* A new 2023 review of An Anthology of Iberian Scholarship on Tolkien (2022). “Iberian” here means both Portuguese and Spanish. The review is in German, but the page is in HTML and thus easily auto-translated.
“Simonson [examines] the function of the trees on the continents of Valinor and Numenor, in which beauty and utility are combined. […] only the balance between materialism and aestheticization can guarantee a responsible approach to nature.”
* Call for chapters: Theology, Religion, and Dungeons & Dragons. Relevant to Tolkien, given the formative influence LoTR had on Gary Gygax’s original classic D&D. Deadline: 15th February 2023, with the chapter to be submitted by the end of the summer.
* A public on-site talk titled “The Life and Thought of J.R.R. Tolkien”, in Houston, USA. 24th April 2023. Free and booking now.
“Professor Holly Ordway will provide an enriching presentation about the life and thought of J.R.R. Tolkien”.
* From Country Life magazine, rare images of J.R.R. Tolkien from 1961. Regrettably the magazine has sandwiched the online article with an unexpected auto-playing video of a mass of crawling insects. All video on the site can be perma-blocked, by pasting the following to your uBlock Origin ‘My Filters’ block-list…
! https://www.countrylife.co.uk
www.countrylife.co.uk##.jwplayer-margin-bottom.jwplayer-container
Or, if you want to perma-block all such nonsense in their online articles, videos or not…
! https://www.countrylife.co.uk
www.countrylife.co.uk##.injection
* And finally, on the BBC this week…
“Russell Kane and his guests discuss whether the writer [Tolkien] was evil or genius.”
Seriously. That’s their blurb. For BBC Radio Four. And they wonder why few pay any attention to the BBC these days.