Versión española de este documento, aquí.
As Tolkien Societies of other countries, the Spanish Tolkien Society (Sociedad Tolkien Española) assembles the enthusiasts of this writer's works in Spain, who feel attracted by the mythology of Middle Earth. Interests of S.T.E members are multifarious, including literature, philology, music, painting... everything related to Tolkien's world.
The STE was founded in 1991 in Elche (Alicante) as a society without profit motive, and it was inscribed in the Societies Register with the number 112.532 and all the Spanish territory as field of activity.
Although the Executive Committee and its seat is placed in a particular locality, the Society works organized in smials (hobbit-holes) or local delegations distributed throughout the country; even though there are many other members and cities that do not belong to any smial, but they also collaborate with the STE. The way by which all members are connected is "Estel", the three-monthly journal that is posted to them. In Estel, all members can expose their comments, works and thoughts inspired by Tolkien's work.
The STE annually announces the "Gandalf" Tale Contest (Concurso de Cuentos "Gandalf"), in which all Tolkien's fans can take part, whether they are members of STE or whether they are not, with the only condition of the tale being set in Middle Earth.
The chronology of most marked events of the Spanish Tolkien Society is this:
1991 A small group of Tolkien enthusiasts in Elche (Alicante) creates a society in order to coordinate their efforts in view of the Centenary that was to be celebrated in 1992. On February 9th the first official meeting of the society takes place. This news is published in fantastic-oriented fanzines and journals, and there is a flood of information requests. On November 30th the smial of Doriath is founded in Barcelona.
1992 The year of J.R.R. Tolkien's birth Centenary. Creation of new smials in Córdoba (Tol-in-Gaurhoth), Granada (El Pony Pisador -The Prancing Pony-) and Zaragoza (Khazad-dûm). The society statute is redacted and the logo designed. On September 30th the society is legalized. In this year the STE also has its first contacts with foreign societies.
1993 The smials of Imladris in Valladolid and Gondolin in Pamplona are established, and the activities of the STE in the Hispacon (meeting of the Spanish Fantasy and SF Society) of Gijón favour the creation of a smial in that city.
1994 In Pamplona takes place the first Estelcon (The meeting of the Spanish Tolkien Society) under the name of Mereth Aderthad (Feast of the Gathering).
1995 The smial of Edhellond is created in Valencia on March 12th.
1996 The second Estelcon is celebrated in Barcelona and there takes place the introduction of the smial of Isengard, from Barbastro (Huesca).
1997 On January 11th and 12th is called the first Mereth Ithiledhellondë (The Feast of the Moon of Valencia), and then is arranged for that same year the third Estelcon, where are introduced the smials of Númenor in Madrid, Valle -Dale- in the Vallés (Barcelona), Alqualondë (without any geographic location) and Minas Tirith in Granada (instead of the previous smial in Granada that had dissappeared).
1998 The STE collaborates again with the Hispacon that this year is celebrated in Burjassot (Valencia), and the smial of Valle -Dale- arranges the fourth Estelcon, largely covered by the media. The smial of Doriath in Barcelona is now Lórien. Creation of the official website and mailing list of the STE.
1999 Establishment of new smials in Cuenca (Cuernavilla -Hornburg-), Logroño (Esgaroth) and Gijón (Vinyamar). The renowned fifth Estelcon takes place in Landete (Las Landas de Etten -The Ettenmoors-), Cuenca, with the presence of representatives from the Italian Tolkien Society (Società Tolkien Italiana). Luis González, member of the STE, publishes his book "La Lengua de los Elfos" -"The Tongue of the Elves"-, the first book about Quenya in Spanish.
2000 Great growth of the Society: Creation of the smials of Hithlum in Galicia, Tirion in Marbella (Málaga), Bosque Negro -Mirkwood- in Bilbao and Gorgoroth in Ontinyent (Valencia); revival of the old and nearly forgotten smials of Mithlond in Elche and Khazad-dûm in Zaragoza; most members of the Vallés (Barcelona) become hobbits and the smial of Valle -Dale- turns into Delagua -Bywater-. Sixth and longest Estelcon (one week long) in Galapagar (Madrid), arranged by the smial of Númenor, with the presence of representatives from "Aurum", the distributor in Spain of Peter Jackson's movie of The Lord of the Rings.
