How did the festival come about (and how did you get into Tolkien yourself)?
I was a book and art dealer twenty years ago. The festival came about because I saw that there was a gap in the market for a festival celebrating J.R.R.Tolkien. I want people to know more about Tolkien, to get them engaged and give them a place for their enthusiasm. It’s a real grassroots festival with Celtic aspects to it.
How long has it been running for?
This year will be it’s first time, so not that long at all.
What makes J.R.R.Tolkein so fascinating that a whole festival can be devoted to him?
Tolkien brought fantasy writing and art into the mainstream. There is a lot that people don’t know about Tolkien. Some people spend whole lives learning about Tolkien and his writings. His books involve so much detail that it seems very real and believable. There is always more to discover. They are well-defined stories within a complete world, so the story may have ended but the world is still there to explore.
He wrote Lord of the Rings in the First World War as a way to protect him from, and to deal with, all of the evil that was around at that time. I think it’s a masterpiece of human experience, which is why it spiritually moves people. You can’t beat a good simple story, and Tolkien understood the importance of this.
Also at the moment it’s a good time to have a festival. I think people have had enough with the headlines and they want to have some fun and to find our inner fantasy.
It seems strangely academic, is it more scholarly then the average festival?
Tolkien was an academic, not a novelist. He wrote Lord of the Rings for himself. He never intended to have the book published. He thought it was beneath him to write fantasy fiction so he wrote for his own personal use. The heart of Tolkien is an academic. The conference happens alongside the festival and is more for experienced Tolkien fans and scholars. We are having a wide range of speakers there. We are currently taking papers on Tolkien with the theme of his Welsh influences. Alys Henly-Einion from your own Aberstwyth University is presenting ‘The Transmission of The Lord of the Rings into Film Format’.
Would you consider it to be a fan-arts festival?
I think this festival is the opposite of elitism. We want everyone to participate, whether it be art, music, a critical paper, people should be involved. They’ll be art contests for kids, writing competitions and costume contests as well. We all can find a bit of fantasy in ourselves. Everyone has a fantasy bone.
And do you have a favorite Tolkien book?
It used to be the Lord of the Rings, but now I think Akallabêth from the Silmarillion is my favorite.
"But you wrote a book so there must have been a reason"
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