* Tolkien’s Finn and Hengest: The Fragment and the Episode will be (re)published on 30th April 2023. This seems to be a re-publication of the 1983 version, but in a form that’s uniform with current Tolkien editions. The book is not about Middle-earth but is Old English + Tolkien’s lecture notes, all well-edited by a former student of his and presented in some 180 pages. The “Fragment” is 47 heroic lines in Old English. The “Episode” was a more tragic version of the same story, as found inlaid into the text of Beowulf. Those who’ve listened to Tom Shippey’s YouTube series on Beowulf (which is far more interesting than it sounds) will recall the account of ‘the attack on the mead-hall’. Shippey ably explains the regional politics behind it, and also the ramifications of that long-ago tribal strife for the future of England. The book’s cover illustration is by John Howe.
* I see that the independent Signum University is to have their first OzMoot gathering in Australia. Happening 27th-29th January 2023, in Brisbane. The theme is to be ‘Deep Roots’, and judging by the listing it appears to be largely Tolkien studies. I see that one of the OzMoot presentations is to be on “The Lost Children of Middle-earth”.
Yes, thinking about it… not many children. We hear that Aragorn grew up in Rivendell, though no details; elementary schools are part of a Shire upbringing, judging by asides from Sam and Pippin and Gandalf; small hobbit children run after Gandalf’s fireworks cart at the start of LoTR and appear at the end in the form of cherry-eaters and Sam’s new family; there are children in Bree, since they follow Strider and the hobbits out of the village; there’s Beregond’s young errand-running son and his band of friends in the city of Gondor, and later the post-King return of children to the city; there is mention of Westmarch children sheltering in the caves at Helm’s Deep or riding on the wains seen headed away from Gondor before the battle. The Shire, Rohan and Gondor all have the tradition of “children’s tales” told at the fireside. There’s the ubiquitous “son of” which is appended to names.
There are also some ‘absences with implications’. For instance it’s never stated, but evidently Merry’s deep yearning to find a father-figure in Theoden implies a distant or chilly relationship with his own father Master Saradoc Brandybuck of Brandybuck Hall. Merry only uses “Meriadoc, son of Saradoc” once and very formally, when greeting Theoden at the ruined gates of Isengard. Sam appears to have a prickly but more loving relationship with his father, who often cussed and berated Sam with sharply disparaging words — drawn all too-easily from the “large paternal word-hoard”. Gollum might have been raised by his grandmother, perhaps implying he was orphaned, and later he recalls his childhood times and tales of the South. Between Wormtongue and her hard shield-maiden training, it’s implied that Eowyn didn’t have much of a carefree girlhood. The Ents have no young entings. The Wood Elves appear to consider all non-Elves as “you children” (said by Legolas). But some Elves also have childish characteristics — or at least they feel free to express that side of themselves in safe Rivendell, where Sam encounters “some as merry as children”.
Frodo, on arrival at Rivendell, expresses a child-like mis-understanding of “the big people” as being easily divisible into either “wicked” or “kind”. Doubtless more could be said about the general child-like characteristics of hobbits, such as being always eager for large portions of food, and picky about the quality of their “vittles” (sweet pastries) etc.
* There’s now an equivalent to the long-running H.P. Lovecraft podcast Voluminous. As with Voluminous, the new Tolkiens Briefe (podcast) is a two-hander and each episode discusses and explicates one letter sent by the author. One of the presenters is the President of the German Tolkien Society, and I assume they have Estate permission to read from the letters as translated into German. Yes, the podcast is in German. Still, nice to know it exists. I would assume one might be able to run the .MP3 (to be found at the link above) through the desktop Dragon Professional (the best desktop automatic AI-aided transcribing of voice from an .MP3) and then use an online text auto-translator to move the text from German to English. Though these days there’s probably a free upload Cloud service for that. Possibly the podcast will have detailed show-notes and links that can be auto-translated.
* And finally, I sense that some people’s New Year Resolution is “a grand Tolkien re-read” in 2023. Some may want to read through the Chronology, and as they encounter a note about each new item being written, find it and read it. That would approximate Tolkien’s writing chronology, though it might unearth some rather ponderous scholarly material. What if you don’t have the time because you’re juggling babies or have heavy-duty commuting + work? If you simply want a 12-month schedule for sitting down with The Lord of the Rings with tea-and-toast, then Tea with Tolkien has today posted a handy new The Lord of the Rings in a Year: Reading Schedule in wall-chart form.