Tolkien Gleanings #91.
* The University of Maryland abroad: Tolkien in Oxford…
“You will get a chance to visit the halls of Merton and Exeter College in Oxford University, conduct research at the Bodleian Library where many of Tolkien’s manuscripts are housed, and hold writing workshops over meals in the same cozy inns frequented by Tolkien and his colleagues. […] Non-UMD Students Eligible to Apply: Yes”.
The deadline is cryptically “10/01/2023” — which is possibly American for ‘1st October 2023′, rather than the ’10th of January’.
* A Masters dissertation for Liberty University, on “The Interplay Between Language and Culture in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth” (January 2023). Finds… “that J.R.R. Tolkien used Northern influences to appeal to his English audience, while he used general principles of linguistics to appeal to a worldwide audience.”
* New in the Japanese open-access journal Studies of Language and Culture, “Eucatastrophe and Satori: J.R.R. Tolkien’s Legendarium as Interreligious Myth” (June 2023, in English). A short survey of “unintentional Buddhist thematic resonances” in Tolkien.
* New to me, a blog on ‘Nymphology – a blog about nymphs – their nature, habitats and history’. Being a side-project from the author of the worthy and long-running British Fairies blog. Somewhat Tolkien related, in that it is likely that nymphs (in paintings and book illustration) played a part in the early conceptualisation and visualisation of Tolkien’s elves…
“The Men who journeyed westward were in general those who remained in closest touch with the true Eledai, and for the most part they were drawn west by the rumour of a land in or beyond the Western Sea which was beautiful, and was the home of the Eledai where all things were fair and ordered to beauty […] Thus it is that the more beautiful legends (containing truths) arose, of oreads, dryads, and nymphs; and of the Ljos-alfar [the ‘light-elves’].” (Tolkien, from “The Theory Of The Work”, HoME, Sauron Defeated).
* And finally… the call-for-papers for ‘Failures in print and audiovisual culture’ may interest, given the continuing litany of failure in Tolkien media… “We are interested in those books, comics, magazines, videogames, films or series that form the uncanonical, illegitimate refuse of modern culture” in the English-speaking world.” Plenty to choose from. Deadline: 6th November 2023.