Tolkien Gleanings #197.
* Tonight at Ronde College in Denmark, a talk by Casper Clemmensen on ‘Tolkien and Jutland’. He offers…
“an insight into how elements from Jutland’s landscape and characters from its legends were woven into Tolkien’s descriptions of his creatures and worlds. However, it is not just geography that inspires Tolkien. Deeper themes and symbols in Jutlandic mythology, such as the battle between good and evil and the vagaries of fate, resonate in Tolkien’s works and add depth to his tales.”
The event poster suggested a book, so I went in search of one…
Only Amazon Germany knows about it. Published May 2022 as Tolkien og det mytiske Jylland, under the Hovedland imprint. Now “Currently Unavailable”. But there’s a long review by a historian which shows several of the appealing interior illustrations and concludes… “The book is fascinating and well written and, with its rich apparatus of notes, sources and references, it is also quite convincingly professionally presented.”
* Oronzo Cilli has a new and long article, “Tolkien, Shakespeare, and the Stocks Tree in West Wickham”. Freely available online.
* In the U.S. the Marion E. Wade Center will have a new Director from June 2024. The press-release has a profile and picture of the successful candidate.
* At the UK’s venerable Chichester Centre for Fairy Tales, Fantasy and Speculative Fiction in May, a talk on “Fairy God(s) Mother? The Virgin Mary and the Fairy Godmother in Western Fairy Tales”…
“As part of on-going research on the relationship between Christianity and the fairy tale, Dr Paul Quinn will examine the role of the Virgin Mary, and Marian-like figures, in a range of Western fairy tales”
* The New York C.S. Lewis Society Student Essay Contest, now open. Cash prizes, and (in the small print) seemingly open worldwide to bona fide students. Deadline: 29th June 2024.
* A new CTO podcast on “Crafting Code and Conquering Fear: A Journey Through Middle-earth and Conway’s Law”. A veteran software engineer, here interviewed in depth, offers… “his unique perspective [which] illuminates the profound impact of literature on technological creativity and problem-solving.”
* And finally, currently still online is a virtual interactive tour of the recent ‘Tolkien memorabilia’ exhibition at Barnsley Museum in the UK. Access through a normal Web browser.