2001 STE's tenth anniversary. New smials are established in Jaca (Bree), Murcia (Edoras), Mallorca (Tol Eressëa), Girona (Angmar), el Penedès (Tol Galen), Sevilla (Pelargir), Guipuzcoa (Osgiliath), and a second smial in Madrid (Hammo), partner of the smial of Númenor. Among many meetings, "merith" and other activities, remarkable are the participation at the HispaCon "Salduba 2001" in Zaragoza, the organisation of Tharbad's role-playing game - at which more than one hundred people played during twenty-four hours performing the later days of the númenórean city of Tharbad, and of course the celebration of STE's ten years at the EstelCon of Lórien, with the attendance of distinguished guests from the (British) Tolkien Society. This year also the first of Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings" movies was released, and concerning that, the STE assisted Aurum - the film distributor, and Games Workshop, on the translation of names, among other things. Thanks to the increasing interest on Tolkien because of the movie, the STE comes a lot on mass-media: press, radio and TV.
2002 The STE performed speeches, debates, musical concerts and even teaching classes in Universities of Zaragoza (Encuentros con Tolkien, in the month of April), Barcelona (Course on Contemporany Literature and Christianism, at the University Abat Oliba in July), Madrid (Jornadas de la STE en la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, in November) and Pamplona (Conferencias de la STE sobre JRR Tolkien y su obra, in December). There were also remarked festivities as the New Gondorian Year, organised by the smial of Minas Tirith, and noticeably the EstelCon of Cuernavilla, that was held at the monastery of Uclés (Cuenca) in the first week of September, and to which came the Kamenkovichs, members of the Tolkien Society of Saint Petersburg, and translators of Tolkien into Russian. First Nolmë (journal with remarkable articles and essays of the STE in English and Spanish) was printed, and "El Mago de las Palabras" was published, a Tolkien's biography written by Eduardo Segura, expert in Tolkien and member of the STE. There were new smiales founded in Cartagena (Umbar), Oviedo (Dor-Lómin) and Salamanca (Acebeda -Hollin-).
2003 This year the STE organized many divulgation events, from the first to the last days. It started with the Tolkien Week in Mallorca, and concluded with plenty of events through all the Spanish geography, around the third and last release of "The Lord of the Rings" movies. Specially remarkable was the course "El Senyor dels Anells i el món de J.R.R. Tolkien", offered in the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona between October and December: the first course specialized on Tolkien in Spain. Also in universities, the STE repeated its "Encuentros con Tolkien" in Zaragoza and the Readings in Pamplona; and there were other acts, readings and expositions, among other events dedicated to Tolkien, along the whole year in collaboration with town halls, libraries, cinemas, bookshops, and different organizations. In October the EstelCon of Gondor was held en Granada, where the Palacio de Congresos was the scene of the readings, and there were also other "merith" and meetings of the STE, among which has a special place the role-play of the Battle of the Five Armies, prepared by the smial of Númenor.
Again the number of smials was enlarged, with the new smials of Arthedain (Cáceres), Hobbiton (Vitoria) and Ithilien of Gondor (Málaga), and the reconstitution of Hithlum (Galicia), that gave the smials of Artalonde-i-Hithlum (Santiago), Eglarest-i-Hithlum (Pontevedra) and Elendalf-i-Hithlum (Santiago).
2004 Ten years after the fist EstelCon, the anniversary was commemorated at Mithlond, the founder smial. During this year there were many other opportunities for performing diverse activities and celebrating merith and other meetings, at several smials. To the extant ones joined the smials of Fangorn (Cerdanyola del Vallès), Lindon (Cantabria) and Minas Morgul (Sevilla); and, for the first time, two smials at the Canarias Islands: Dol Amroth (Tenerife) and Andúnië (Las Palmas). The smial of Minas Tirith (Granada) was sadly disbanded, though later it was refounded as smial of Mordor. And at last, after many years of efforts, the smial of Tol-in-Gaurhoth (Córdoba) was officially established.
