Tolkien Gleanings #282

* There’s a new issue of the Tolkien Society’s Amon Hen (#311, February 2025), now available to members for download.

    – A short review of The Hobbit Encyclopaedia, plus a huge review of The Science of Middle-earth. The latter extending into a detailed consideration of the recent discoveries of tiny ancient human types (often called ‘hobbits’ by headline-writers and TV producers), and interbreeding of humans and elves. The review comes complete with an equally huge bibliography, tucked away at the back of the issue. There is one credulous error, repeating the book’s claim that… “if the current rate of hydrocarbon consumption continues, the concentration of CO2 could rise to 560 ppm by 2050”. This claim arises from the impossible ‘RCP 8.5’ future scenario. RCP 8.5 assumed a 10x increase in the use of coal for power, technological change slowing dramatically, global trade flows stagnant, agricultural development stopping… and yet somehow despite this collapse the global population heads towards a massive 15 billion in 2100.

    – “Tolkien Behind the Iron Curtain”. I don’t recall being aware that President Reagan’s famous 1980s “Tear Down This Wall” and “Evil Empire” speeches (as seen in the recent very watchable bio-movie Reagan) had halted the publication of The Lord of Rings in Soviet Russia….

“Subsequently, the publication of further volumes was stopped in the USSR. The second part of the trilogy, The Two Towers, was only published [after the collapse of communism] in 1990, and the third, The Return of the King, in 1991. […] In retrospect, it can be said that the suspicions and fears that the communist regime had towards Tolkien’s work and his fans were fully confirmed. [Along with a few other groups, they formed a] specific cultural milieu that was an alternative to the official communist culture and ideologies. Its members had an extraordinary elevated interest in activities of political dissent and in life in liberal Western societies.”

    – “One In The Eye For Peter Jackson?” considers Jackon’s ‘eye of Sauron’ movie symbolism.

    – AGM report, a round-up of some recent Smials activity, and various 2D artworks. One of the Smials reports notes a forthcoming Tolkien guide/walks booklet for Great Haywood in mid Staffordshire, and possible plaques.

* The British Fantasy Society’s members’ journal has a call for contributions for the Summer 2025 issue. The theme will be ‘The Green Fuse – Nature in Fantasy’. Regrettably, the call’s suggested items include mention of the pseudo-scientific leftist notion of ‘the anthropocene’ but the other suggestions may inspire. There’s still just about time to pop in a proposal — the deadline is 28th February 2025.

* New in the new paywalled journal Perspectives on Political Science, “‘The Sword That Was Broken’: The Role of Thumos and Pity in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Legendarium”. Specifically, four swords are investigated…

“For Tolkien, swords transcend mere instruments of combat; they possess their own births, histories, metaphysical inflections, and sometimes, personalities.”

* I had no idea that the PayPal payment option had been removed from all Gumroad accounts. Not just mine. A little research, just now, tells me that the Paypal option went away back in October 2024. I was wondering why all my sales and donations had collapsed from the Gumroad store. I had heard nothing from the company. But now… an email from them at the end of January 2025 says that PayPal has come back as a payment option…

“We’re thrilled to announce that PayPal is back on Gumroad! Our teams have worked together to restore both payment and payout functionality. You can count on PayPal being available on Gumroad moving forward. If you had a PayPal account set up before, everything has been restored and there’s no action you need to take. You may have already seen some PayPal sales come through!”

Glad to hear it. Thus you can now buy my recent book Tree & Star: Tolkien and the quest for Earendel again, using your PayPal balance.

* And finally, a new Medievalists.net article on “Laughing at Evil: The Hidden Purpose of Gargoyles” in churches.