The association Fellow-Ship e.V. brings Rohan to life every year during the Tolkien Days from The Lord of the Rings and immerses you right in the battle for Edoras – quite literally.
What kind of association is this? The LARP association Fellow-Ship e.V. aims to bring Tolkien’s works to life every year during the Tolkien Days in Geldern-Pont and similar events. They focus on as authentic a depiction of Rohan and the capital Edoras as possible.
What is LARP?
The abbreviation LARP stands for “Live Action Role Playing” and is an interactive game concept in which participants physically portray their fictional characters in the real world. Similar to improvisational theater, players act without a fixed script, spontaneously adapting to the given storyline and interacting directly with other characters.
To convincingly bring the respective game world, which often takes place in the fantasy, science fiction, or historical realm, to life, elaborate costumes and detailed props are used. Conflicts or battles are usually conducted safely and symbolically, for example, by using specially padded foam weapons.
With about 30 – 40 members, they set up their camp with a huge walk-in wooden gate, a festival hall, a well, stables, smaller buildings, and tents on the grounds of the German Tolkien Society e.V. and bring it to life in elaborate, authentic costumes, just like those seen in the films. Everything is handmade from authentic materials and expanded every year.
The whole experience is enriched with shows such as a large battle against orcs, stunt riding on real horses, games, and lively camp scenes between the fixed program points. Visitors to the events can plunge directly into the fray and experience Tolkien’s works up close, and hopefully even participate.
From Visitor to Warrior of Rohan
A major focus of the group is not only to make Rohan, and thus also a piece of Middle-earth, tangible and experienceable for visitors to the event, but also to introduce them to their passionate hobby. Because the work of the association not only consists of setting up and acting in Edoras but also of the communal crafting of costumes, buildings, and props.
A large part of the newcomers to the association are people who previously had no contact with LARP or reenactment. They attend the Tolkien Days as ordinary guests, are fascinated by the atmosphere and the camp setup, and then contact the members of the group.
They are often so captivated by the impressively staged battle against the orcs (which is improvised every time) in front of the self-built, giant gate of Edoras that they want to become part of the group that puts together something so impressive. A snippet of this can be seen, for example, on the Instagram profile of the association (my camera unfortunately didn’t survive the heat).
Here you can get some impressions of the battle before the gates of Edoras, before my camera died:
The association takes newcomers by the hand and actively helps them start in the complex hobby of LARP by teaching them the necessary skills. Within the association, there are also various teams, such as a construction team. This way, everyone can contribute where they want to participate.
Also, at the event itself, each member chooses the role they want to embody and thus builds their own character and story together with the others.
The Community and Craftsmanship in Focus
The community plays a crucial role in the association and also contributes to the magic of the hobby, as founding member and board member Sascha reveals in an interview:
We have many newcomers who are not former LARPers or reenactors, but just visitors. They found it exciting, and we help them get started. Some stay, others say it’s not for them. But many also come back as friends or visitors.
It’s always so nice to see them return. It’s a great community. Last year, we also organized our own events such as crafting workshops where we built weapons or armor. People showcase their handmade items in the following year, and that’s great to see. It greatly strengthens the community.
He is always proud to see what the group creates together and to observe how the project grows larger year by year. Thus, for the upcoming year, more buildings and a renovation of the kitchen house are planned. To this end, various “crafting weekends” are held during which the different teams work on projects for the next event and learn and craft together.
Finally, Sascha shared an anecdote about how the concept of the battle for Rohan came about:
In 2019, there was an incident: A passage we had to go through was very narrow, only three meters wide. Orcs came towards us and yelled at us. However, we didn’t have any LARP weapons with us, only metal swords, so we made a shield wall to push them back. The present Dúnedain rangers then gave us their LARP swords, and thus the fight began.
The situation was so exciting and attracted so many spectators that we later spoke to the orcs. Since then, the battle between us and the orcs has been firmly established, and we hold showcase battles with their camp every year.
Fellow-Ship e.V. moved its headquarters in 2019 to the grounds of the German Tolkien Society e.V. in Geldern-Pont, where the Tolkien Days also take place. MeinMMO editor Alex was on site for you and took a look at what makes the event so special: I spent 2 days in The Lord of the Rings and experienced friendship and solidarity – This is how the Tolkien Days 2026 were
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