You need to let the nerds tire themselves out before you jump in. These seem to be cardio nerds so it just took a while.
this post was submitted on 10 May 2026
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Tolkien, Lord of the Rings (LotR), etc.
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Indeed, if you don't let them tire themselves out then both will instead jump on you as the sudden uniting factor.
This principle applies to all nerds both IRL and online threads.
both will instead jump on you as the sudden uniting factor
"uniting factor" as in "common enemy"
@The_Picard_Maneuver except they literally mention bees.
“Then Aragorn laid his hand on Merry’s head, and passing his hand gently through the brown curls, he touched the eyelids, and called him by name. And when the fragrance of athelas stole through the room, like the scent of orchards, and of heather in the sunshine full of bees, suddenly Merry awoke, and he said:
‘I am hungry. What is the time?”
And it's not a one-off, either!
In The Hobbit, Tolkien goes on at some length about the bees in Beorn's house.
Beorn literally keeps beehives. They are explicitly mentioned in the hobbit.
Nobody claimed they were good Tolkien scholars.
Like what are we even talking about? Beorn explicitly keeps bees.
Came here to say this. Damned lies. The hobbit is such an easy read.
I’m pretty sure The Hobbit directly mentions bees and hives and honey when they stay at Beorn’s place
I recall the bees were rather large, what Tolkien would have described as dummy thicc.
I think maybe this didn't happen
I can totally see it. I think most people are imagining this as a six hour long continuous debate between panelists, which sounds unrealistic to me. More likely it was a conversation that started over lunch between a few attendees, then paused for the afternoon sessions (or w/e I don't know how Tolkien conferences are structured) and then picked back up during evening drinks. It could have gotten quite heated, and less scholarly, as the libations flowed, before OP mentioned the mead halls.
It's also possible that the scholars in question did know about the The Hobbit references but quibbled over whether that was a canonical reference, since JRRT wrote The Hobbit as a standalone work before retconning it into the broader Eä extended universe.
This society sounds like a bunch of people who think they're well versed in Tolkien lore.
Most conferences have a pretty high enthusiast:expert ratio. The whole point of conferences is to get together and swap ideas. People who only know a little bit about Tolkien but want to learn more are the perfect people to go to Tolkien conferences.