Tolkien Gleanings #5
* The open-access paper GIS & Middle Earth (online 2021). GIS = computer-assisted mapping and map-making. Complete with free DEM height-map downloads, containing the entire terrain of Middle-earth.
* I see that An Unexpected Journal had a special issue on The Imaginative Harvest of Holly Ordway (Christmas 2021). This was inspired by her book which surveys the modern writers whose books Tolkien might have read.
* Calmgrove has a long August 2022 blog article in which he scrutinises some claims made for Tolkien’s Sidmouth (a small English seaside resort)…
“It seems to me that the most likely way that Sidmouth may have inspired Tolkien was that it provided periods of relaxation and escape in which to allow his imagination to run where it wanted, rather than any specific aspects of the Devon seaside and Jurassic Coast. Did Tolkien really “essentially” turn Sidmouth into the Shire and did the Jurassic Coast truly inspire the landscapes, flora, and fauna of the hobbits’ homeland? Or are the town’s advocates chasing a chimaera?”
At first glance there may be some disagreement with Garth. Calmgrove has… “While in Sidmouth he brought the hobbits far to the east of the Old Forest and the Barrow Downs to The Prancing Pony in Bree”, while Garth instead has him writing from Bree to Rivendell (Worlds, p. 74). Actually the Chronology supports both, since when he arrived in Sidmouth for a long holiday (“1st-15th September 1938”, Chronology) he already had the “In the House of Tom Bombadil” chapter done, if the reference to “Chapter VII” is the same as the book’s published chapter numbering. Tolkien then spent the holiday writing the tale from there up to Frodo meeting Gloin at Rivendell. What Calmgrove doesn’t snag is that Garth notes that Tolkien found the name Barnabas Butter on a old Sidmouth gravestone (Worlds, p. 21, side column).
* The December 2022 event “On Dragons and Dinosaurs” at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History…
“On the 1st January 1938, J.R.R. Tolkien gave his thoughts on dragonlore and dinosaurs in an illustrated lecture at the Museum not discussed anywhere else in his works. [Now we stage a live] once-in-a-lifetime re-run of Tolkien’s lecture featuring his original slides, supporting specimens, and documents.”
Completely sold-out in a bang and a flash, of course. Hopefully it will be recorded and placed online after the event. “Tolkien’s Deadly Dragons” has an account of the original lecture.
* Dr. Philip Irving Mitchell’s ongoing public archive of online classroom handouts on Tolkien and Medieval Tradition. With useful short summaries such as Emotional Monarchy in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings (August 2022).
* And finally, The Times Diary: Tolkien’s flag flying again (October 2022, $ possible paywall)…
“A historic Oxford pub where Tolkien and C.S. Lewis used to drink [has reopened, post-lockdowns] after supporters each paid at least £1,000 for a share in a 15-year lease. As well as being de-modernised to create a suitably Inklings air, The Lamb and Flag will now host book launches and talks.”
And The Spectator magazine ($ paywall) has an October 2022 article by a leader of the group, describing… How we’re saving Tolkien’s pub.
