Petri Tikka

The conference met my expectations. It was great to be face to face with people who really love and know a lot about Tolkien’s languages. All the papers were great, with interesting points I hadn’t thought of before. The conversations and seminars we had were also illuminating, e.g. I learned how to pronounce voiceless r without losing its trilled quality. :) The most fun part of the whole Omentie was when we played Twenty Questions in Quenya: you should try this at home. ;)

Julian Bradfield

Hantale Formenyarimben!

Dear All,

Thank you for all that you individually and collectively did to make Omentielva Minya work so well. Of course one notices the things that happen at the time such as staying up half the night preparing meals (which, fortunately, my conference organizing experience does not include!), leading excursions and so on, but I’m sure a lot of other work went on that we foreign attenders didn’t even notice.

The trouble with doing such a good job, of course, is that people think you should do it again! But regardless of where Omentielva Tatya happens, I look forward to meeting again.

Julian.

Maria Rogstadius

This has been an unforgettable weekend - it truly exceeded expectations. I went from feeling terrified on Thursday afternoon (indeed, for what was I doing there, really?) to feeling sad on Monday evening, oddly bereft of the company that had made these last few days so complete. For it was not the lovely meals, the free transportations & sleeping space, the interesting rune stone excursion, or the many thought-provoking papers that made this weekend what it was (though they certainly helped!) - coming here, meeting people with a knowledge that widely surpassed my own, and taking part in an event such as this... that, my dear friends, is priceless. I’ll see you all in two years.

Maria

Omentielva Minya
Stockholm, August 4-8 2005

So, what was it like?

Well, of course I can only answer what it was like for me: I loved it.

There are many things I could mention, like the wonderful home cooking (done by Beregond on the spot, by staying up half the nights to prepare the dinner for the next day, and getting up really early to make breakfast and buy fresh rolls – when did the man sleep?), the fascinating papers and seminars, the game we hade during ”Practical Communication in Quenya”, the Sunday morning sauna bath, the impromptu singing of Tolkien-related songs, the Elvish Poets’ Circle, the runestone excursion with the picnic by the stones, and, not least, all the fascinating discussions and conversations I had with people about – guess what?

But most of all, for me, it was the atmosphere and attitude of the participants that made this conference a wholly enjoyable experience for someone like me, who is not an authority on Tolkiens’ languages, and not even very proficient in them, but a simple learner. We were all there together because we love those languages, and want to talk and think about them with other people who also love them. It didn’t matter that we were all on very different levels of learning, that we had different opinions, or that we had different mother tongues. We were there for a reason, and that reason overshadowed everything else. Referring to Bill Welden’s words in his opening address, we all brought a piece of the puzzle, however small. We all contributed to the experience, whether we knew it or not. It was a mix of academic endeavour and silly jokes and everything in between, and above all it was a face to face encounter, a mind to mind meeting, our first. Omentielva Minya.

I have met you now, I have broken bread with you, I have laughed with you. Now, where could the second meeting take us? Think about it. Omentielva Tatya, in 2007.

/Pernilla Leijonhufvud

Hennaid!

Per Lindberg