Tolkien Gleanings #250
* Now online, four presentations from Doxamoot 2024. Freely downloadable in .MP3 format are…
– “‘Like Rain on the Mountain’: Theodoric, Beowulf, Theoden, and Tolkien’s Elegy for Northern Courage”.
– “Pentecost at the Stone of Erech: Oathbreakers and Covenant Keepers in the Legendarium”.
– “Love’s Obligation: Deceit and Truth: The Divide Between Virtue and Vice in Tolkien”.
* A new podcast interview with Graham McAleer, author of Tolkien, Philosopher of War.
* Gleanings previously noted the latest issue of the open-access Fafnir: Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research, with its lead article “Hautaamistavat J.R.R. Tolkienin fantasiafiktiossa” (‘Burial customs in J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy fiction’). Yet I overlooked the same issue’s review of Nole Hyarmenillo: An Anthology of Iberian Scholarship on Tolkien. Also note that Fafnir editors have a new call-for-papers for the June 2025 issue, published a month or so ago with a submission deadline of 31st December 2024.
* A call-for papers for the two-day conference “C.S. Lewis & J.R.R. Tolkien: The Promise of Christian Fairytales”, set for California in August 2025. Deadline is 15th March 2025.
* A new 2024 issue of the open-access Journal of Gods and Monsters. No Tolkien, but it may interest some.
* The BARS Review has a call for contributors and can supply review copies of The Romantic Spirit in the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien, and Romanticism and Speculative Realism, among others.
* A call for book chapters, for From Desolation to Idyllic Habitations: Exploring the Landscapes of Dragons in Literature, Film, and Pop Culture. A deadline of 20th December 2024, for what looks like a 2026 book.
* A new review in Spanish of the book Tolkien revisitado: 50 anos despues de su viaje a Valinor (2024) (‘Tolkien Revisited: 50 years after his journey to Valinor’), in the latest edition of the open-access journal Doxa Comunicacion.
* And finally, The People Under the Hill is a series of alternative history novels. This month has seen the release of the second book, Tolkien and The Dangerous Truth. The covers have abysmal typography but the blurb makes it sound like a lot of erudite and contrarian fun, beginning with… “What if Tolkien’s Oxford Dictionary work during the summer of 1919 were only a cover story?” Anyway, it’s a substantial new ‘Tolkien as character’ novel and there’s a 10% free preview for Kindle ebooks. So have a look for yourself. [Update: I’ve now read and enjoyed the first novel in the series, and have high hopes for this second novel].