The Twenty-Ninth Council-General of the Kingdoms of Gondor and Arnor
His Grace the Duke of Minhiriath, Lord Great Steward, issued Writs of Summons calling His August Majestie's Council-General into session at 11 a.m., Sunday, September 2, 2001, in the Philadelphia Convention Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Accession Council was to meet at 10 a.m. on the same morning. Both meetings were to be holden in connection with the World Science Fiction Convention, The Millenium Philcon.
His Grace arrived in Philadelphia on the Thursday before the Council-General, and was joined by Their Excellencies the Master and Elder of Esgaroth on Friday evening. Also present was the Rt. Hon. Susan Shwartz, Countess of Harlindon, who participated in several panels throughout the Convention in her professional capacity. On Saturday afternoon, the two heads of state, Until the King Return, met as His Grace the Steward greeted His Grace the Duke of Numenor, Regent, at the Philadelphia airport. Such receptions in the past have been state occasions--some peers still talk about the time when the Regent was greeted at Boston's South Station by His Grace the Duke of Anorien, Earl Marshal, His Grace the Steward (then Viscount Calenhad, Lord Great Chamberlain), and Baron Min-Rimmon, then Secretary of State. The greeting party carried the Royal Standard and tape recorder playing a cannon salute followed by the Patriotic Air, "Kings of the West". The Regent, in uniform, snapped to the salute, and an elderly gentleman leaving a neighboring bank, observing the whole scene, paused and placed his hat over his heart until the music concluded. In this case, however, the head of the Foreign Office traveled, uncharacteristically, in civilian dress, and Their Graces apparently met and returned to the city uneventfully, though one security minded observer commented "travelling in a large black vehicle with license plates reading 'Steward' doesn't quite count as subtle, does it?" Their Graces (the Regent having changed into a summer formal dress uniform) and Their Excellencies made the typical rounds of the Convention activities over the afternoon and evening, including the masquerade and a range of hospitality suites.
The next morning, the Steward's announced schedule was in the event pushed back by an hour to accomodate the Convention program (among other complications, the Sunday mass, at which Professor Tolkien was remembered, began at 10 a.m.). The Thain travelled to Philadelphia on the Sunday morning along with his heiress presumptive, and 11 a.m. thus found the Accession Council preparing to sit; inasmuch as Lady Harlindon was present in due answer to her summons to the Council-General, the Steward invited her to join the statutory Accession Councillors as they interviewed candidates who had completed a form entitled Application for Reclamation of Sovereignty. Interested observers included H.S.M. Tar-Morondil of Rhovanion and Mr. Irwin Strauss, author of How to Start Your Own Country, a manual which includes a notice of the Restoration. Three claimants presented themselves, and the interviewing process seemed at some points likely to run on into the time allotted for the Council-General, but business was at length concluded.
The Accession Council, with Lady Harlindon
After the Accession Council, His Grace the Regent dispatched the Thain, hereditary Marshal of the Diplomatic Corps, to present a formal invitation for Tar-Morondil to be present in the so-called Distinguished Strangers' Gallery of the Council-General. The break also served as a photo opportunity and took the place of the mid-afternoon collation which has characterized meetings of the legislature in the past.
After some words of explanation by His Grace the Regent, the Council-General began in accordance with The Form and Manner of Conducting the Council-General, though the absence of both the Lord President and the Lord Chancellor meant that His Grace the Steward was often left speaking to himself in the ritual dialogue. At the appropriate moment, His Grace the Regent raised the procedural point "I spy strangers!", and HSM Tar-Morondil was introduced in accordance with the invitation.
The Council enacted no new legislation, but did pass four resolutions.
The first, In Memoriam John Ronald Reuel Tolkien , noted that the Council-General was meeting on the very anniversary of Prof. Tolkien's death, and called on His Grace the Steward to provide for a national day of mourning; debate on the motion eventually led to consultation of earlier statutes on national holidays, several of which seemed to come as a surprise to their lordships. The Elder of Esgaroth noted that this resolution seemed to apply only to the Kingdoms and not to the Commonwealth, a position with which the other councillors agreed.
Searching for holidays.
The second resolution, Concerning the Starkhorn Bequest , provided that the Council-General's annual act of charity, ordinarily directed to the poor of the city in which the Council is meeting, be dedicated this year to a charity of the Rt. Hon. Andre Norton, Countess of Forlindon, The High Hallack Genre Writers' Research and Reference Library. The address of the Library, which has not-for-profit status under the United States' tax code, is: High Hallack, 114 Eventide Drive, Murfreesboro, TN 37130.
The third and fourth resolutions sent greetings to the Forodrim, His August Majestie's other government in exile (Concerning the Forodrim ) and to Dame Nancy Martsch's Mensa Tolkien Special Interest Group, and its monthly newsletter, Beyond Bree (Concerning Beyond Bree ).
When the Councillors turned to foreign affairs, His Grace the Regent observed that a lengthy economic blockade of the Sultanate of Okusi-Ambeno (resulting from the Kingdoms' objections to the Sultanate's official trade in hallucinogens, through its "Royal Hallucinogenic Mushroom Factory") had produced no noticable results, and requested the passage of a bill which would have allowed the resumption of diplomatic relations and trade with the Sultanate, provided that no trade between the Sultanate and the Kingdoms involved such prohibited substances as hallucinogenic mushrooms. Inasmuch as the original prohibition had been introduced by His Grace the Steward during one of his terms as Lord President of the Councils, while the only organization ever to have considered trade with the Sultanate is the Omnibus Retail Corporation, of which the M. Hon. the Marquess of Meneltarma (heir to the Dukedom of Numenor) is CEO, the discussion which followed upon the Regent's motion was fraught with political undercurrents. The Councillors seemed particularly concerned with the question of whether Okusi-Ambeno's flirtations with the hallucinogenic reflected a libertarian or a hedonistic philosophy, the former apparently being preferable. In the end the motion did not pass, but His Grace was authorized to conduct further inquiries into the subject.
The official elections followed. The current Lord President (The M. Hon. the Marquess of Minas Tirith) and Lord Chancellor (The Rt. Hon the Baron Dunharrow) were retained in office for another year. When the time came for a report from the Accession Council--indeed, even as the Rt. Noble the Thain was standing to speak, a fourth claimant to the Throne appeared. Determined to leave no stone unturned in their search for the King (May He Soon Return!), the Councillors reconvened as the Accession Council, interviewed the candidate, and withdrew for further consultations. The Council-General having reformed, the Thain reported that the Accession Council had determined to consider in more detail two of the applications it had received. The ceremonies then continued with the renewal of the Regent's oath, the reconvening of the Privy Council, and the singing of the Patriotic Air .
Singing "Kings of the West."