Dear Tolkienists!

There has recently been a significant increase of interest in the work of J.R.R. Tolkien, not least of all in Poland, brought about by, amongst other things, Peter Jackson's recent film trilogy. Tolkien's books are at the top of bestseller lists. The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit now exist in several translations into Polish. There are also the apocryphal The Last Lord of the Ring by Yeskov and The Ring of Darkness by Perumov. Recently, numerous press articles, essays, and analyses in the field of general tolkienology have appeared, e.g. J.R.R. Tolkien - Reception in Poland, or the recently published A. Kubala's A Guide to Middle-earth Place-names and J.Z. Lichański's Stories about... the Edge of Epochs and Times of J.R.R. Tolkien.

Practically every SF convention has a Tolkien programme and Internet fan pages inspired by the books and film are increasingly popular. Our forum for Tolkien fans is now over two years old (http://forum.tolkien.com.pl) and a Tolk Folk is successfully organised each year in Bielawa (http://www.tolkfolk.pl), etc.

However, there is no fanzine to comment on the current events in the Tolkien world in Poland and abroad. The need for a forum, to present Middle-earth studies, fan art and fiction, for Polish Tolkienologists and Tolkienists is obvious.

Our magazine, published under the aegis of the two-decade-old Tolkien Section of the Silesian Science Fiction Club, is an attempt at filling that gap. We intend to publish it regularly twice a year; its name, Aiglos - S.: `snow-point' - comes from The Lord of the Rings and is a direct reference to the famous spear of Gil-galad. This is what Elrond said about it at the council in Rivendell: "I was at the Battle of Dagorlad before the Black Gate of Mordor, where we had the mastery: for the Spear of Gil-galad and the Sword of Elendil, Aiglos and Narsil, none could withstand." "Aiglos" is also the name of a Middle-earth thorny bush with white flowers, the symbol of beauty and victory of good over evil. This is the emblem and interpretation chosen by the editors. We have decided on the variant "Aiglos", although Unfinished Tales and The Silmarillion list also the version "Aeglos", not so widely known, but equally correct.

Our magazine is non-commercial and non-profit making. We intend to present articles and essays in Tolkienistics and Tolkienology; the texts will concern Tolkien himself, his work, and the world he created. We will welcome both academic and popular papers, although we expect them to be of the highest level. We would also like to show the best of fanfiction, including poetry, and fan art - in black and white. We are going to review Polish and foreign books on Tolkien and his work.

We welcome and encourage letters from you, which we will do our best to reply to promptly. The most interesting ones will be presented on our Internet page. We hope our fanzine will be an interesting and valuable forum for every fan of J.R.R. Tolkien - regardless of their age - and enable Tolkiens' many works to be enjoyed to the full.