Andúril

Zine
Title:	Andúril
Publisher:	Marion Zimmer Bradley, while she was living in Rochester, Texas
Editor(s):	Marion Zimmer Bradley, David Bradley (Marion's son?) & Paul Zimmer (Marion's brother)
Date(s):	Summer 1962
Series?:
Medium:	print
Size:
Genre:
Fandom:	Tolkien/Darkover
Language:	English
External Links:
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Andúril is a gen Tolkien one-shot zine with 30 pages. It is a fusion that features a Darkover character.

The zine was published in summer of 1962.

The title of the zine means "Flame of the West."

It was one of the first amateur Tolkien fanzines published, possibly the very first.

There was only one issue of this zine; the publishers "evidently gave up the idea when rumor said Professor Tolkien was quite displeased with the first issue."

In February 1962, Bradley wrote that Andúril’s distribution was outside of FAPA and only to those people who wanted it.

The main part of this zine, A Meeting in the Hyades was written in 1954 or 1955, first published as a chapbook in 1961, in Andúril (1962), in Astra's Tower (Special Leaflet 1962), and then again in Starstone #1 (1978). In this story, Regis Hastur, or a character that later developed into Regis, meets a character from LOTR somewhere in the Darkovan mountains.

This zine is not the same as the UK Andúril, published in 1972.

The Introduction to the Zine

In spite of the title -- which, meaning Flame of the West, struck us as singularly appropriate for a fanzine published in Texas -- this fanzine will not be exclusively concerned wth Tolkien fandom, nor an attempt to compete with or displace I PALANTIR , the official voice of the Fellowship of the Ring. Rather, this zine will embrace all manner of private worlds and fantasy universe, and provice [sic] a sounding board for those whose particular delight is in Cloak-and-Sword, sword-and-sorcery fantasy of the alien-worlds type: Kuttner, Vance, Howard, Brackett, Tolkien, and for lovers of Middle Earth, Islandia, Lankhmar, Al-Merdin and Carcosa, Coventry, The Green Kingdom or the country of Angria and the Gondals.

"We" in this case means Paul Zimmer and myself.

The Introduction to "A Meeting in the Hyades" by Marion Zimmer Bradley

THE THEORY OF INTERLOCKING FANTASY-WORLDS has always fascinated me. Suppose that some day, through the work of unguessable agencies, Conan should be confronted with Tarzan...Sherlock Holmes match wits with Dr Fu Manchu...Northwest Smith face adventure a step away from the Grey Mouser?

HERE I HAVE ENVISIONED A MEETING between Regis Hastur, hero of the Merdinian-Darkover fantasies, and but you may decide for yourself the true identity of the man who called himself Speranzu.

THE MERDINIAN-DARKOVER cycle, which I have also drawn upon for the "Terran Empire Novels," is a self-contained world with Its own geography, history, and languages. Some accidental similarities of names, discovered AFTER I had read The Lord of the Rings, caused me -- like the loremaster of Minas Tirith -- to "reflect at leisure on the history of tongues." Such names as Castamir, Lindir, Arador, Eldarion, Estel, have long been current in the chronicles of the Hasturs. Names, of course, are free to anyone inventive enough to make use of them; for instance at one time it seemed to me that no sooner would I locate or invent a name for use in a story, than Leigh Brackett would promptly use it in one of her fantasies! All this simply states that my special background of linguistics and folklore is by no means unique.

THIS CAME TO MY ATTENTION while working on one of the sword-and-cloak fantasy adventures, this one about Regis Hastur, and sending it to my brother to read, chapter by chapter, as completed. He remarked -- provoking me -- that he hoped the perusal of the Tolkien books will influence your work...I think it's just what you need."

THE FOLLOWING EPISODE, THEN, was begun with the intention of writing a pastiche of the Tolkien style, and sending it to him without comment, as just another of Regis' adventures -- the point of the joke being to see whether Paul realized it when his leg was being pulled. But before I completed the episode, I had lost sight of the joke and was Interested in the possibilities of this curious interlocking of two separate private worlds of fantasy.

AS THE FIRST, THEN, (we hope) in a series of Apocryphal Adventures, we present a meeting In the Hyades.

Contents

• The Cloak and the Sword, a Touch Echo, costume fandom goes Tolkien by Ruth Berman (an extensive description of Tolkien costumes that appeared during the 1958-1960 Worldcons) (2)
• Chronicles of Middle Earth, Two Views of Elves and Men
  • I. The World Well Lost by Rick Sneery (suggests that Arwen's choice of mortality may have been caused by renouncing her elvish powers or skills) (6)
  • II. The Mystery of Choice by Elinor Busby (thoughts of Elf-Man intermarriage and traits of children of the union. Discussion on other races interbreeding. Feels that elves were far less brave than other races of Middle-earth during the Third Age) (9)
• The Beginning of the Orcs; One theory by David Bradley (a speculation that orcs were mutated elven children, who became outcasts)(6)
• Sagas and Reviews, First of the Supernatural Romances: "The Worm Ouroboros" by Paul Zimmer (dubs Eddison's work as 'supernatural romance' and feels that other authors (including Tolkien) may have been influenced by Eddison) (12)
• Private Worlds and Apocryphal Adventures: A Meeting in the Hyades by Marion Z. Bradley, Specially Illustrated by Jaunita Coulson, Cover by "MZB", interiors by Kerry and Bjo (14)

Gallery

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  front cover

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  inside page

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  table of contents

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  Ruth Berman typed up "A Meeting in Hyades" for further fannish visibility , citing lack of copyright, and the poor quality her oft-photocopied issue