Tolkien Gleanings #160.
* Phil Dragash’s full-cast unabridged audio of The Fellowship of the Ring, one of the great audio-works of our time, has been updated with a 2023 version. Released today. Importantly there is a…
“new version of [the 1.04 hours chapter, now 1.09] ‘A Journey in the Dark’, provided by Phil Dragash, that restores the sections missing from the original”
The sections missing (due to an oversight) total five minutes and involved the latter part of the wading of the Watcher’s pool-edge, the first encounter with the likely site of the door-trees and Doors of Moria, and the short but poignant section involving Bill the pony. I identified the absence a year or two ago, and I’m very glad it has now been restored. Those impressed by his free work may like to know that I had a long interview with Phil in the first issue of my Tolkien Gleanings PDF.
To legally download Dragash’s recording of Fellowship you need to own the books in print, the official audiobook, and also the Howard Shore score recording.
* A look at the pleasing 1977 Folio Society header-art for Fellowship.
* From Japan in English, the new “Frodo the Wanderer from the Shire: Self, Elf-Friends, and Community in The Lord of the Rings”. Free in open-access. The academic repository labels this as January 2024, and as coming from the Bulletin of The Society of English Literature and Linguistics, Nagoya University, Japan.
* At the Marion E. Wade Center on 1st February 2024, “‘Dreaming in the Margins’: Tolkien’s Engagements with The Battle of Maldon” with Benjamin Weber. It appears there will be an online livestream. Weber…
“will discuss J.R.R. Tolkien’s recently-released translation of the Old English poem ‘The Battle of Maldon’ with reference to both Tolkien’s fiction and scholarship on Old English literature.”
* Also at Wheaton in May 2024, George MacDonald and the Prophetic Imagination: A Bicentenary Conference.
* Set for April 2024 in the UK, a conference session on The Past, Present and Future of Medieval Art in the British Isles…
“Recent discoveries such as the Staffordshire Hoard, the Macclesfield Psalter, and the wall paintings of St Cadoc’s, Llancarfan, and the publication of significant studies of Anglo-Saxon through Gothic art in Britain have profoundly changed the scholarly landscape and demand that we reassess some of our key ideas and approaches.”
Perhaps room here for a paper on Tolkien’s influences, in terms of enticing fresh talent? I’d imaging there are stories to tell about how a youthful interest in Tolkien and Middle-earth led ultimately into a career in the field? And lessons to be drawn from this.
* Italy continues its work with advanced school pupils with the 2024 “Tolkienian Itineraries” series of workshops. “Aimed at classical high school students”, the students undertake a 30-hour project under the guidance of five expert teachers… “coming from different disciplinary areas but sharing an interest in Tolkien studies”.
* Three articles from Volume 2 of the Italian I Quaderni di Arda: Rivista di studi Tolkieniani e mondi fantastici (2020) are now available free on Academia.edu, and can also be had without joining Academia.edu by searching “for their titles” in quote marks on Google Scholar.
* And finally, the UK’s Barnsley Chronicle local newspaper reports “Museum seeks out best Tolkien memorabilia”…
“The [town’s] museum will host an online event on Thursday 21st February 2024, between 6.30pm and 7.30pm to find the best Lord of the Rings memorabilia in the country.”