Sammath Naur History

Sammath Naur's big bang creation in 1975 was due to three moving and shaking spirits - Debbie Jones, Ellie Farrell, and Chris Jones. the group rapidly expanded as they pulled in a number of new members over the next two years. One of these was Steve brown, a leader in the Hawaii Trail and Mountain Club and the future Quest leader of Sammath Naur. Another was Ken Burtness, a compulsive psychologist, whose putterings resulted in a continuing stream of flyers. When the three founding spirits left for new adventures - Debby to Austrailia, then Minnesota to become the costume queen of the Rivendell group; Chris to San Francisco; and Ellie to Colorado, then San Francisco to be the guiding light of the Khazad-dum Group - Steve and ken left the light burning in the window. The group continued, sometimes smoothly and sometimes fitfully, but always with laughter and hosptiality.

The name "Sammath Naur", a Tolkien original, means "the crack of doom" and is an apt choice for a group that meets on the the site of and ancient volcano, otherwise known as "Oahu". Over the years our group has been variously descibed as :


* Gluttonous - due to our great pot-luck cookers and consumers

* Heretical - because we are non-tradtional in our book selections, which have ranged from Lovecraft to the Bible, and from Tolkien to Tom Robins

* Frivolous- in the eyes of the the Science Fiction Book Club at University of Hawaii, who looked upon our predominately fantasy oriented selections and our fun-spirited discussion as neither serious nor academic enough

Along the way Sammath Naur has been the nexus for some memorable experiences. Vanessa Cole and Ken Wilson, two kindred spirits, met at Sammanth Naur, and later married and produced two new members. In 1983, Sammath Naur was asked to form the nucleus of the Honolulu team participating in a world wide computer-linked fairy tale. For one week Sammath Naur was on-line with 10 cities world wide, composing an original fairy tale.

Sadly, the group has also been visited by Fate's fickle digit. In 1985 Sammath Naurites in costume attempted a quest through the Ko'olau Mountains. Unfortuitously the quest leaders lost the questors and were forced to drink the treasure all by themselves. In 1991 three rowers from the Sammath naur capsized their outrigger on the way to Mokulua Island for a book discussion. Thanks to an intrepid young sail boarder, and a more than adequete supply of avourdupois, no lives were lost.

Through triumph and tragedy Sammath Naur has held steady to love of fantasy conversation. In the imortal words of St. Augustive, our goodly band of garrulous souls has endevored to enjoy "... conversations and jokes together, mutual rendering of good services, the reading together of sweetly phrased books, the sharing of nonsense and mutal attentions."
(KHB & CMW, Jan92)

Our 20th anniversary: or what we did last summer