I haven’t shot any video footage, but YouTube is filled with it.

“The best thing about dreams is that fleeting moment, when you are between asleep and awake, when you don’t know the difference between reality and fantasy, when for just that one moment you feel with your entire soul that the dream is reality, and it really happened.”

Little more than a week ago, for the first time ever, I visited the Elf Fantasy Fair, Europe’s biggest convention on all things fantasy. Together with a friend and her groupies I arrived at castle de Haar (the Netherlands’ largest castle), where I didn’t know what my eyes were seeing. Elves, trolls, orcs, knights, they were all there. Whole armies of fantasy fans had journeyed to this place, from all over europe, to be with their kin. The castle grounds were filled with all kinds of medieval tents, mead shops, archery ranges, swordfight arenas and other places that looked like they were taken from Lord of the Rings or similar stories.

Especially interesting were the lectures given by English Prof. Dr. Roland Rotherham. This man, who is an expert in the Arthurian Legend, gave two talks about Dragons and Celtic Legends, which he did in a very captivating, intriguing manner. Another celebrity present at the event was actor Shane Rangi (a New-Zealander), who played a number of roles in, amongst others, Lord of the Rings. He was answering questions from the public and told some very interesting stories about his time on set for the various films he has played in.

Anyway, the rest I’ll leave up to the pictures:

Open Web Album

If you don’t speak Dutch, you’ll have to wait for it a little longer.