Tolkien Gleanings #10
* I was sorry to hear of the passing of Professor J. S. Ryan, one of the few scholarly writers on Tolkien who had also studied under Professor Tolkien. I still have his books Tolkien’s View and In the Nameless Wood on my shelves, and a number of their otherwise-scarce essays proved useful in writing my own recent book. Douglas A. Anderson has assembled a biography of Ryan, and he has a Web link to a fuller obituary.
* Newly online in open-access in 2021, the final published version of “Middle America meets Middle-earth: American discussion and readership of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of The Rings, 1965-1969″ (2005). The first half being an very in-depth history of the copyright problems with the book in America. Then we eventually get to a section on the first brief ‘craze’ for Tolkien among the more discerning elements of American’s youth, and the response to it…
[even when critics actually looked at the book] “… criticisms very frequently have had less to do with The Lord of the Rings itself than with their aversion to the type of book they think it to be, and equally to the type of reader attracted to such books.”
* The venerable U.S. magazine The National Review this week reviews the new Tolkien book The Fall of Numenor. Mostly gushy praise + a long potted summary, but it’s useful to have such a summary.
* Forthcoming, a “revised and expanded edition” of The Silmarillion Primer. Amazon knows nothing about a first edition. But a little digging reveals it actually first appeared as a publisher’s bi-weekly blog-post series, at Tor.com back in 2017-18.
* And finally, ominous news re: Tolkien Estate’s licensing deals for 2023. “LEGO BrickHeadz, The Lord of the Rings versions” are coming soon to toy stores. This hideous-looking line of plastic tat, specifically designed to look squat and monstrous, even has a pair that defiles “Aragorn & Arwen”. Ugh. I’ll spare you the pictures.
Regrettably I also see that the Tolkien Society is seeming to endorse such orc-work, through allowing Lego items into their “Best Artwork” annual category.