The universitary courses on Tolkien organised by the STE proliferated very remarkably this year: there were activities at the Univiersities of Córdoba and Sevilla, and at the Polythecnic University of Valencia. Through all the year, by means of a collaboration agreement between the STE and the Town Hall of Valencia, the exposition "Tolkien, creator of myths" was exhibited at thirteen Public Libraries of the city, and many lectures and storytellers were performed at them. Moreover, on March 25th the STE commemorated the "Tolkien day" through over Spain for the first time.
2005 This year the fiftieth anniversary of the complete publication of "The Lord of the Rings" is celebrated around the world. The STE participates in the commemorative Conference "Tolkien 2005 - The Ring Goes Ever On" organized by the Tolkien Society at Birmingham. This is also the year in which the tenth Estelcon is celebrated, organized by the Smial of Gondolin (Navarra) which hosted the first one in 1994. This special Estelcon has Tolkien's literary sources as leading motif, and there the Smial of Mithlond presents the documentary "J.R.R. Tolkien: a man of Oxford".
Along the year the customary merith, meetings and cultural activities are also held through Spain. In Granada the Smial of Minas Tirith arises again.
2006 After many years of growing activity, and coinciding with the end of the "Tolkien-boom", the STE experiments since the start of this year a remarkable decrease of participation in its activities. In spite of the foundation of the new Smial of Nargothrond (Ponferrada), the total number of smials decreases due to the lack of members in other smials, which are dissolved. The election dates approach and there are no candidates for Permanent Committee, nor any venue for the EstelCon...
But in the last hour the "eucatastrophe" occurs, and everything is solved. The EstelCon is eventually held
with great success thanks to the Smial of Umbar, that makes an excellent work enlarging the scope of its Mereth project. In the month before a Permanent Committee is elected in the first General Meeting outside the EstelCon. Towards the end of the year new remakable activities are done, including a new edition of the course "El Senyor dels Anells i el món de J.R.R. Tolkien" ('The Lord of the Rings and the world of J.R.R. Tolkien') in Barcelona (on this occasion taught at the University Pompeu Fabra).
This year may be also remembered for the publication of the "lost" Estel 39, that finally comes to light, thus ending a long and sad story.
2007 In the literary field, this year is marked by the publication of The Children of Húrin, with which J.R.R. Tolkien’s “new” writings return to the bookstores, ten years after the publication of Roverandom. This book, edited by Christopher Tolkien from various manuscripts by his father, enlarges the story of Túrin Turambar, first read in its abridged version in The Silmarillion, the thirtieth anniversary of which had been celebrated the previous year.
After a gap of five years the STE resumes the publication of Nolmë, the bilingual journal on studies about Tolkien’s works. One of the highlighted events in which the Society participates is the exhibition “The Lord of the Rings” in A Coruña and Santiago, in which the attrezzo of the movies directed by Peter Jackson was exhibited, after London and other cities of the world. This year’s Mereth Aderthad, organized by the smial of Númenor, was again held in the Monastery of Uclés, the memorable venue of the EstelCon in 2002. A new smial is founded in Zamora, with the name of Erebor.
2008 This year is specially remembered for Adam Tolkien's (Professor Tolkien's grandson) visit to Elche, as the honour guest to the conference on Tolkien's films and books organized by the smial of Mithlond with the Caja de Ahorros del Mediterráneo. Among other events we may also highlight the seminar on Tolkien arranged by the smial of Tol Eressëa in the Balear Islands University, excelling itself after some years of "Tolkien weeks" and other events with public institutions of Mallorca. The Mereth Aderthad, organized by the smial of Hammo with the theme of Tolkien's "minor works" (Leaf by Niggle, Giles Farmer of Ham, Smith of Wooton Major, his posthumous tales, etc.), is held with a great success. |
