Tolkien Gleanings #64.

* Following the recent conference-panel at Niagara Falls (see Tolkien Gleanings #20), there’s now a call-for-papers for a subsequent edited book. “The Function of Relics and Ruins in Middle-earth” is the topic, and the deadline for abstracts is 1st July 2023.

* Only available as an abstract, but an interesting one, “Who are the True Heroes of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth Mythology?” (2023)…

“… concludes that each race in Middle-earth has its own representative heroes with each of these characters’ heroic potential and requirements determined not only by their race, but by their individual family history [“familial curses” or an “innate fallen nature” are both suggested]. This perspective is vital to understanding these texts and Tolkien’s intended message correctly.”

I’d add that being orphaned, or half-orphaned, is also a factor to consider. Consider the casually-told familial back-story for Sam which, in dribs and drabs, serves to explain his humility and eventually to burnish his determined heroism. The reader learns (by implication) that Sam was raised with no mother, while it’s made clear at several points that Sam’s gaffer was always ready with a disparaging word or three for his son. Faramir likewise has lost his mother, and has a disparaging father. Even Smeagol, reading between the lines, was raised by his grandmother. Yet so far as I recall there’s never been a study of orphan-age and its uses in LoTR, with outside reference to the rich historical/literary context of orphans and orphan-age in England from c. 1900s-1950s. Also the mythological and folkloric context. The academic survey-book The Orphan in Fiction and Comics since the 19th Century (2018) has nothing to say about Tolkien. Nor does the dissertation “A Character Analysis of the Orphan Figure in Children’s Literature” (2016). But there obviously is something to say. There may be a dissertation for someone in that.

* And finally, among the authors whose works enter the public domain in January 2024, under the 70 year rule, is T.F. Powys. He was one of the Powys brothers, and wrote many Christian fantasy stories and novels, these often having a rather hobbity back-of-beyond setting. Drout’s Tolkien Encyclopaedia puts it in a more polished way, he… “created isolated and distinct localities emphasising a primitivist vision of the rural Englander.” He was well regarded in the pre-war years, and his tales still seem accessible today. But he’s now very obscure even to Christians. Perhaps it’s the time to prepare a “best tales of” volume, with an introduction which enquires into the possibility that Tolkien might have read some of his tales?