Tolkien Gleanings #79.
* The latest Inklings Variety Hour podcast interviews Verlyn Flieger at length, and also reveals that there’s to be an interview with Michael Drout “next week”. Which should be due any day now, by my reckoning.
* In Germany the Fantastische Welten in Oberlech (‘Fantastic Worlds in Oberlech’) event, in what appears to a rather plush hotel in the Oberlech mountains. Seems to be in German and annual. Here’s some of the blurb, translated…
From 28th to 31st July 2023, exchange ideas about the creator of Middle-earth. In six specialist lectures this year, we will examine various questions from a scholarly perspective. Such as these: “Can fantasy lead to a deeper awareness of our real history?” and “How do voices and silences function in Tolkien’s stories?”
* Currently new on YouTube, Tolkien: A Film Portrait (1996, 107 minutes) at 480px and without a watermark (older YouTube uploads of this seem at first glance to either be in Russian or have a watermark). Can also be found at Archive.org at much better quality (the bot-built .torrent file there is messed up and doesn’t include the 8Gb .MP4 file found via the MP4 list — use DownThemAll). Don’t worry, I’m not causing anyone lost income over this link. I checked. Amazon UK has the documentary as VHS tape only, completely unavailable either new or used. eBay also has nothing. Amazon USA only has a listing for J.R.R. Tolkien – An Authorized Film Portrait on DVD in 2003, but I suspect that’s a ‘ghost’ listing and that it was never issued on DVD. If it had been, then the Tolkien collectors would know about it by now as an ultra-rarity. Anyway, if the DVD ever existed then that too is unavailable. The documentary is known by several names, but despite its title it seems never to have been in cinemas. It seems rather to have been a ‘direct to videotape’, and thus wasn’t strained though the political sieve of the BBC. I can find no trace of any archival print being held in some vault, such as that of the British Film Institute. Nor even a single review, just one forum pundit saying that it’s the best of the bunch.
* ‘J.R.R. Tolkien – Person’ at the National Portrait Gallery website. Four pictures, at a good size.
* Some Tolkien letters are coming up for auction on 22nd June 2023, these being the letters to a Miss F.L. Perry and another to a Miss Flint. The Bonhams website now has nice scans online. Right-click and ‘Open image in new tab’, and then zoom, for the largest size.
* New on Word on Fire, thoughtful thoughts on “Lessons from Tolkien’s “Leaf by Niggle””. Warning: plot spoilers.
* In the localist Chicago Reader last week, “Twenty years after the movie trilogy’s conclusion, local author reflects on working with composer Howard Shore”. This mentions the well-reviewed book The Music of the Lord of the Rings Films: A Comprehensive Account of Howard Shore’s Scores. In my view the music and voice-work was the best thing to come out of these movies, and it’s wonderful that they’ve since passed so powerfully (if unofficially) into Phil Dragash’s full-cast unabridged LoTR audio.
* And finally, those going ‘a hunting on the North Moors this summer may want to pack a Thigh Book Holster of the hand-made sort newly available on Etsy…
Although I can see immediately that it’s likely to chafe someone in summer-clothes and will also restrict the blood flow. Nice for posing at a hipster campfire party or deep winter walking when well-padded, but not for walking ten miles in summer. Perhaps better to get one of these, into the shoulder-bag for which a slim Hobbit-sized paperback can also slip. Regrettably, you can’t now get them from Amazon.
