who went by the name of Falcon took the Dagorhir game to Cleveland, Ohio. Then in 1983, PM Magazine broadcast the TV episode to a national audience. The result was the founding of The Realm of Middle~Earth in Illinois. Dagorhir began to spread throughout the Mid Western U.S, and inspired spin off organizations, including Belegarth Medieval Combat Society. Dagorhir has enjoyed extensive nationwide growth in recent years, expanding to an international membership of over a hundred Chapters consisting of a total membership in the thousands. On January 20, 2009, the Discovery Channel show, Wreckreation Nation, featured Dagorhir in its episode, "Demolition Derby." Meaning of the name The name "Dagorhir" appears to be Sindarin, one of the Elvish languages created by J.R.R. Tolkien. It means "Battle Lord." According to the rules of plural formation, the collective name for participants would be "Dagorhirrim," while two or more individual participants would be "Degyrhir." Membership Dagorhir is open to the public, membership is free of charge (though larger events often have a nominal fee charged by the host to cover costs) and participation requires only a small start-up cost to obtain weapons and garb. Participants are generally members of chapters, called "realms," which are formally registered in order to be allowed the use of the Dagorhir name, or related designs and documents. Most groups will keep an armory of weapons for loaning to new members or guests. This is most common of larger groups, but often smaller groups will do it as well. Sometimes veteran members will give old, unused weapons to the new players. As a project on the Dagorhir forums, people began counting and listing active Dagorhir members. At last count this list contained 1486 people with several large groups not reporting. Due to the nature of the chapters of Dagorhir, as well as the definitions of "active", this number cannot be completely accurate. It is usually required to have a release form signed and notarized before engaging in any activities. Major events The largest national (inter-realm) Dagorhir event is Ragnarok. Attendance at Ragnarok from 2008–14 has averaged about 1,500, with the record being 1,627 at Ragnarok XXIX in June 2014. Ragnarok XXIII in June 2008 had more than 1,400 attendees, with over 650 actually fighting at the height of the event. Ragnarok XXIV, which took place in June 2009, attracted nearly 1,600 attendees. From 2001–9 Ragnarok was held at Spring Valley