Tolkien Gleanings #107.

* Newly released by the Tolkien Society, “Obituary: Charles Noad”.

* News of a forthcoming book, The Literary Role of History in the Fiction of J.R.R. Tolkien. Due 2nd January 2024, and pre-ordering now at a whopping £130 ($170). Erm, it’s a three-volume set, then? Nope, just a standard academic book with a standard robo-cover. It’s from the usually-leftist publisher Routledge, which is also a bit off-putting — but the contents do sound interesting…

While most criticism has concentrated on Tolkien’s use of historical traditions of northern Europe, this book argues that Tolkien also valued Southern and Mediterranean pasts and registered the Germanic and the Scandinavian pasts as they related to other histories as much as his vision of them included a primeval mythic aura.

The TOCs suggest that the author will have chapters on Ancient Rome, the Goths, and Byzantium, and I see he has previously published Barbarian Memory: The Legacy of Early Medieval History in Early Modern Literature (2013). Which again sounds encouraging. I’d hope for a complex explication of exactly how Tolkien’s Northern sources could have sometimes reflected or been influenced by sources from the Near East, beyond the obvious influences from the Bible and perhaps from Virgil? Definitely one for the Wish List, by the look of it.

* Cambridge University’s Centre for the Study of Platonism is to host a conference on Participation and Subcreation in September 2023.

* A three-day “online summit”, Interchanging Melodies: Tolkien, Religion & Beyond. Has a good roster of speakers but not much notice is given, since it will run 28th – 30th July 2023. But it seems that tickets can still be had…

The cost? A course like this is typically offered for $99 or more, but contribute whatever you can to help make this possible for everyone. No human is turned down for lack of funds. If you would like to sponsor someone or host a group let us know. […] The complete summit content collection will be available on the password protected resource page. The downloadable audio and video of each session will be uploaded there and available for at least a year.

* New in French, but easily auto-translated, the open-access article “Tolkien et l’art des differentes echelles cosmiques” (‘Tolkien and the art of different cosmic scales’).

* And finally… “Dorothy L. Sayers’ Copy of Tolkien’s First Appearance in Book Form” came up for auction a few days ago. Which at least provides the rest of us with a look at the cover…

Surprisingly, the volume is not on Archive.org as a scan.