your childhood that you could pinpoint as having a significant effect on your life now; in comparison, to say, things you see all the time in your everyday life.

 

Don't get me wrong - I know next to nothing of Tolkien's life in Birmingham, other than that he was born there. But it seems to me that he spent a whole lot more time in Oxford, and his children grew up there, which suggests to me, that he's more likely to have used inspiration from THAT city, than Birmingham... Oxford is Tolkien's city!! Please don't try to suggest otherwise, as it really might grate at my nerves more than your last blasphemous suggestions that he wasn't inspired by Oxford at all... I mean, why on earth would the Tolkien Society choose Oxford as their base city otherwise?!

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Oxford... And not cos it's where I live, cos I won't live there by the time ring con UK is organised!! But because Tolkien lived more of his life there than in Birmingham... because he's buried there, because he WROTE Lord of the Rings there... because the tree that inspired Ents is there... because of the Bird and Baby being there... all manner of reasons!!!

 

actually the tree(s) that inspired the ents he saw as a child while living in Birmingham and are included on the tour around the area which we attended 2 years ago on the Tolkien weekend..please do check out the pictures on our website.

 

Yes he WROTE Lord of the Rings in oxford..but theres nothing historical around oxford that he used as references for the book. All inspirations came from his childhood memories of Birmingham and where he used to play as a child. The two Towers..the university clock tower face (which became the eye of sauron)..The woods he played in where u see trees that appear to have faces (check pics on website).. etc, I could go on.

 

Yes of course. I obviously know NOTHING about LOTR... and As I've SEEN the tree in question, in the Botanic Gardens in Oxford, which ACTUALLY has a face on it, and has been admitted to by Tolkien himself, then clearly I must be wrong. So the real question is this - How much do you remember of your childhood that you could pinpoint as having a significant effect on your life now; in comparison, to say, things you see all the time in your everyday life.

 

Don't get me wrong - I know next to nothing of Tolkien's life in Birmingham, other than that he was born there. But it seems to me that he spent a whole lot more time in Oxford, and his children grew up there, which suggests to me, that he's more likely to have used inspiration from THAT city, than Birmingham... Oxford is Tolkien's city!! Please don't try to suggest otherwise, as it really might grate at my nerves more than your last blasphemous suggestions that he wasn't inspired by Oxford at all... I mean, why on earth would the Tolkien Society choose Oxford as their base city otherwise?!

 

I really am not going to argue with you on this subject.

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Maybe this might help, maybe it wont :P

 

Tolkien Day Out

I don't want to get into an argument with anyone, but this link says, to paraphrase, 'these are some of the possible inspirations.'

 

so, i would say... isn't it possible that the images from his childhood stuck in his subconcious, to be reawakened by imagery in oxford?

 

we've no real way of knowing for sure, since the man himself is gone and there's no-one else around who knew him as well as himself.

 

a compromise can be reached can't it?

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Anywhere in the south west really. Cardiff, Bristol, even Southampton, etc...

We have many in MK, LFCC in London, G-Mex up north in Manchester, we now have one in Scotland, but I don't see any big event anywhere in the south west of Britain.

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Boy! I have GOT to get a map so I can see where all of these places are.

 

 

or ask someone where the nearest airport is and get a bus/train/taxi :lol:

 

truthfully, the only one i could pinpoint on a map is london - despite having been to MK a few times as well - and the only one i could guess would be cardif.

 

so a knowledge of geography isn't required to get anywhere :lol:

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